The audiovisual group announces the end of its flagship series, on the screen since the broadcast on France 3 of the first episode, August 30, 2004.
Le Monde with AFP
For several weeks, his future has been pending. But after eighteen seasons, the cleaver fell on the Mistral district: France Télévisions will stop in November the broadcast of its Plus Beautiful Life series, on the screen since the broadcast on France 3 of the first episode, 30 August 2004. “This Thursday, May 5, 2022, the management of France Télévisions announced to the teams of Plus belle la vie, in Marseille, that this season would be the last,” the public group announced in a press release.
“This pioneer, pioneer and emblematic, has become the longest French series in history and a strong brand in France 3”, praised the group about a “transgenerational, anchored program in proximity , the authenticity and the realities of French society in all its diversity “.
evolution of” viewers’ expectations “
Questioned by the Agency France-Presse (AFP) France Télévisions invokes the evolution of “expectations of viewers” and “the consumption of programs” for eighteen years. “A renewal of the creative offer is necessary” estimates the group, at the time of the boom of streaming platforms and while three other daily serials competition Plus belle la vie on TF1 and France 2.
The public group has undertaken to continue “a new story with Marseille and its region” via “a new creative pact” in the Marseille city, “In the extension of the France 2030 plan”, which must “translate by filming new original series”.
“That’s it, this is the end clap. We were told the end of filming at the end of September”, deplored with AFP Thierry Lavaille, union delegate Force Ouvrière, present Thursday on the set at the Beautiful of May. “We are relieved in a sense because France Télévisions is committed to compensating to the nearest penny, i.e. 30 million euros per year, the amount of the filming of Plus belle la vie in Marseille via mini-series or telefilms”, A Added this technician, who has been working on the series for seventeen years. Solicited by AFP, the production company Newen had not answered.
The audiences of Plus belle la vie, which recounts the daily life of the inhabitants of the fictitious Marseille district of the Mistral, had reached nearly 7 million viewers in the 2000s but have been crumbling in recent years, falling to 2.7 million on average during the 2021-2022 season, according to Médiamétrie.