Star Academy: Team Prime Show Sees Tracy Leave
Listen to the story
France's long-running reality television programme Star Academy aired its sixth live prime-time instalment, dubbed 'Prime 6', on 14 November 2026 on TF1. The episode introduced a team-based format that reshaped the usual competitive structure.
Among the notable elements of this episode was the involvement of contestants associated with the Miss France pageant, who were integrated into one of the competing teams. This crossover drew particular attention from the show's broad audience, which has followed the format for years.
Viewers were encouraged to support Noémie Dupeyron, a contestant representing the Landes region in southwestern France, who was placed on the red team. As with previous seasons, public telephone voting remains central to determining a contestant's fate, with supporters instructed to dial a specific number to register their backing.
The broadcast was not free of technical hiccups. During a performance by contestant Cameron, an audio outage briefly disrupted the live transmission, a reminder of the challenges inherent in live television production.
The evening's most significant development, however, was the elimination of contestant Tracy, who left the competition following the results of the evening's vote. Her departure marked one of the programme's many emotionally charged moments, which have become a hallmark of the show's format.
Such eliminations are a defining feature of Star Academy, where contestants live and train together for weeks, building close bonds that make departures particularly poignant for both the students and the viewing public. The dynamic between teamwork and individual competition continues to be a central draw of the series.
As the season progresses, the introduction of themed primes, celebrity crossovers, and live technical variables ensures that each broadcast carries an element of unpredictability, reinforcing the show's enduring appeal within French popular culture.
Vocabulary7 words
- prime-time instalment
- an episode shown in the evening when many people watch
- crossover
- when people or ideas from one show join another
- telephone voting
- a system where viewers vote by phone
- audio outage
- a short time when sound stops working
- poignant
- causing strong, sad feelings
- dynamic
- the way people or things interact
- unpredictability
- the quality of being hard to guess in advance
Quiz
Answer key
1. A team-based structure 2. An audio outage during Cameron's performance 3. True
✅ Nice work on the quiz!
Keep the momentum going — book a live English lesson with a Preply tutor.
Discussion questions
- Why do you think reality shows like Star Academy use public voting to decide eliminations?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of combining celebrity crossovers, like Miss France contestants, with existing TV formats?
- How might technical problems, such as audio outages, affect viewers' opinions of a live performance?
- Do you think team-based formats make competition shows more or less interesting than individual competitions? Why?

