Ratings Roundup: French Prime Time

PREMIUM: Imported American series pulled the biggest audiences in France during the week ended September 30, led by two crime procedurals: Criminal Minds and The Mentalist.

Criminal Minds on TF1 on Wednesday won the week’s biggest audience with 8.299 million viewers and a share of 31.0 percent. Number two of the week was The Mentalist on TF1 on Tuesday with 7.835 million and a share of 28.2 percent.

TF1 also won on Friday night as CSI: Miami drew 4.94 million and a share of 20.1 percent. Very close behind was yet another CBS police import, NCIS, on M6 with 4.378 million and a share of 17.8 percent.

The top French program in the same genre was a local dramatization of stories by a British mystery writer. The France 2 series Les petits meurtres d’Agatha Christie, which transplants the action to France, was number three behind the Yanks on Friday night.

Other U.S. crime-fighters also fared well. Detective series Castle from ABC was number two on Monday for France 2. M6 was third on Saturday with White Collar from USA Network.

British formats won two other nights. On Monday M6 topped the ratings as usual with the local version of British show The Farmer Wants a Wife. On Thursday, TF1 won the day with the local version of MasterChef.

Imported movies also did well. The ratings winner on Sunday night was the American feature The Hangover (shown with the English title Very Bad Trip) with 7.690 million viewers, the third biggest audience of the week, and a share of 30.2 percent. The American feature Taken on M6 was second of the night on Thursday. France 2 was second on Sunday with movie The Ghost Writer, an English-language Hollywood-style French-German-British co-production.