If you are aficionados of detective series, you will not have missed this: this genre is popular. In recent months, on RTS, we have seen a whole host of new releases of this genre flourish, from “The Tower” to “Will Trent”, including “The Irrational” (currently broadcast on Thursday evenings). And from July 5, “Chicago Police” will take up residence on the French-speaking channel with the broadcast of the new season 11.
“Police series, particularly French ones in recent years, are achieving good audiences in French-speaking Switzerland, with market shares exceeding 20%. These are series which are aimed at all age groups,” confirms Catherine Saidah, head of media relations at RTS.
On the streaming platform side, season 4 of “True Detective” was a ratings success on Prime Video, achieving the best result for the series since it was launched in 2014, according to HBO. At Netflix, in the top 10 most viewed series so far, we find “The Night Agent” (92 million views) and “Lupin”, part 1 (99 million) and 2 (68 million).
This enthusiasm hardly surprises Nicolas Dufour, journalist at “Temps”. “This genre turns out to be, by far, the most exportable,” explains this TV series specialist. The principle of crime and investigation is perhaps the only one that works everywhere, unlike comedy, for example, which works very poorly in other cultures, with a few rare exceptions. But the triumph of the policeman is global, it also crushes everything a little in literature.
On TF1, the best audiences in the fiction category for the whole of 2023 are those of “HPI”. On the second step, we find “Panda”, with Julien Doré, and on the third, the final season of “Balthazar”. All detective series, but with added humor.
This is because there is not one but several police series. “In this genre, there are sub-genres,” explains Eva Balibrea, head of the Fiction program acquisitions department at RTS. “HPI” is suitable for prime time, which must appeal to all ages and all tastes. “True Detective”, darker, is better suited to the second part of the evening.”
“The police officer is malleable,” says Nicolas Dufour. We can make them stand-alone episodes, which is very convenient for viewing, or stand-alone episodes with arcs running over several episodes, or even serial detective mini-series over six or eight episodes. The advantage of this genre is the multitude of possibilities it offers.”
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