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France is the latest country to air a TV competition to determine its greatest citizen and this week's announcement of the top 100 has riled many.
As in other incarnations of the program, which originated in 2002 as the BBC series Great Britons, popular culture and contemporary figures dominated the list.

French soccer player Zinedine Zidane ranked higher on the list than writer Emile Zola, architect Gustave Eiffel, painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and even French President Jacques Chirac. (AP Photo)
"Dial one for Zizou, two for Zola" read a headline in Le Figaro, which questioned how soccer player Zinedine (Zizou) Zidane (21) could place higher than the 19th century novelist (26).
"What the hell were they thinking?" asked Le Parisien, noting that film director Luc Besson (91) beat writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (96).
Other prominent figures on the list included playwright Marcel Pagnol (11), architect Gustave Eiffel (25), chansonnier Charles Aznavour (29), Joan of Arc (31), bombshell actress Brigitte Bardot (66), French President Jacques Chirac (42), The "Sun King" Louis XIV (50) and impressionist master Pierre-Auguste Renoir (77).
Academics were also aghast that Napoleon Bonaparte (16) – who aside from his military conquests is credited with reforming France's civil law, education, tax, banking, road and sewer systems – failed to crack the top 10.
Producers of the series, which airs on the state-owned channel France 2, revealed the list of 100 on Monday. The top 10 candidates will compete for the title of The Greatest French Person of All Time:

Military and political leader Charles de Gaulle
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Marie Curie
Chemist and microbiology pioneer Louis Pasteur
Comedian Coluche
Prolific comic actor and singer Bourvil
Poet and novelist Victor Hugo
17th century playwright Molière
Singer Edith Piaf
Undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau
Jesuit priest Abbé Pierre, a poverty activist who also helped Jews escape from the Nazis (and, at age 92, the list's only living candidate).
Though de Gaulle, Piaf and Hugo are seen as predictable favourites, the selection of Coluche and Bourvil baffled many, as the two were popular in their day but not typically even considered among the country's greatest comedians or widely known outside of France.
As in other incarnations around the world, the French series will enlist "celebrity" figures to champion each of the 10 candidates in half-hour instalments. Viewers can then vote for the winner via telephone, text messaging or the internet. The winner will be revealed during a live broadcast