Always led by Olivier Marchal and Erika Sainte, the new season 4 of the police series “Les Rivières pourpres” ends this evening on France 2. Will the cops Niemans and Delaunay return soon for a season 5?
End clap for Crimson Rivers season 4. Broadcast every Monday on France 2, opposite the event saga Les Combattantes on TF1, this fourth unpublished batch of the successful detective series carried by Olivier Marchal and Erika Sainte ends indeed this evening with a last investigation entitled “The scene “.
In this double episode which gives pride of place to the character of Erika Sainte, Camille Delaunay finds her former partner, Chloé, who calls her for help to overcome a sordid murder case which seems straight out of the past. Immersed in the world of sexual deviance and voyeurism, the two women will discover that the killer they are tracking is inspired by the first known voyeuristic scene, dating from Antiquity: that of King Candaules, which gave rise to a very particular movement: candaulism.
Very special for Delaunay, will this investigation be the last for the heroes of the series Les Rivières pourpres, adapted from the eponymous novel by Jean-Christophe Grangé?
On the audience side, the detective series came back this year in sharp decline and visibly suffered from competition from Les Combattantes on the front page and from L’Amour est dans le pré on M6. While season 3 was watched on average by 4.04 million viewers last year, the first two episodes of season 4, offered on September 19 on France 2, only attracted 3 million curious people, for an audience share of 14.4% of the general public (4.5% of women in charge of purchases under 50).
And unfortunately for the channel, audiences fell again in week 2, with only 2.51 million people on average watching episodes 3 and 4 of season 4 (11.9% of the public). Before stabilizing last Monday with 2.48 million viewers in front of the adventures of Niemans and Delaunay.
These scores do not really encourage the renewal of the series and perhaps explain why France 2 has not yet communicated on the order of a possible season 5. Contacted by our colleagues from Entertainment TVthe production explains that a fifth batch is only “not yet in the pipes”.
JF Baumard-Storia Television-FTV
So, will the public attend the final episodes of Crimson Rivers tonight? The future will tell. But when we know that Olivier Marchal told us in March 2021 that he was not sure to continue beyond season 4, we say to ourselves that the end of the series is not in order. of the impossible.
“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 beyond. Not for storylines, but in relation to my age, quite simply. I’m getting old (laughs). You have to be credible. A cop, from 63-64 years old, he’s more in the offices than in the field”.
Unless the production and the channel are simply waiting for the actor and director’s agenda to be a little less busy to start a season 5.
Busy with the release of his new film Overdose, which will be available on November 4 on Prime Video, Olivier Marchal should, according to our information, begin filming in November on the serial sequel to Bronx, which will be called Pax Massilia and whose he will direct all six 52-minute episodes for Netflix. Case to follow.