“Intervilles” returns to France 2: 60 years of history of a cult show

Shanana... will the catchy refrain of the band Citizen's, rearranged many times since the 1980s for French television, resonate in French homes again? Not quite. Thursday, July 3 at 9:10 p.m. on France 2, the cult entertainment program returns to screens in a modernized format and without its iconic anthem.

A summer event like "Fort Boyard," "Intervilles" returns to France 2 for four prime-time broadcasts. Six cities will compete in modernized competitions that are heirs to sixty years of a flagship French television entertainment show.

The legendary show knows how to maintain its legend. In September 1963, at the Château de Rambouillet, General de Gaulle reportedly ended his discussion with German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer so as not to miss this new show during which two municipalities were seen clashing. The general, the true boss of French Radio and Television, also decided to put the model to the service of Franco-German reconciliation by launching European games, the "Games Without Borders", which were broadcast from 1965 until the 1990s.

It all actually began in 1962. Summer arrived and viewers learned that the ^49th edition of the Tour de France would not be broadcast on television due to a disagreement between the regional press and the television station over advertising issues. To compensate for the disappointing ratings, presenter Guy Lux suggested adapting the Italian entertainment show "Campanile sera." The game show, which pitted two cities from southern and northern Italy against each other, was a hit across the country.

With an outdoor studio that moves from town to town, the competition is hosted by Guy Lux and Léon Zitrone. It puts two municipalities in the arena with quizzes , more or less crazy physical challenges, and notably a "cowhide" challenge, inspired by the pool bullfights practiced in the French Landes. The first edition saw the towns of Dax, in the Landes, and Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, in the North, face off in the final. Two towns that would remain loyal to the show and regularly climb onto the podium for the next sixty years.

Until 1999, the final was contested with a multiple-choice question test, in which three people from each city participated, along with their mayors. The quiz was replaced in 2004 by a physical confrontation between three men from each municipality, who had to climb the "wall of champions" by pulling movements. In 2009, the "strong men" gave way to a similar climbing game, but involving around fifteen people. For its return in 2015, the trio must be mixed. It will be composed of two men and one woman.

Another adaptation of the era: the animals, and in particular the emblematic "cow," disappeared from the show. This was a joint decision by France Télévisions and Nagui. Co-host and producer, the latter justified the decision by recalling that "there have been no animals on television sets for years ," particularly on "Fort Boyard," where the tigers have gradually retired.

First broadcast on the single channel RTF, the summer show has, over the course of its 60 years of existence, jumped several times from one channel to another, both private and public. After a stay on the first and second channels of ORTF , the show disappeared for a dozen years before reappearing on TF1 in 1986, while the channel was privatized.

The show then experienced some legal upheavals. In 1992, it was suspended following a fine imposed by the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (Higher Audiovisual Council) for its advertising of the brands La vache qui rit, Tiercé magazine , and Champion. At the time, product advertising was only permitted during a commercial.

Upon its return to TF1 in 1995, the show broke audience records thanks to a new format which introduced the big "Challenge" of the inclined plane: in 1995, the final in which Valenciennes and Saint-Amand-les-Eaux faced off was watched by more than 9 million viewers.

But two years later, a "national tragedy" erupted, headlined Le Canard enchaîné . Because there was allegedly cheating. The referee, Olivier Chiabodo, allegedly gave the answer to the representatives of Puy du Fou, with a hand signal, in the final against the Ancenis region (Loire-Atlantique). Olivier Chiabodo was fired. Twenty years later, he admitted to having cheated under the orders of the show's producer, Gérard Louvin, and claimed that such arrangements were commonplace.

After a final Paris-Beijing special in September 1999, TF1 suspended the program. It was relaunched in 2004 by the public service on France 2 and then on France 3 from 2006 to 2009. Occasionally suspended, "Intervilles" was given a special program in 2014 for its 50th anniversary on France 2. Since then, the show had disappeared from French television. However, it was broadcast internationally in various formats, including junior, on the Gulli channel, between 2014 and 2016. Initially planned for 2020, then hit by the pandemic, the return of "Intervilles" finally materialized in the summer of 2025.