Drama in episode 11 of Koh-Lanta, The legend broadcast Tuesday on TF1. Teheiura was kicked out of the game for cheating. Confronted by Denis Brogniart, he admitted to having asked a fisherman to bring him food. “Even I do not understand how I was able to cross this line, the temptation was too strong”, he declared sheepishly, stressing that, of all the editions in which he participated, this one was ” the hardest physically and mentally ”. “I’m not even looking for excuses. It will weigh on me all my life, ”he added, contrite. Irrevocable sanction, the adventurer could not claim a second chance on the island of the banished but was invited to join the residence of the final jury.
Cedric, his brother-in-law who 20 minutes contacted, defends Teheirua by suggesting to put himself in his place: “Your teammates have been pushing you since the beginning of the adventure to go and get food from the locals. [le candidat est originaire de Polynésie française, où s’est déroulé le tournage]. Despite the hunger, you keep refusing. One day you see a person who happens to have it. What would you have done? You would have taken the food to eat it completely, without sharing it and without saying it. Teheiura is an extremely honest person. He preferred to share it and then acknowledge it to the production team who had no proof. He could thus quite simply have denied and continued the adventure. He preferred to assume in front of millions of people and get out of the game. This to stay in tune with his values. Rarely have I seen such a courageous and honest choice. “
Other adventurers benefited from the food
Teheiura did share with other adventure companions the food – vegetables and fruits, including papayas, according to the information we were able to gather – delivered by the fisherman. The ALP company, which produces Koh Lanta, indicates to 20 minutes that “the interested parties have confirmed it”. The latter were not worried, the production having “estimated and decided that it was necessary to sanction only the one by whom the cheating had been possible, to put an end to it”. And to specify that “it was impossible to say with certainty that other adventurers had not also benefited from it at a given moment”. A “call to order” was made in the wake to warn those who would have been tempted to break the rules again.
It seems that it was partly his lack of discretion that led Teheiura to his downfall in the game. According to our information, some adventurers have openly complained about his refusal to share his food with them. ALP also explains to us that the poles of sound engineers “who pick up distant sounds” have surprised “hidden conversations” between candidates on the reunified camp. The production then conducted its investigation into these “rustles” – to use the term it uses – with the participants but also with the local population passing near the shoot. She concluded that there had been “at least one delivery of food to the camp, in the middle of the night”.
Reached by phone this Tuesday, Teheiura gave his version and details to 20 minutes : “I met the gaze of this person at sea who was looking in my direction. I motioned to him and, some time later, he motioned to me to go and see a place, he showed me a place. I went to see, there was some food. There were also fellow adventurers not far away and I invited them to share this meager meal with me. “
A “collegial” decision
Once the cheating was proven, ALP, including its president Alexia Laroche-Joubert, Denis Brogniart and the chain had to agree on a sanction. “We tried to make the most fair and measured decision”, advances to 20 minutes Rémi Faure, director of flow programs for the TF1 group. Rather than a simple warning, those who took part in the discussion “decided collegially” to exclude the offender, the production tells us.
Teheiura has participated in five seasons of Koh Lanta for ten years. Finalist of Raja Ampat in 2011, he regularly distinguished himself by his ingenuity on the camp and his performances in the tests – he has seventeen individual victories, only Claude did better.
He had logically become one of the leading figures of this show, so loving to exalt heroism and competitiveness. His presence in this season entitled The legend could not be more legitimate. His prank spoils the birthday party. At the risk of damaging the image of the show? “No, no, no”, insists Rémi Faure before making a comparison with the round ball: “After Zidane’s header [à Materazzi] in the 2006 World Cup final, nobody said to themselves “I will no longer watch football, I will no longer follow the France team and I no longer like Zidane”. No one is infallible, Teheiura gave in to temptation, it’s a game-changer. We instantly decided to show it on the screen. “
“We’re talking about papayas. You have to relax ”
During the discussion of the two men face-to-face, Denis Brogniart thus welcomed the fact that Teheiura had known how to make his mea culpa and recalled “the irreproachable character” of his first four participations. The choice of words is not trivial: it is a question of remembering that Koh Lanta is above all a game and that it is useless to overwhelm a candidate who will only have benefited from cheating temporarily.
The production, which answered our questions by email, also rounds off the angles: cheating is described as a “moment of bewilderment”, “a drop of water in an ocean of deprivation”. “All the adventurers of this season say that it is the season when they have known the most hunger and this despite the beautiful catches made,” she also answers. They started the adventure without rice, then rationed themselves, and the only edibles came from the sea. “
“We pushed the difficulty sliders further for this anniversary season,” supports Rémi Faure, once again urging them to take a step back on the subject of Teheiura’s prank: “It is not a matter of state either. We are talking about papayas. You have to relax. “
The sounding board for social networks
Tuesday afternoon, TF1 and ALP sent an email to the media, calling for their “caution” and their “responsibility” as to the “consequences” on the “turns of phrase” and “words used”. “We understand that they click, but your headlines, your hooks, can sometimes play a role that is not trivial in the conflagration of things,” said the email.
Teheiura, him, limited his speaking. Besides his Instagram post, he agreed to respond to 20 minutes and at Parisian–Today in France.
If this affair, although harmless compared to major current affairs topics, has the potential to take on disproportionate proportions, it is because the program is a social phenomenon – and is treated as such in some media. This unfortunate turnaround cannot go unnoticed, and will undoubtedly be more commented on in the coffee machine than Emmanuel Macron’s last speech.
Social networks act as a sounding board for the best but also for the worst. At a quarter past midnight this Wednesday, the hashtags #KohLanta, #Teheiura and #Claude were the most commented on Twitter, with 68,900 and 48,300 and 23,000 mentions, against 157,000 for # Macron29h. This year, some Internet users are particularly vehement towards adventurers. So that TF1 recently cracked a tweet, pinned at the head of its official account, to “recall that the show remains a game and that insults, threats and hateful messages against candidates have no place to be ”. The channel says to 20 minutes be “sensitive to what is happening on social networks in general” and be “vigilant” for Teheiura as for all candidates.
Sometimes “fanciful” leaks
An eye is also kept on leaks concerning the progress of the show. ALP had to take the initiative to stem them. At the end of September, a few weeks after the start of the broadcast of Koh-Lanta, The legend, the president of the judicial court of Paris issued an order prohibiting “any publication which would claim to divulge the contents of the episodes to come”. “Justice ordered the platforms to lift the anonymity of anonymous accounts,” said the production in its press release. Each new publication will be penalized by a large lump sum per violation observed. “
Already, at the time, cheating rumors were starting to spread here and there and, despite the legal decision, some are still disseminated in a more or less confidential manner, especially in Instagram stories. “We noted that there were leaks on social networks. Fortunately, much of it is fanciful, ”says Rémi Faure. “We defend the value of our programs,” he continues. Today’s TV holds, more than before, on the soap operas. Our competitors are the platforms [Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+…]. Who says “soap opera” says the importance of keeping the secret. Teheiura’s misadventure is in itself a perfect twist. To be continued in the next episode.