The young woman sued the channel before the Nanterre judicial court for “parasitism”, as she confided to our colleagues at Parisian this Tuesday.
Plagiarism or reappropriation? This Tuesday, January 14, influencer and former reality TV personality Mélanie Amar – known to the general public under the pseudonym “Melanight” – accused M6 of stealing her show idea. The program in question would be none other than “The Brain: who will be the greatest brain in reality TV?” .
Broadcast on W9 since December 9, the show is part of the dynamic of developing new reality TV formats initiated by the group. The program, produced by Studio 86, brings together 18 reality TV candidates known to the general public with the aim of putting their knowledge and intellectual abilities to the test. An innovative and successful idea if the audiences are to be believed. The first episode attracted 426,000 viewers.
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The only problem is that it was allegedly stolen from the influencer Melanight, who has since retrained as a production manager. The latter confided, in an interview to our colleagues from Le Parisien, to recognize the features of her broadcast project, presented in July 2023 to a manager from M6 and W9. The concept, entitled “The Worst Class”, was based on “an educational competition against school dropouts” while involving a series of reality TV influencers. According to him, the project pleases the group. All the production and writing work then began, without a contract. But after four months, the chain backpedaled. “I was told that my project was great, but that M6 did not want to tackle this theme”she said. She added that, several months later, former reality TV comrades – whom she herself had contacted to present the project to them – began to congratulate her.
-“Everything is the same”
Mélanie Amar contacted the group, which assured her that the two programs were different. However, “The Brain” would have turned “in the same school that I contacted, in the rooms that I reserved, there are the same candidates, the same theme, the same games, the same final, the same costumes… They put a little more budget, but basically, everything is the same”, as the young woman said. “The door was closed to me because I am a reality TV candidate, and therefore I am considered stupid.”
The influencer finally decided to sue M6 and W9 for “parasitism”. “The parasitism consisted of using and exploiting Ms. Amar’s creation to produce another which was inspired by it to the point of reproducing it while seeking to pass it off as an original creation”revealed his legal team. And to continue: “The precise and structured materials submitted by Ms. Amar to M6 clearly included the idea, the title, the structure, the configuration of the program and the sequence of episodes. If Ms. Amar was unable to finalize her creative work, it was only because of its despoilment by M6, W9 and Studio 89.”
Mélanie Amar is asking for nearly 1.3 million euros for loss of earnings, work provided and moral damage caused. “It was my chance to do something else. And it was taken away from me.” For its part, M6 – contacted by Le Parisien – contests outright. “These allegations by Ms. Amar are denigration […] The channel will not fail to defend its interests.”
