The show "Questions for a Champion" will soon only be broadcast on weekends.

The game show has been broadcast daily every week since 1988. The "particularly tight" budgetary context is cited by France Télévisions.

The France 3 game show "Questions pour un champion" will only air on weekends starting next season, the France Télévisions group and the show's producer, Fremantle, announced on Saturday evening, June 28. The news was revealed early Saturday by Europe 1 media journalist Thomas Isle on the social network X. "This decision was not easy. It comes in a particularly tight budgetary context, which is forcing us to rethink our schedule balance," explained France Télévisions' number 2, Stéphane Sitbon-Gomez, in a statement sent to AFP.

"But it does not call into question the deep attachment we have to this show," he assured, emphasizing that it would continue to "live (...) on weekends, where its audience is the strongest and most unifying," he added. For his part, the president of Fremantle France, Bruno Fallot, expressed his "surprise" and "sadness" after the broadcaster's decision. "At a time when France Télévisions is going through an unprecedented budgetary crisis, we understand the need to make financial choices," he assured in a press release. "However, having to reduce a show as unifying as 'Questions pour un champion' raises questions about the resources given to the public service to fulfill its mission," the producer continued.

Adapted from the hit British game show "Going for Gold," "Questions pour un champion" was created in France in 1988. Contestants must answer general knowledge questions (often challenging) in several rounds, and the winner returns the next day. The show was presented for more than 27 years by the iconic Julien Lepers, replaced by Samuel Étienne in early 2016. "I don't know what the future of +Questions pour un champion+ will be. But if the game is threatened, we won't be able to use the ratings argument," he said on the social network X on Saturday. In recent days, the show was still watched by more than a million viewers, according to Fremantle.