"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", specified the public group in a press release.

"More beautiful life will thus conclude its long journey on the air in November 2022", he added.

"That's it, it's the end clap. We were told the end of filming at the end of September", confirmed to AFP Thierry Lavaille, technician and Force Ouvrière union representative, present Thursday on the set in the studios. of the Belle de Mai district, near the Marseille train station, entirely devoted to "PBLV".

Concern had reigned there since February and leaks in the press on a potential stoppage of the series, on which around 600 jobs depend per year and which has helped to restore the image of the Marseille city.

With more than 4,500 episodes on the clock, "this pioneering and emblematic soap opera has become the longest daily French series in history and a strong brand of France 3", welcomed the group about a "transgenerational" program. , rooted in proximity, authenticity and the realities of French society in all its diversity".

Societal themes

But "a renewal of the creative offer is necessary", estimates France Télé, at a time of the boom in streaming platforms and when three other daily soap operas compete with "Plus Belle la vie" on TF1 and France 2.

The public group has however undertaken to pursue "a new story with Marseille and its region" via "a new creative pact (...) in the extension of the France 2030 plan", which must "translate into the filming of new original series".

"We are relieved in a sense because France Télévisions has undertaken to compensate to the nearest penny, or 30 million euros per year, the amount of filming (...) via mini-series" or TV films, added Thierry Lavaille, who has worked on the series for 17 years.

Broadcast since August 2004, "Plus belle la vie" tells the daily life of the inhabitants of the fictional Marseille district of Mistral.

After a timid start, the series has become a phenomenon by sticking to current events, for example by paying tribute to Johnny Hallyday the day after his death, and by seizing societal themes hitherto rarely addressed in tricolor fiction.

She thus staged the first gay wedding on French television in May 2013, eleven days after the promulgation of the law authorizing it, or tackled the theme of transidentity in 2018 by having a transgender actor play for the first time.

Brand to resume?

With her, the public service got into a mess, sometimes causing controversy, following episodes showing how to roll a joint or the use of poppers during a threesome.

In 2019, feminist associations criticized her for representing GPA (use of surrogate mothers, illegal in France) in a favorable way.

Proof of its popular success, its audiences reached nearly seven million viewers in the 2000s but have crumbled in recent years, falling to 2.7 million on average over the 2021-2022 season, according to Médiamétrie.

Ironically, the series which allowed the breakthrough of daily soaps in France also bears the brunt of competition from its heiresses, "Here everything begins" and "Tomorrow belongs to us" on TF1 and "Un Si grand soleil" on France 2 .

But the "PLBV" brand will not fail to interest "the entire market", from platforms to the TF1 group - of which Newen is a subsidiary -, estimated its director of antennas, Xavier Gandon, last month.

In the meantime, France Télé is committed to "closing this magnificent and long story with dignity".

© 2022 AFP