Nice scores that gave hope to the producers. Especially since when it was launched in August 2004, More beautiful life did not take off. It wasn’t until six months later, after script adjustments, that the series took off. For several years, France 3 was able to count on the soap opera which told the adventures of the various characters of the Mistral, an imaginary district of the city of Marseille. Until 2017, More beautiful life contributed 1.1 points to the channel’s overall audience. A figure that now stands at 0.2.
More beautiful life: Too high a cost for sharply declining audiences
Over the seasons, viewers have lost interest in the plots of the series, yet still thought in relation to current events. Between 2016 and 2017, they were 4.5 million on average to follow the series, already a million less than before. A figure that has continued to decline since, going from 3.4 million followers in 2019/2020 then 3.1 million for the 2020/2021 season, marked by the departure of Fabienne Carat who played the historical figure of Samia Nassri . Today, the faithful are “only” 2.5 million to dine in front of More beautiful lifewhich represents 10% of the audience.
A considerable decrease which is explained by the arrival of several competing programs. “More beautiful life is dying to be the last PAF soap opera at the ratings level after such a big sun, tomorrow belongs to us and Here it all starts, notes a media actor with Le Figaro. The oldest of the daily soap operas is struggling to renew itself and the public is turning away from it. Under these conditions, does it still have a place on the France 3 grid?” The chain, which pays a little more than 30 million per year to produce the soap opera, has made its decision.