A record audience last Saturday, 300,000 viewers won since the confinement, candidates and a jury greeted, but a stone in the shoe named Covid-19. In the final stretch of its 9th season, "The Voice" (every Saturday at 9:05 pm on TF 1) has picked up colors but is looking for its epilogue in a stopped France.
Because confinement requires, the semi-final scheduled live on May 2 and the final on the 9th take the path of a postponement. The front page had seen big things to end the show: two evenings live from the stage of the Palais des Sports in Paris. A first for the telecrochet launched in France in 2012, which the coronavirus epidemic has come to parasitize.
Live or nothing
Until then, everything was on track, thanks to the twelve programs recorded last fall, well before the epidemic, and broadcast since January 18. Since the confinement came into effect on March 17, TF 1 has adapted, by choosing to shorten the program presented by Nikos Aliagas by one hour, to spread it out as long as possible.
But from April 25, this is the question mark. And, like the government outlining different scenarios of French deconfinement, the front page explores several options for concluding the show.
First, there is no question, for her, of giving up live. "The Voice must remain a big show," insists the ITV Studios production, which keeps the idea of the Palais des Sports. Nor to envisage a confined recording, in limited staff and without audience, as practiced at the moment by several television programs. "Either we are confined or we are not" ruled Fabrice Bailly, director of programs and acquisitions of the TF 1 group, who recalls that each shoot mobilizes at least 180 people, excluding the public. Unthinkable in the state, therefore.
"Who says frustration says wait"
"The Voice requires a minimum of quality, we prefer to wait rather than to offer a degraded program", continues Fabrice Bailly, pragmatic. “We already have our candidates, our coaches, we are ready! If we do not have the possibility of making these two live broadcasts in May, in the wake of those already recorded, we will postpone to a date when it will be possible, in accordance with sanitary caution. When we can shoot them, we will shoot them, ”he insisted, watching for Emmanuel Macron's intervention scheduled for Monday evening, which could specify the schedule for deconfinement.
In function, the production will envisage its two direct before the summer or the autumn, without showing concern on the fidelity of the fans. “We know that the public will be on the lookout for these last two evenings. There will be a little frustration, but who says frustration says wait, “prophesies the front page, showing his serenity.
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To keep in touch with the 5 million faithful, the talents of the show give voice every night on social networks, by taking known titles. This Saturday evening, the second session of the "KO" reserves suspense with the choices of coach Amel Bent, who will decide between his candidates, deciding the fate of the young singer of Yvelines, Toni. The show also promises surprises: Terence's performance is announced as the sensation of the evening.