We have often criticized TF1, M6 or France Télévisions: in the summer, there is that reruns. However, if the summer period was rather favorable to the new seasons of “Fort Boyard”, “The Voice Kids” or “The Traitors”, the real new TV releases, those which offered a new concept, were largely shunned by the public. Examples abound.
On July 3, M6 broadcast a new dating show in prime time. “Love at first sight on the other side of the world” following five singles in search of a soul mate and having opened guest houses abroad. Beaten by a replay of the Commissioner Magellan on C8 from the launch, M6 was content with the 5th best audience of the evening with 947,000 viewers, or 5.2% audience share (pda). From the 3rd episode, the show left the channel’s grid and 6play took over online…
Missed appointments
Same missed meeting with the public for “La route des coffers”, at 6:35 p.m. on M6 launched on July 10. This traveling summer game, close to a treasure hunt, combined quizzes, games of skill and puzzles, with Stéphane Rotenberg at the presentation. Three days later, the channel recorded its lowest audience in ten years in terms of the number of viewers for prime time access with 313,000 individuals… The deprogramming was announced in mid-July and “Tous en cuisine” succeeded it on August 7.
France 2 was not spared either. Series The survivors of the Arianna went on air on July 12 and was canceled on July 21. The following week, the 2nd episode recorded only 6.6% of pda, which convinced the channel to switch the series to the second part of the evening. Without forgetting “My mother, my father, love and me”, the TF1 dating show, which, in prime time, Thursday August 17, was beaten by a rebroadcast of Commissioner Magellan on France 3, “Fort Boyard” on France 2, and “Trains like no other” on France 5… A poor performance for the front page, rather used to being at the top of the podium.
The paradox of the viewer
In short, the public says they are tired of the eternal summer reruns but are not at the rendezvous of the new shows either. Why this contradiction? “It’s a bit of the viewer’s paradox. Generally, they also want more cultural programs but do not watch them, ”underlines Virginie Spies, semiologist and TV analyst. She recalls that, in general, summer is a difficult period in terms of audience and that “installing a new program is all the more complicated as the viewer is more and more volatile”. The flop of “The perfect photo”, 7th audience of the evening, when it was launched on August 23 on M6, is further evidenced by this, beaten by W9 and Arte, among others.
Retaining viewers is also more complicated with the holidays. “When ‘Tous en cuisine’ replaced ‘La route des coffers’, it worked because it is a program that you can ‘peck’. And if we see one and not the next one, it doesn’t matter, ”analyzes the semiologist. The summer season would also be more of a test period for new programs. If this summer, obviously, the test is hardly conclusive, she recalls that tomorrow belongs to usthe access-prime-time series launched on July 17, 2017 and is now in its seventh season.
Audience success of well-established brands
For Virginie Spies, “TV remains a family medium, so children must also be able to join”. “We are not going to test a program that may not please the whole family”, she specifies. This would explain the audience successes of well-established brands such as Camping Paradise, “Fort Boyard” or “The Voice Kids”. The telecrochet of TF1 recorded very good audiences this summer. : 3.4 million viewers on average on D + 7, i.e. 21% of viewers aged 4 and over.
“We have a triple reason to be happy, welcomes Matthieu Grelier, director of programs and development at ITV Studios France. Already, for entertainment, this summer is the best performance. Then the scores line up with those of the previous season, when for the first time, we were broadcast at a different time of year, that is to say summer instead of back to school, and a different day, namely Tuesday instead of Friday or Saturday as it was traditionally. So there has been a change of habit for our viewers and we are very happy that they have followed us, that “The Voice Kids” has become a bit like the big family gathering on Tuesday evenings”. He concludes: “This proves the solidity and sustainability of this program. »