After the secret weapons and the cursed totemthe time has come for sacred fire… Koh Lanta returns this Tuesday at 9:10 p.m. on TF1 for a twenty-fourth season which will be turned upside down by a talisman, carved in the volcanic stone of the Caramoan region (Philippines) where the filming took place.
This accessory, supposed to contain “the power of the sacred fire” will offer a considerable advantage to whoever holds it. It will allow him to benefit from immunity or to give it to a teammate or to attend the advice of the opposing team and to shake up the strategies of the opponents.
“We still have it under our feet”
It seems a long time ago when the days passed between games of comfort, immunity tests, knotting of alliances between two mouthfuls of cassava. For several editions, the production has been struggling to place the adventure game under the aegis of new more or less complex rules. “The evolution of the tests is a discussion led by Alexia Laroche-Joubert [la productrice]by Julien Magne [directeur des programmes de la société de production ALP] and teams from TF1, advance Denis Brogniart. We look at everything that is happening from right to left and when I see the overflowing imagination that Julien Magne shows each season when he explains his finds and the ideas of the teams to me, we still have some under our feet. »
Something to thrill some of the faithful of Koh Lanta sometimes disconcerted by the accumulation of turnarounds. Some still shudder remembering episode 9 of the season broadcast in the spring of 2021. Vincent and Laëtitia, who shared a common fate that day as required by the rule of “linked destinies”, were in the hot seat. Luckily, Laëtitia found an immunity necklace ensuring the duo stayed in the game. But that was without counting on Lucie who, just before leaving for the council, flushed out a “secret weapon” allowing her to steal Laëtitia’s necklace for Maxine to enjoy. In the end, Vincent, who received the most votes against him, dragged Laëtita down with him. A scenario worthy of a soap opera…
Disrupt fan contestants
Destabilizing viewers is precisely the goal of production. Or rather: to destabilize the viewers who will join the cast of a next season. “We want candidates who are fans of Koh Lanta live 200% the adventure and that they cannot say to themselves: “We are going to do like what we saw on TV one, two, three or ten years ago.” », explains Julien Magne.
The adventurers of the new season will be served: from the first episode, they will come up against a mythical event and the composition of the teams will not necessarily unfold as they would have anticipated…
On the side of M6 and Beijing Express, the other successful adventure game on French TV, the discourse is similar. “Some candidates are great connoisseurs of the program and revise their classics, to such an extent that they wait for the stages with the red flag or the black flag, advances Stéphane Rotenberg. When they are starting to count the stages, to say to themselves “the non-elimination stage will be the next”, etc. It is important to destabilize them, above all things must not happen as they imagine. »
“The hidden binomial rule disappears this year, but another, somewhat in the same spirit, replaces it. It’s one of the surprises of the season,” announces producer Thierry Guillaume. Among the novelties, there will also be the “infernal roulette”. The host will rotate it to impose challenges on the candidates: hitchhiking in silence, expressing themselves only by singing… Another big change: “the secret choice”. The pair who arrived last no longer decides alone which duo they will face during the “final duel”. All the other teams vote by secret ballot to designate the pair that will also be put on the hot seat.
“The habit of events that disrupt the race”
Thierry Guillaume is convinced that more is needed to lose viewers. “Basically, Beijing Express has many rules. Those who watch us know them. They are used to seeing events disrupt the race, be it a flag, a spinner or a ringing beacon. We can allow ourselves to add things, which resemble what we have been able to do, so it doesn’t destabilize the public too much. »
Is there a limit to the adjustments made to the specifications of a Dutch-Belgian concept launched in 2004? “I am associated with the beneficiary. As long as you respect the fundamental rules, that is to say a race with one euro a day, you can have fun doing what you want, assures the producer. France is the country which has produced the most seasons of Beijing Express and, very often, rules that we invent then go into other foreign adaptations because they worked. “The change of rules is almost on the way to becoming a French specialty.