The battles of David against Goliath will therefore have given birth to a mouse. After two short tours in the TF1 arena, “Gladiators” was urgently canceled by the channel, this Saturday, January 4, due to catastrophic audiences. Presented with great fanfare before its broadcast, the entertainment featuring challengers against “superhuman gladiators” in various events was to ride on the success that this format was experiencing in the United States and the United Kingdom. But from its launch on December 27, the mayonnaise did not catch on in France with only 1.95 million curious people watching TF1 in the first part, for an 11.2% audience share among the entire public. . Worse, 700,000 of them had escaped during the evening.
Audiences below expectations
The trend did not reverse the following Friday, since only 862,000 amateurs responded on average to the call for the competition, or 5.9% of the public. France 2 with “César Wagner”, France 3 and “La Boîte à secrets”, and M6 by offering a rebroadcast of “Beauty and the Beast”, achieved better results. The score was thus considered too insufficient for the channel to maintain the game hosted by the trio Denis Brogniart/Hélène Mannarino/Jean-Pierre Foucault in prime time, as was initially planned. The last three issues still in the box will therefore be released on January 10 in the second and third parts of the evening, from 10:45 p.m. to 3:25 a.m.
Jeff Panacloc and Arthur called for help
To replace entertainment from ITV, TF1 called on two established names from the house. On January 10 at 9:10 p.m., ventriloquist Jeff Panacloc and his show “Jeff Panacloc Adventure” will take over with a journey into the world of amusement parks with his faithful stage companion Jean-Marc. Then, the following week, Arthur's “Les Touristes” will occupy the time slot. An issue, which had been canceled in January 2023 due to sports news, and during which Booder, Iris Mittenaere, Cartman, Camille Cerf, Titoff and Tareek will discover the secrets of thousands of flight attendants and stewards who fly in the largest airlines.
