M6 Channel Faces Racism Allegations Over ’Scènes de Ménages’ Cast Change

"M6 and the production company Kabo Family confirm that they have, ’by mutual agreement’, decided to evolve the editorial line of ’Scènes de ménages’ by reducing the number of couples in the series," TV Magazine reported on July 19. The channel has consequently ended the collaboration of the couple composed of Louise and Jalil, embodied by Claudia Mongumu and Ryad Baxx since 2021, after that of Gilbert and Christine. "No incompatibility of mood or quarrel," the channel assures.

Investigations by Mediapart reveal that M6 has pushed the duo towards the exit and that the actors first learned overnight that they had to leave the series, while they expected to stay there for about a decade - this is generally the duration of a couple in "Scènes de Ménage". The channel would even have written a false press release in their name. "We have decided to stop the series to work on other projects," can be read in this press release that Claudia Mongumu and Ryad Baxx refused to sign.

According to several testimonies collected by the site, the two actors were brutally fired "for reasons deemed racist, at the end of a collaboration marked by incidents." Mediapart has the recording of a meeting during which a producer of Kabo Family, Stéphane Moatti, and the director of fiction of the M6 group, Quentin de Revel, explain to the two actors that their "couple does not tell something universal enough" and that the viewers did not "identify with them".

The two officials even went so far as to hold them partly responsible for the drop in the series’ audience, while according to several testimonies, including that of the Congolese actress, this question of lack of "universality" "actually hides a racist background".

"Not only are none of us white, but our origins involve playing scenes, during family reunions for example, with several black and Arab actors.