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This article considers changes in the way that political talk is presented on French television, with a particular focus on the 1990s. The authors posit that these changes cannot be grasped without an examination of all forms of talk show, from debates on social issues to entertainment. This hypothesis is supported by the upsurge of hybrid programmes that include politicians in polylogal devices, subjecting them to the same strategies of systematic derision as personalities from the world of show-business. The authors point out that the symbolic cost of these programmes is not risk-free, since it results in a definitive renunciation of the 'transcendence'? of political talk. They conclude by defending a semio-discursive analytical approach which, in their opinion, has more than purely descriptive relevance.