"We have a very strong desire to occupy an important place with young people," insisted Thursday to the press the deputy director general of content for the private group, Ara Aprikian, in the introduction to the presentation of the 2022-2023 season.

The return of the Star Academy twenty years after its launch, if it speaks above all to thirty-somethings and other quadras, is part of this logic.

The cult telecrochet which revealed Grégory Lemarchal, Nolwenn Leroy or even Jenifer will return to its original format with a weekly prime-time and a daily broadcast around 5:30 p.m. just before the soap operas "Here everything begins" and "Tomorrow belongs to us".

But TF1 also intends to take advantage of social networks, still in their infancy when Star'Ac stopped on its antenna after 7 years in 2008, before a brief return to NRJ 12 in 2012-2013.

A casting has already been launched on TikTok for the recruitment of students, whose adventures at the Vives-Eaux castle in Dammarie-les-Lys (Seine-et-Marne) will be broadcast live and continuously on MyTF1.

"Hyper-offer"

This comeback was decided after the success of the anniversary evenings organized last year by TF1, inspired by this vein.

The front page will thus offer an evening event for the 20th anniversary of "A guy, a girl", the cult series of ... France Télé, with sketches reinterpreted by other actors, and another for the reformation, the time of an unpublished mini-fiction, "Strangers".

So many valuable "brands" in a general context of "hyper-offer", according to Ara Aprikian.

Pending its merger with M6, which must be validated by the authorities before the end of the year, TF1 is also still betting heavily on fiction, after a lackluster season, marked by a drop in audiences on the general public but good scores on advertisers' preferred targets.

The 2021-2022 vintage has thus set records since 2008-2009 for 15-24 year olds (26.4% of PDA) and since 2014 for women responsible for purchases under 50, asserts to AFP Xavier Gandon, the director of the antennas of the TF1 group, evoking an overall audience share of around 19% (against 19.8% the previous season).

Boosted by the phenomenal success of the HPI series, TF1 will launch its event series "Les Combattantes" in September, a "romantic and feminist" super-production of more than 20 million euros signed by the creators of the "Bazar de la Charité" and interpreted by the same shock trio: Audrey Fleurot, Camille Lou and Julie de Bona, joined by Sofia Essaïdi.

"Mad Men"

Also on the program, "Syndrome E", the adaptation of the novel by Franck Thilliez, with Vincent Elbaz and Emmanuelle Béart, "Promethée", an incursion into the supernatural with Camille Lou, "Avenir", a series co-written and performed by Kev Adams, or even the return of the "Red Bracelets" with a renewed cast.

Regarding TV movies, TF1 will broadcast "Le Mystère Daval" on the news item of the same name, or "Le Colosse aux pieds d'argile" with Eric Cantona in the role of an ex-rugby player raped as a child.

Faced with competition from the streaming giants Netflix and the like, La Une also intends to strengthen its offer on its MyTF1 platform, with "prestigious series" such as "Mad Men" or "The Tudors" visible for free, and a new cinema offer with a hundred films this year, according to Xavier Gandon.

She will also offer this summer a version of her show "Dancing with the stars", called "Who will dance with the stars", a cast of dancers.

On the transfer window side, TF1 clarified that journalist Hélène Mannarino would leave LCI to replace Alessandra Sublet at the presentation of "C'est Canteloup".

Finally, the channel is counting on a particularly sporty autumn with the Women's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand (October 8 - November 12) and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar (November 21 - December 18).

© 2022 AFP