Axing of beloved French quiz show results in national outcry

Times

09-07-2025

Medical instruments, ornithology and medieval music were among the topics fired at contestants in one of France's most popular television quizzes this week.
Much of the country was, however, pondering another question: why has France Télévisions, the state broadcaster, decided to remove the show from its daily slot, supposedly depriving the nation of a valuable cultural institution?
A national outcry has followed word that the broadcaster is to relegate Questions Pour Un Champion, a general knowledge quiz game ­imported from the BBC in 1988, to two weekend slots.
After a chorus of public scorn and a petition with nearly 50,000 signatures, a cross-party group of more than 20 MPs has sounded the alarm, telling the boss of France Télévisions that they were appalled at a decision that is likely to kill the contest known originally in Britain as Going for Gold.
The broadcaster says it wants to save money. Though the game show still dominates viewership at its 6.10pm slot, it costs more than rival daytime quizzes, it said.
For critics, though, the Parisian elite is once again axing a middle-brow show that is popular mainly with older viewers in the provinces.
The row is the latest over the ­disappearance of venerable game shows, a genre that still commands strong loyalty in France. With its focus on culture générale, more ­prosaically general knowledge in English, Questions Pour Un Champion, is valued for its emphasis on learning.
The MPs, from left, centre and right-wing parties, urged Delphine ­Ernotte, the France Télévisions chief, to reinstate the quiz. 'More than a ­television programme, Questions Pour Un Champion is a popular cultural and intergenerational institution which plays a large role in the French broadcasting heritage,' they said.
Denis Masséglia, an MP for President Macron's Renaissance party, said: 'Millions of French people are being deprived of a familiar reference, a pleasure of play and togetherness.'
The critics assume France 3, the show's channel, will soon cancel it, as the parent broadcaster did with the 50-year-old Des Chiffres et des Lettres (Figures and Letters), the last cherished quiz show that it axed amid an outcry in 2024 when it was limited to weekends. Fans called the removal of that show 'cultural suicide'.
Samuel Etienne, the Questions host since 2016 and only the second since its start, has attacked the bosses' ­decision, calling it unfounded, since its viewership remains strong, with over 12 per cent of the 6pm national audience. 'The most demanding game show involving general culture is abandoning its public,' he said.
Millions of French people organise their daily routine around it and it had never had so many young contestants, Etienne said. The TV bosses told the host that the quiz's non-French origin was a reason for cutting funds for the show, which is produced by an outside company, like most France Télévisions content, he said.
Etienne said the show had survived in France after disappearing in Britain and elsewhere 'because we have a different relationship with culture'.
In Le Figaro, Thomas Morales, a writer, said: 'With ideology and ­cynicism, France Télévisions is directly attacking the heart of its public — the invisible people of the provinces who are an easy target.
'All these honest people — pensioners, students, working people — will not cry out in anger from their distant territories. Once again, they will absorb the contempt in which the broadcasting chiefs hold them.'
Éric Naulleau, a critic and broadcaster, said the end of the quiz was incomprehensible. 'This broadcast gives pride of place to general ­knowledge and liveliness of the mind,' he wrote.