why the famous “T” of Télérama are now reserved for subscribers

On the cultural magazine’s site and app, everyone will now no longer be able to know the editor’s rating for a TV program, a book or a show. At the heart of this approach: the very identity of the magazine.

They have made Télérama famous for ten years. The famous red “Ts”, which represent the grades assigned by the editorial staff to cultural works, are no longer accessible to everyone. You have to pay to see them. In a message addressed to Internet users posted online on Tuesday February 20, we can read that “the T note is now reserved for subscribers“.

Concretely, on the site and application of the cultural magazine, which belongs to the Le Monde group, only those who have a subscription or an account can now know how many “T”s accompany the appreciation of a TV program, a book or show. A “T” is meh, two is good, three is very good, and four – the maximum – well done! There may even be none… However, they remain visible in the paper magazine.

“Criticism is the heart of our identity”

And our fellow journalists clarify: “Criticism is the heart of our newspaper’s identity and we focus a significant part of our energy and expertise there, in complete independence. Thank you for your support ” This is in fact far from being anecdotal: the weekly believes that criticism has a price. It is part of its DNA, the journalists spend time there, making sure to provide more in-depth expertise than those that the we see it everywhere on the Internet, completely free, and whose quality we don’t necessarily know. Especially since Télérama suffered again in 2023: its sales fell by 3%, to 430,000 copies. It was 480,000 in 2020 .

This new digital page therefore marks a change for the brand: Télérama has used the letter “T” for its rating system since 2012. For films, it is different: no letter T, but a drawing. It is a mascot named “Pénélope”, like its designer Pénélope Bagieu, star of the comic strip, whose female face changes expression according to criticism, with five different heads, ranging from clenched teeth to hearts instead. eyes and the bangs that stand up in case of great enthusiasm.

“Pénélope” recently replaced “Ulysse” in the columns of Télérama. Until 2022, it was a 72-year-old man, imagined when Télérama was still called Radio-Cinéma-Télévision. Initially, he could make 10 different expressions for films reserved for those over 21 (the age of the old majority) and six for young people. He then changed his head several times, before being designed by the designer Riad Sattouf… who had, for a time, thought of a female character. The idea had been abandoned and therefore came back 2 years ago, the editorial staff no longer wanting its choices to be subject to a male gaze.