The return of “Intervilles” on the small screen continues to make people talk. The reason? In this new version imagined by Nagui, which will see the light of day on France Télévisions in the summer of 2025, there will no longer be the famous cows, an integral part of the show broadcast for the first time in 1962 with Guy Lux and Léon Zitrone at its head, and whose last issue was broadcast in 2013 on France 2.
“These bulls are much happier in the wild”
Nagui, who will present the 2024 version of the game, told AFP that the absence of cows was jointly decided with France Télévisions. “I just think that these bulls are much happier in the wild, riding, than hearing screams and chasing young firefighters who also risk getting impaled.” explained the host-producer, assuring that he wanted to find himself in the program “the spirit of votive festivals, the spirit of fairs“. “It is a debate which, for me, is organized by lobbies“on the occasion of a”law which wanted to prohibit the access of minors to bullfights (the text was rejected by the Senate on November 14, editor's note). They are so no longer in tune with the times“, snaps the presenter, himself a vegetarian and supporter of associations like L214, PETA or the SPA.
If this bias was welcomed by animal defense associations, in particular PAZ (Zoopolis Animal Project), which applauds a “very good news regarding an iconic show“, several voices are raised against this decision which, according to them, would distort the program. The towns of Bayonne, Dax and Mont-de-Marsan, which participated extensively in the game, have announced that they will not be involved “'Intervilles' without the cows, it's not 'Intervilles'“, declared to AFP the Horizons mayor of Dax, Julien Dubois, depending on who he is”faux“to say that these animals”would suffer during play“.
READ ALSO: “'Intervilles' without cows, it's a fair”: The towns of Dax and Mont-de-Marsan refuse to participate in the new version of Nagui's program on France 2
In the columns of “Midi Libre”, the town hall of Nîmes also refused: “It’s bullfighting culture, we’re not going to let that be imposed on us.” Same story in Palavas and Grau-du-Roi. “We refuse what would be dictated by a speciesist approach,” declared the Gard councilor, assuring that “animal safety and welfare” was at the heart of the concerns of “all stakeholders, breeders, organizers and elected officials”.
“It’s good thinking”
In the ranks of the show's history, things are also growing louder. This is the case of DJ and actor Philippe Corti, who notably produced the musical design for “Intervilles” between 2005 and 2008. Contacted by Nagui to return to service, he did not want to participate in this new version. “Nagui asked me if I would like to come back. (…) No, without cows, it's no. (…) It's a popular 'Intervilles' nugget, what are we going to serve? A half-cold sanitized tray without cows? Guy Lux must be turning in his grave!“, castigated the Gardois before adding: “It’s right-thinking, Nagui, he’s woke“.
This debate comes at a time when France Télévisions recently decided to ask producers to limit the use of animals on film as much as possible, by replacing them for example with computer-generated images or image banks, indicates the AFP. “As a public broadcasting service, we had a responsibility to act first“, explained to AFP the cinema director of France Télévisions Manuel Alduy, for whom animal protection remained until now in “a blind spot” of the sector. A first step welcomed by the PAZ associations and the 30 million friends Foundation, which hopes that “the other channels will follow“.
