Jeux Sans Frontières

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"Games Without Frontiers" redirects here. For the Peter Gabriel song, see Games Without Frontiers (song).

Jeux Sans Frontières (English: Games Without Frontiers) is a Europe-wide television game show.

In its original conception, it was broadcast from 1965 to 1999 under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union and featured teams from different European countries in outlandish costumes (often large latex suits) competing to complete bizarre tasks in funny games.

In the United Kingdom, participants came from the heats of It's a Knockout. The presenter of that series, Stuart Hall, provided the British commentary. Wales had its own team between 1991 and 1994 and the programme was broadcasted on S4C in Welsh by Iestyn Garlick.

The idea of the show came from the General Charles de Gaulle, whose wish was that French and German youth would meet in a series of funny games to reinforce the friendship between France and Germany. The games were inspired by the matches between French cities. Some games were played in swimming pools. In 1965, three French men (Pedro Brime, Claude Savarit, Jean-Louis Marest) brought the idea of the games to all Europe with success. Teams representing France, Germany, Belgium, and Italy took part in the first edition of the show called Inter Nations Games. [1]

Each participating country hosted one round of the games, presented by the host broadcaster. Every game was umpired by two "international" judges, Gennaro Olivieri and Guido Pancaldi. EBU announced that the show would be relaunched in summer 2007 after 7 years of inactivity. Due to financial considerations it was delayed, and is now forecast to Summer 2008.

An online petition [2] was launched on June 4, 2007, to persuade EBU to revive JSF.

1 Participating countries and wins
2 Participating countries in Jeux Sans Frontières 2007
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Participating countries and wins

Between the span of 1965 and 1999, 20 countries participated in 30 editions of JSF (considering Wales and Czechoslovakia as separate participants):

Country	Years of Participation	Editions	Wins
Belgium	1965-1982, 1988-1989	20	2
Germany	1965-1980	16	6
France	1965-1968, 1970-1982, 1988-1992, 1997-1999	25	3
Italy	1965-1982, 1988-1999	30	4
Switzerland	1967-1982, 1992-1999	24	2
United Kingdom	1967-1982 (1991-1994: Wales only)	16	4
Netherlands	1970-1977, 1997-1998	10	0
Liechtenstein	1976	1 (one heat)	0
Yugoslavia	1978-1982, 1990	6	0
Portugal	1979-1982, 1988-1998	15	5
Spain	1988, 1990-1992	4	1
San Marino	1989-1991	3	0
Wales	1991-1994	4	0
Tunisia	1992	1	0
Czechoslovakia	1992	1	1
Czech Republic	1993-1995	3	2
Greece	1993-1999	7	0
Hungary	1993-1999	7	3
Slovenia	1994, 1996-1997, 1999 (earlier as Yugoslavia)	4	0
Malta	1994-1995	2	0

Liechtenstein participated in 1976, replacing Switzerland in one single heat, and using thus the code FL (instead of CH).

Wales participated from 1991 to 1994 on behalf of the United Kingdom, and were identified by the code GB in mainland Europe and by C (Cymru, the Welsh name for Wales) in Wales itself. Welsh was the transmission language of the participating broadcaster (S4C).

Czechoslovakia participated in 1992 with Czech teams only. There was no Slovak participation in JSF that year. In 1993 the Czech Republic entered the show as an independent country.

The show inspired Peter Gabriel's 1980 hit single, "Games Without Frontiers" (the direct English translation of the title), in which backing vocalist Kate Bush sings "jeux sans frontières" during breaks. The lyrics also refer to the original title: "It's A Knockout".

[edit] Participating countries in Jeux Sans Frontières 2007

The series won't take place in 2007, due to financial setback: previously, EBU announced that the show would be relaunched in summer 2007 after 7 years of inactivity. It is now forecast to launch Summer 2008.

Eight countries were thought to be participating and their colours would be: