ohWe have noticed it for years: television no longer has imagination. Innovation is a risky bet and channels no longer have the time or means to experiment with new formats and new concepts. That’s why they recycle more and more.
Or two safe values of the moment: on the one hand, the thriller, a typically French passion that allows the viewer to immobilize in front of the screen by playing with the classic mechanisms of the mystery to be solved; on the other, board games, a sector that has experienced constant growth since the Covid-19 pandemic. It is an understatement to say that the first is already overexploited: no less than twenty-seven French detective series are produced and broadcast on the first three channels (ten on TF1, nine on France 2, eight on France 3).
The second vein is more difficult to explore, since not all board games allow the transition from an evening with friends in which everyone is active to a small screen with passive observers. But, for TF1, M6 and Canal+, the martingale would be found in the combination of both, mixing game and thriller.
This is how the figure of the “traitor” arrived at our cathodic evenings. It’s now been two years since M6 adopted it, with the aptly named show “Les Traitors,” which picks up the running of Thiercelieux’s Werewolves. This game, which only requires a deck of cards and a group of friends, and which has been a success since its launch in 2001, also returns to an older concept that some know as “Mafia.” The rules vary, but the basic principle is the same: a few bad guys (the werewolves) infiltrate a group made up of mostly good guys (the villagers) who they try to eliminate one after another without being unmasked. Required talents: eloquence, art of lying and love of manipulation.
In the game Six, about fifteen relatively famous participants are locked in a castle and must expel the three traitors hiding among them. Here the spectator is omniscient and, as before columbo, He is more interested in the how than the who. And delight in seeing the innocent defend themselves sometimes to the point of tears while the traitors do not shy away from any lie.
An effective concept
Given the success of this program, TF1 and Canal+ launched their variant on Friday, October 11, simultaneously. La Quatre has simplified it: “Les Loups-Garous de Thiercelieux” makes the game of the same name a reality by betting on little-known participants, but with interesting profiles (a former DGSE spy, a mentalist, a professional poker player, a specialist in languages, a mathematician, a journalist, etc.). Hosted by comedians Fary and Panayotis Pascot, the show focuses more on the second degree and the cooperation between the participants (viewers do not know the identity of all the werewolves). It also illustrates the growing porosity between television formats and YouTube, another way to avoid the risks of innovation.
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