“On ‘Pékin Express’, we do more than 50% of our…

On January 16, 2025, M6 broadcast the 20th season of “Beijing Express“, baptized “The Route of the Legendary Tribes“, a program presented by Stéphane Rotenberg.

Stéphane Rotenberg: “On Beijing Express, we do more than 50% of our audiences in replay”

Is Beijing Express watched a lot in replay ? “It’s true that overall, today in France, on programs like that, we are at 30%. We are at more than 50%. It’s quite dizzying. That is to say that there is a new way of consuming television, which is no longer linear. And what’s great is that if we add up our audience replay and our linear audience in livewe are almost on the television audiences of twenty years ago. The first days are the best. But we continue to gain tens, tens and tens of thousands of spectators for a short month afterwards. It’s pretty awesome. And you have to get used to that because it’s the future of TV, that’s for sure“, reacted Stéphane Rotenberg.

In “Beijing Express” we see a lot of shots filmed by drones…”It’s great when you have the right to fly, because there are countries that ban drones. But it is true that this is one of the big changes. We had cranes before, they are much lower, they were very expensive and they were very heavy. But the drone changes everything. It’s true that in terms of images, we are gaining height. It’s complicated to follow candidates, we’re starting to think about having drones that follow candidates very often. We sometimes do it on cutting plans, we see them on treks“, said Stéphane Rotenberg.

“I made a set where there are really incredible animals around me: elephant, zebra”

Animals are also very present in “Beijing Express“. “Animals are part of the program, especially during treks. Animals are still very present among people in Africa. So, less and less, we must recognize, but still, especially on reserves. When necessary, we have rangers not far away, with numbing guns. I made a set where there are really incredible animals around me: elephant, zebra… The lions, they weren’t close, but we could hear their roars. But we manage, we have a whole security team, you always have to be careful“, specifies Stéphane Rotenberg.

There are also pests…”It’s stupid, but tsetse flies and the like, somewhat annoying diseases, there are still a lot of them. It wasn’t the season. But when it’s the season, they are so full of blood and heavy that they take to the roads. You should rather walk not far from the trees because they are too lazy to zigzag. And they are along the rivers or along the roads, and that’s where they bite you, they unfortunately bite a lot of people who are on the banks of rivers drinking or washing. They are there, we can hear them coming. Getting stung is no fun. But so far, it hasn’t happened to me.“

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