A tooth-breaking factory for French TV, a new “late show” will soon appear on TF1. This unique format, which has been a hit in the United States for decades, will be scheduled every day from 11 p.m. The channel has already ordered ten episodes which will be broadcast during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, from November 21 to December 2, we learned on the show. C Media on France 5. For the rest, TF1 remains evasive, ensuring that more information will be given once the date of the program “officially announced”.
Announced in a trailer published on social networks, this umpteenth attempt to seize the box for the very end of the evening will be led by comedian Alain Chabat. Comedian… but also troublemaker, author, director, humorist, host, it’s hard to put a single label on this multifaceted man.
But it is he who could patch things up with the French public, which has never caught on with this format, despite numerous attempts by French channels in recent years. 20 minutes explains to you why Alain Chabat is perhaps the person who will allow French television to ward off fate.
A failed factory in France
Jimmy Fallon, James Corden, Stephen Colbert, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Seth Meyers, Jon Stewart, Trevor Noah or even Jimmy Kimmel, decked out in a suit and ties on rather banal sets, they have been the faces of programs broadcast in the last slots of the day on small American screens. Real institutions, these shows feature prestigious guests wrapped up in hilarious lines in real shows embellished with sketches that accumulate “likes” on the Internet.
In France, the list of animators having rubbed shoulders with the exercise and whose concept ended up in the cemetery of emissions stopped in full flight, for lack of success, is long. Arthur has twice encountered this type of failure with The impossible broadcast in 1992 then Tonight with Arthur almost twenty years later. This is also the case of Jean-Pierre Foucault with the ephemeral We will have warned you. But TF1 is not alone in not being able to impose an appointment as long-lasting as the American models. Paris Première tried it with Sooner or later (2010), led by Pierre Lescure, Canal + bet on Cyril Hanouna with the Hanounight Show (2016). Same result for the public service and its Bellatar Show on the shoulders of humorist Yassine Bellatar and broadcast on France 4. It is finally The night belongs to us of Mustafa El Atrassi on NRJ12 who will achieve the greatest success before disappearing in the greatest indifference after three seasons.
These antecedents do not seem to put a stop to the ambitions of the chains which multiply the failed tests. “At the moment, television is going through a difficult period for many reasons so we must not fall asleep, the time is for risk-taking”, comments Virginie Spies, media semiologist broadcasting in particular her analyzes on TikTok.
“An art in its own right”
Left free by the repeated failures of the French late show, the box still remains to be taken, and the successes on the other side of the Atlantic give the channels an appetite. “It’s a key moment in the program schedules of the major American networks and it’s true that French television has always chased after this success”, confirms Marie-France Chambat-Houillon, professor at the University of Paris-Panthéon. Assas and member of the Center for Analysis and Interdisciplinary Research on the Media (CARISM). According to her, American success lies in the embodiment of these shows. “The success in the United States comes from the satirical and humorous treatment of political subjects, in the tradition of American stand-up, that these shows offer. The American talk show is an art in its own right,” she says.
No animator chosen in France has succeeded in imposing himself in this style, generally favoring a format based on humorous topical commentary based on a press review.
A “plural” profile
If we know little about the version of the late show that Alain Chabat is about to offer, his mere presence already promises something more in tune with what makes the success of this type of program in the United States. “Alain Chabat is a creative, he is not an animator like Arthur or Jean-Pierre Foucault”, abounds Virginie Spies. “He has a sense of humor and is very plural, he has many qualities to put on the costume of the host of an American late show without betraying the spirit. “Especially since the 63-year-old man is also an actor and director after having enjoyed success among Les Nuls, on Canal +.
Alain Chabat’s talent as an author will also be an undeniable asset in the program he is about to outline. Because the humorous spring of late shows Americans lies in a meticulous writing in which a few improvised passages interfere, especially with the guests. “It’s really the work of a screenwriter,” adds the semiologist.
An intergenerational success
By placing a piece on Chabat, TF1 also wants to offer a unifying face to its program. He has already cut his teeth in the group at the helm of the Burger Quiz, returned in 2018 on TMC after being launched in 2001 on Canal. The chain therefore knows its way of working.
But the success of Les Nuls at the time could also attract viewers nostalgic for early 1990s television. of the 2022 edition of ZEvent.
It can therefore be the link between different generations of viewers. “He is someone who brings together a lot and TF1 needs to bring together to ensure success,” adds Virginie Spies.
French-style humor
Schoolboy, irreverent, the first teaser of the Late with Alain Chabat reveals what the comedian’s humor is. Marie-France Chambat-Houillon indicates, however, that the show will only be a success if he can “deploy all his humorous capacities”. “If it’s about betting on Alain Chabat, you shouldn’t bully him,” she decides. But she believes in the personality of the one who has been chosen and believes that “until now, perhaps the late show has not worked in France because French television has not found the person to embody it. “.
Alain Chabat had already expressed his love for the format in an interview with GQ in 2020. “I love the idea of the white clown and this very chic place where you receive very glam people, where nothing does not exceed but where everything can overflow from one moment to another like with Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel or Jon Stewart”, he described then.
TF1 will have to play a balancing act and try not to fall into the pitfall of a vulgar copy/paste of the American late show without taking French culture into account. “If you want an American-style late show, you might as well broadcast the best there is with subtitling,” says Virginie Spies. Because humor in France is different, popular culture too. The semiologist believes that the success of such a program will be based on “a skilful balance between an adaptation and something new that will play with a certain form of irony specific to French humor, which we have known in particular in them Guignols “.
Especially since tackling the news with humor is inherently divisive. It will also be necessary for Alain Chabat to have the necessary time to install his format and for the public to become familiar with it.
A strategic distribution
Both in the trailer and in the period chosen for the launch of the Late with Alain Chabat, TF1 pulls out all the stops to ensure success. “The teaser which is a parody of the George III pen scene works as a sample of what the show should be,” observes Marie-France Chambat-Houillon. And the tens of thousands of likes accumulated on social networks by the video capsule prove that it has been able to generate expectations for the public.
The start of the broadcast coinciding with the first matches of the World Cup also suggests that the channel wants to give itself the means to make its program break through. “The antenna is going to be broken”, indicates Virginie Spies who sees in this period a “golden opportunity to launch something”. This agenda promises the subsidiary of the Bouygues group to attract fans of the round ball, already in front of their screen.
Because imposing a late show on the French public is a bit like a decisive penalty shootout, it makes or breaks it. It remains to be seen whether Alain Chabat will indeed be the man of the match.