When the French chattering classes turn their heavy intellectual artillery on a program that has taken their country by storm. Since the titillating daily program first aired three weeks ago, it has provoked acres of commentary in the papers, hours of earnest debate on the airwaves, strictures from Cabinet ministers, and demands that the show be cancelled. M6, the small TV channel that is presenting the show, however, is laughing all the way to the bank. Here, the producers have introduced a French twist to the plot, combining voyeurism with a dating game.
Viewers vote off one person a week until one couple is left.
The point, of course, is that it is sexier. And it shouldn't be, according to Sen. Claude Huriet, who helped draft French bioethics legislation. This is, after all, the country where President Francois Mitterrand led a double life for years, with a mistress and daughter living in a government apartment, without any of the politicians or journalists who knew of the arrangement ever thinking of mentioning it in public. The shock troops were pushed back by riot police. Other critics of the show will likely find themselves rebuffed by crude economic reality.