What is “Frenchie Shore”, this new reality TV show “bordering on pornography” which worries the Minister of Culture?

The new show Frenchie Shorebroadcast on MTV and Paramount since November 11, continues to cause controversy due to its vulgar character. The provocative reality show is facing heavy criticism. Some are even calling for it to be banned. The Minister of CultureRima Abdul-Malak, expressed her concern.

Since November 11, viewers can see Frenchie Shorean adaptation of the American reality show Jersey Shore. In the program ? The show follows the adventures of ten participants resident in a villa in Cap d’Agde (Hérault), where their daily life essentially boils down to partying and having more intimate relationships. With scenes of almost undisguised explicit content, exhibitions and unequivocal words.

More than 20 years of reality TV

The first reality TV show ever broadcast in France, Loft Story, proposes an innovative concept: locking 11 singles in a studio in Plaine Saint-Denis, where all the rooms, with the exception of the toilets, are equipped with cameras. From the first evening, the intimate moments between Loana and Jean-Edouard in the loft swimming pool led to an audience explosion, maintaining a daily average of 5 million viewers until the following July 5.

More than twenty years later, and after a series of cult shows, Star Academy, Temptation Island, Celebrity Farm, I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, or Angels this type of format has profoundly transformed the French audiovisual landscape. Long considered as a social phenomenonreality TV continues to be successful on certain channels, such as currently on MTV with Frenchie Shorethanks to programs largely inspired by foreign concepts.

Frenchie Shore: always further

Directly inspired by Jersey Shore, broadcast in the United States from 2009 and for six seasons, the show allows France to enter the competition in 2023. The concept? It’s rather vague. Five men, five women, with the sole objective… of do nothing in a villa with a pool. The choice of location is not trivial either, because Cap d’Agde, renowned for its naturism in the south of France, already enjoys a well-established reputation.

In this program, the boundaries seem to be blurred. The less you wear, the better, and the more you drink, the better too, without forgetting the primary objective of some (and almost all): “f**k them all”. As a warning, we told you, they are not afraid of anything. For this brand new bold show, they chose a renowned reality TV personality as « boss » to ensure good understanding between the candidates. This is’Portal of Antoninusan emblematic figure of Marseillea reality TV show that enjoyed great success in 2012.

Another fraudulent episode of this reality TV show 🤨🤣 #FrenchieShore pic.twitter.com/6V2HobP5jB

– 𝑯𝒂𝒚𝒕𝒂𝒎 🕸️ 🕷️ (@Haytam_onkey) November 20, 2023

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A show that creates scandal

But this total freedom worries all the way to the top of the state. As reported BFMTVthe Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak, expressed her concern after the broadcast of the reality show described by some as “the trashiest ever produced In France “. She explains : “I will be careful not to comment on the choices of channels and platforms which have their editorial freedom.” Then continue: “This program is not recommended for under 16s. But anyone can come across it on social networks like it happened to me”.

Arcom, the authority in charge of media regulation, “has jurisdiction over the platforms under protection of minors ». By this means, the minister hopes to prohibit minors’ access to this program which, according to her, is “bordering on pornography”. She concludes: “We are not in the register of fiction, of a film or a series, with the hindsight that that implies”, she specifies. “For adolescents who will say to themselves, this is the reality of human relationships, sexual intercourseit could be a catastrophic entry into the matter.”