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2008 witnessed the fifth series of Intervilles International since
its inception in 2005 (there having been two series in one year during 2006).
This year, as in 2007, teams from China, Kazakhstan and the USA lined up to try to knock
the highly successful Russian competitors off their stride... but once again,
the Russians were a difficult nut to crack. Once again, the events were staged
in Cagnes-sur-Mer on the Cote d'Azur on the French Riviera.
The 2008 Intervilles French Domestic series kicked off
with a one-off special called InterVIP, contested by teams of
celebrities with proceeds being donated to two children's charities. This was
not the success that was expected, with poor viewing figures (2.75m viewers
and a 12.9% share of all viewers watching).
The regular Intervilles competitions commenced the
following week, but it quickly became apparent that the 2008 series was a
little tired and lacking in vitality. Uncommonly, it was the first ever
Intervilles series that registered viewing figures consistently below the
3 million mark. Even the show's producer, Didier Fraisse conceded the need for
a radical freshening up of Intervilles if it was to continue into 2009.
The 2008 show is criticised for being too repetitive, relying almost
exclusively on games that had become too familiar to audiences and competitors
alike, and also for aggressively targeting young viewers at the expense of its
traditional family audience.
Meanwhile, the Spanish Domestic series Grand Prix del Verano
continued into its second year on the FORTA regional channels (and its 13th
season all told), again with Bertín Osborne as the main presenter. At his
side, replacing 2007 co-presenter Cristina Urgel, was Natalia Rodríguez, who
would remain with him into 2009 - the final year of Grand Prix del Verano.
On the subject of audience viewing figures, those relating to
the second phase of Grand Prix del Verano may seem poor compared to its
original run on TVE. This is because FORTA was a community of regional
broadcasters and not all regions aired the show. Consequently, while viewing
figures are in the hundreds of thousands rather than the millions, the
audience share remained impressive (this was calculated by determining the
percentage of viewers watching Grand Prix in the areas that could
receive it, rather than it being calculated for the whole of Spain). |
