Sorry Anisha, the real winner of "Star Academy" is TF1

• The 2022 edition of

  Star Academy

  ended on the night of Saturday to Sunday on TF1, with Anisha's victory after six weeks of competition.

• For the first channel, the return of telecrochet was triumphant, particularly in terms of audiences.

• TF1 and production were able to avoid the main pitfalls.

  This

  Star Academy

  has found its audience, seducing the youngest without alienating the nostalgic, and has managed the absence of international stars well.

Anisha does not blame us for writing it: the real winner of

is TF1.

In mid-October, a few days before the return of the cult telecrochet on the first channel, we took stock of the many challenges to be met for the comeback to be successful.

Six weeks later, it is clear that he was triumphant.

For the first bonus of the season, on October 15, 4.84 million curious people were there: one in four people watching television that evening was discovering the new promo.

Saturday, despite the launch at a late hour (10 p.m.…), 3.77 million faithful attended the final.

In the meantime, the direct broadcasts have gathered no less than 3.4 million individuals.

On the target so coveted by advertisers, the woman responsible for purchases under 50, the audience share exceeded 40% each week The dailies, followed on average by 1.76 million aficionados, clearly boosted the late afternoons of the front page.

Star Academy

has thus regained the dimension of a social phenomenon that characterized it twenty years ago.

Even the media reluctant to compromise with popular programs took an interest in it.

dissected the “wave of nostalgia” that turned the show into a success.

devoted its last page of Thursday to the (beautiful) portrait of Adeline Toniutti, the singing teacher…

This Monday, it's our turn to resume the list of challenges that were imposed on the production.

Some have been picked up.

And others bypassed.

No ringardization

Resuscitating a show more than ten years after its last broadcast was a challenge.

Because

felt like a show from another time – before social media, before the music industry disrupted by streaming, before The

.

Would the public of 2022 be ready to be passionate again about amateurs with sometimes approximate vocal accuracy?

Producer Mathieu Vergne warned before the launch that the candidates had, "for the most part, big progress to make" and that "that's what we were going to look at".

Verdict: the school aspect appealed to viewers who enjoyed watching the progression of a Louis, the application of an Enola and the enthusiasm of a Stan.

Even the troublemaker Julien did not lack potential, but his nonchalance ended up leading him to elimination.

Star Academy

did not suffer from the comparison with

.

"It's a great show, produced and hosted by talented people, we'll say they're our cousins, says

Matthieu Grelier, producer of

.

These are two programs that carry music, are complementary and allow people who want to do this job to expose themselves to it.

The more opportunities those who love to sing have to be able to do so, the better.

»

Six weeks of passion

This

in 2022 sauce will only have lasted the time of seven bonuses, half as much as in the past.

“Won't the public find it hard to get attached to this express version?

we asked ourselves more than a month ago.

The fear was quickly dispelled.

Between the good student, the sensitive boy, the diva, the shy or the swagger, the profiles of the candidates were sufficiently marked - almost archetypal - for us to immediately identify a part of their personality.

Which did not prevent them from revealing themselves with more subtlety and thickness over the weeks.

For viewers, there was plenty to eat and drink between Léa's lunar repartee, Chris' sulks, Anisha's doubts and Tiana's spontaneity… We miss them already.

A young audience conquered

For Rémi Faure, director of streaming programs at TF1, this was the biggest challenge: to seduce the youngest generations, for whom the

means little or nothing.

“If we want to do other seasons, we have to get the public of tomorrow on board,” he said at the press conference.

Is it due to curiosity, the influence of parents, the return of hype for the fashion of the 2000s?

Still, the minots answered present.

On average, the dailies recorded an audience share of 32% among 15-24 year olds.

The score for this age group reached 43% for bonuses (excluding semi-finals and finals).

Bank.

Just enough nostalgia

Rushing fans' memories of the old

era by shaking up their bearings and offering something radically different was another pitfall to avoid.

The essential pillars - the castle of Dammarie-les-Lys and Nikos Aliagas - were there.

Around them, the ex-students Karima Charni and Lucie Bernardoni, promoted to host of the after and rehearsal, were appreciated presences.

On the other hand, the production, which had planned to invite old people every Sunday evening to dine with the promo, reviewed its plans after the catastrophic passage of Jean-Pascal, Mario and Carine the first week.

We saw almost nothing of their arrival during the daily and there was no shortage of it.

International stars?

To do what ?

Can a season of

hold up without an international star on set?

This edition has proven that yes.

If we feared that the absence of big names such as Beyoncé, Mariah Carey or Madonna, who made the great hours of telecrochet, would give the impression of a discounted show, this was not the case.

The quota of world stars was small: Lewis Capaldi and Tom Gregory (who?) for the first two bonuses and Robbie Williams for the final.

The latter was also the godfather of the season and that, we had almost forgotten.

We even say that Clara Luciani or Véronique Sanson would have served as excellent godmothers.

The French artists were there, we even saw Zazie on stage for the first time, and it was conducive to beautiful moments.

We also liked that several of them (Camille Lellouche, Bilal Hassani, Slimane, Soprano, Lara Fabian, etc.) went to meet the students at the castle, which enriched the daily life.

Another good idea, ask figures (Camélia Jordana, Vitaa, Slimane, Hoshi) to write original songs for the finalists which are all validations for budding artists.

A good virality

What would

look like in the age of Twitter and Instagram?

That was the question.

On the posts and stories side, the channel and the production have done with restraint.

Rémi Faure believed that “the social network is the castle”.

He was not really wrong: the live stream, available a good part of the day on MyTF1 Max, was particularly followed.

It was commented instantly on Twitter where the hashtag #StarAcademyLive was regularly among the most mentioned.

Internet users have shared hundreds and hundreds of video clips - the production had many of them removed for copyright infringement.

We still had time to see that the daily newspaper noticeably smoothed out the content that was too controversial (Léa telling Enola that during their first meeting she found him "looking stupid"; Laure Balon raising her voice in front of Julien, etc.) .

The production was well inspired to focus on benevolence.

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