Mbappé propels Envoyé Spécial audiences, new record for Le Parisien

The Mbappé effect propels Special Envoy despite the domination of TF1

A contested evening of television

On the evening of January 18, 2024, the French audiovisual landscape was marked by a tight battle between the channels to capture the attention of viewers. TF1 came out on top in the audiences thanks to “Rivière-perdue”, captivating more than four million spectators, or a quarter of the market share. This drama series, boasting a prestigious cast with actors such as Odile Vuillemin, Barbara Cabrita and Nicolas Gob, has maintained its hold on the public since its launch the previous week.

“Special Envoy” faces competition

However, the evening was also marked by a notable phenomenon on the side of France 2. “Envoyé Spécial”, the emblematic program of the report, found itself energized thanks to a subject devoted to the football star Kylian Mbappé. Segmented into two parts and starting at 8:45 p.m., the program recorded a remarkable audience of nearly three million individuals, or almost 15% of the total spectators, for the first part. The second segment also attracted a significant audience with 2.3 million viewers, resulting in a 12.3% audience share. These figures represent a significant improvement compared to those of the previous week.

The audience table

Here is a more concise representation of the audience results for this evening of January 18 in the first part of the evening:

In conclusion, the strategy of programming captivating content around a sporting figure of international stature allowed “Envoyé Spécial” to stand up to strong competition from TF1. The show was able to take advantage of what we could call ‘the Mbappé effect’, demonstrating that a targeted editorial choice can strongly influence audience performance against the giants of television fiction.