End clap for “Les Rivières Pourpres” on France 2? Olivier Marchal, the interpreter of Pierre Niemans, has in any case announced that he is leaving the series after four seasons and that he will not participate in season 5, if it sees the light of day.
Only a week after the end of the broadcast of season 4 of the Crimson Rivers on France 2, Olivier Marchal puts an end to the suspense concerning the future of the detective series adapted from the eponymous novel by Jean-Christophe Grange.
While the mystery remained as to the possibility of a season 5 – France Télévisions had not expressed itself, while the production assured that a new batch of episodes was not “not yet in the pipes” – the interpreter of Pierre Niemans has indeed just entrusted to Entertainment TV that he would not return for new investigations and that season 4 was indeed the last. For him anyway.
No season 5 of Crimson Rivers for Olivier Marchal
“I quit”announces the director of Carbon, Bronx and Overdosewhich will be released on November 4 on Prime Video. “Anyway, the numbers proved me right: season 4 didn’t work. I said it was one season too many and before the hearings I told them it was the last for me. . I think there was a problem with the text. The concept was good but it had to be reinvented”.
Statements that are hardly surprising since they go in the direction of what Olivier Marchal had already entrusted to us a year and a half agoat the time of the broadcast of season 3 of Crimson Rivers: “I think I’ll do a season 4 without any problem, because I love this character, and it’s a pretty classy series, like many French series today that hold up. But I don’t know if I’ll continue at -of the”.
Very popular when it was launched, Les Rivières Pourpres experienced a huge drop in audience this fall in 2022 on France 2, with only 2.6 million viewers on average over all of its eight episodes according to Médiamétrie, for a part of audience of only 12.4% among the general public.
Fairly low, these figures above all represent a drop of more than 1.4 million viewers compared to season 3. Which can obviously be put down to increased competition since TF1 was broadcasting the event series just opposite The Fighters while M6 offered its ratings juggernaut L’Amour est dans le pré. But not only.
Gaetan Chekaiban/2020 Storia Television/Maze Pictures/France Televisions
“People are saturated with the creepy”
According to Olivier Marchal, the failure of season 4 of Crimson Rivers also shows that the French no longer want gloomy thrillers in this very gloomy period in terms of news. “When I look E-syndromewhich didn’t really do well, I think people are saturated with creepiness.”explains the interpreter of Pierre Niemans to our colleagues.
“On Les Rivières Pourpres, we lost more than 2 million viewers between seasons 1 and 4. People don’t want that anymore. They see shit from morning to night and don’t want to watch the same thing in the evening in front of their TV. It bothers me a little to end on a semi-failure, but that’s how it is”.
It remains to be seen whether the departure of Olivier Marchal really marks the end of the series, or whether France 2 will still want to continue with Erika Saint (the interpreter of Camille Delaunay) and a new pair. Even if the audiences for season 4 seem to indicate that the detective series adapted from Jean-Christophe Grangé has breathed its last.
Olivier Marchal will in any case be very busy in the months to come. In addition to promoting Overdose, his new film as a director (in which he directed his co-star The promise Sofia Essaidi), he will indeed direct the six episodes of Pax Massilia for Netflix, the Bronx serial sequelwhose filming should, according to our information, begin next month.
Find all of seasons 2 to 4 of Crimson Rivers on Salto.