This is called a comeback with great fanfare. Announced via a hilarious clip, a French late show hosted by Alain Chabat was to see the light of day on TF1. The show, broadcast every evening from Monday to Friday at 10:55 p.m., began on Monday, November 21. After thirty years of failed attempts to establish this format in France, TF1 trusted the former Zero to – finally – succeed in this bet. Between prestigious guests, fake faux pubs, musical lives and stand-up passages, a little recap of these first four occurrences of “Late”.
For this introductory week, Alain Chabat has banked on sure values, and names that are sure to bring back the audience: Jean Dujardin, Jamel Debbouze, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Monica Bellucci or Laurent Lafitte, to name but a few. . Also on the program, musical lives by artists known to the general public such as Angèle and Orelsan, but also international groups, Wet Leg and Thumpasaurus.
The sequel after the ad
Effective concepts
The show picks up on the foolproof concepts of its American counterparts. We discover a set à la Jimmy Kimmel with a group of musicians dedicated to jingles (successful because heady just enough), the “Laters”. At the start of the program, a one-on-one with a guest, then another, interspersed with games. And the success of “Burger Quiz” was the proof, Alain Chabat knows how to invent and animate games. Between “La speed diction”, “Tap around” and “Who is in the audience but is not part of the audience”, the writing team had a field day, with success.
On the music side, the choices are clever, we focus on young artists (Orelsan, Angèle) who counterbalance with older personalities. The goal? Bring young people, who are less television fans, back to their stations. A successful operation since during the first, 18% of 25-49 year olds and 30% of 15-34 year olds responded present. A massive influx also made possible thanks to the stand-uppers, who intervened twice this week. A welcome visibility for comedians Tania Dutel and Djimo, whose passage of five minutes each punctuates the show.
The effectiveness of the recipe also lies in the sympathy capital of the sexagenarian, since on his only invitation, some of the greatest French actors intervene for only a few minutes of sketch. We think of Sandrine Kiberlain, Pierre Richard or Jean-Paul Rouve who make a few quick appearances that punctuate the sequences.
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“Help of Fear”
The highlights of the show are inevitably those of the parodies, directly inherited from the Canal+ generation and which take the opposite view of the very smooth American shows. The failed interview-sketch of Jean Dujardin, during which neither one nor the other knows what to say to each other, allows entry to burst the abscess and announce that the French version will not be a copied and pasted from the American concept.
And who better than the Dummies gathered to bring the “French touch”! The proof, this memorable sketch with Dominique Farrugia in the issue of November 22. The ex-friend of Les Nuls announces, in front of everyone, his project to carry out a “City of fear 2”, entitled “The assisted of fear”, with Charlotte Gainsbourg and the whole troop. Chabat feigns surprise and nervousness, Chantal Lauby intervenes on video: pleasure to see the troupe reunited and laughter guaranteed.
Serzh Karamazov (aka Alain Chabat) continues in self-mockery for our greatest pleasure with an incalculable number of false ads, justified by the presenter because “there, it’s TF1”. If the program sometimes lacks naturalness, since it is not recorded live, we are delighted to come and taunt the World Cup in Qatar, and on TF1 in addition, where the matches are broadcast in the first part of the evening. Once again, the fake ads work wonderfully: we broadcast the trailer for a documentary on the migration of polar bears in need of ice pack to the refrigerated lawns of Qatar, we promote a table football game equipped with a ventilation system… In short, you make fun of your employer, and that, in the country of the revolution, it works.
In terms of figures, the show gathered just over a million viewers for the premiere, before dropping to 980,000 viewers on Thursday November 24th. But we trust Chabat to reserve some (good) surprises in the second week.