The news had the effect of a bomb this Sunday: France Télévisions is putting an end, after 52 years on the air, to the game “Numbers and letters”. After eliminating the weekday show and confining it to the weekend two years ago, the management of the French group decreed, with a certain cynicism, that it no longer found its audience.
First presenter, from 1972, of “Cyphers and Letters” and current producer of the game, Patrice Laffont spoke to our colleagues from “Parisien”. “It had been announced for a while (…) I suspected that it was not by spending the weekend that the program was going to be reborn.”
What does he feel, at a time when this cult game is about to bow out? “It’s sad for the whole team, for the people who loved the program. (…) It’s a show that dates from 1972, which was more than 52 years old. We’re going to hold this record for the longest-running show for years (…) Because 50 years for a TV show won’t happen today.”
And added: “It’s the disappearance of a French format, while today we rather buy American programs (…) But I have no reason to complain that the show is stopping at my age. Laurent Romejko also has his career, he surely has other projects.”
