- After fifteen weeks of competition, TF1 is broadcasting the final of Koh-Lanta this Friday .
- 20 Minutes takes stock of this exceptional season through its casting, its strategies and its twists and turns.
- In addition to the game itself, the context in which the program was broadcast helped make “The Isle of Heroes” one of the most significant seasons in its history.
Each year, Denis Brogniart tells us that the next Koh-Lanta season will be crazier than the previous one. Each year, we tell ourselves that it may be doing a little too much to bait the barge. What idiots were we ... For fifteen weeks, the strategies, the sports exploits and the eliminations of "The island of the heroes" held in suspense more than six million televiewers, reaching record scores since 2014.
As of the first episode broadcast at the end of February, fans of the TF1 game were delighted to find five former candidates, were surprised by personalities like Sam, but above all, jumped off their sofa when Joseph saw his team's fire go out. At the time, we said to ourselves that nothing could be crazier than that. We were wrong.
Casting, the greatest strength of Koh-Lanta
Last year, we ranked "the top 3 of the most significant moments of this completely crazy season", as it was then titled. For the balance sheet of "The Isle of Heroes", we would double (or even triple) the stake. Already on paper, the season promises to be masterful: fourteen new candidates facing five heroes, those who built the legend of the show. To the joy of finding Claude, Jessica, Moussa, Sara and Teheiura was added the excitement of discovering the faces of those we were going to learn to adore or hate.
In this regard, the festivities started with a whirlwind with the mysterious Sam, 20 years old, little talkative but active on the camp, but also on the tests where he will prove almost invincible. In the red tribe, it is Ahmad's strategies that speak, even when he leads to the abandonment of his team during the first immunity test. The entrepreneur is at the origin of the elimination of Teheiura, and that, that will not pass for the aficionados of the show. On the thirteenth day, Sara's medical departure leads to Teheiura's return and takes everyone by surprise. From the unforgettable meeting of ambassadors to the elimination of Charlotte and Teheiura with their two immunity collars, the twists and turns were not lacking.
And then obviously, there is Claude, of whom we could largely make a top 10 of the best moments. Claude at the meeting of ambassadors, Claude who gives his reward to Sam after the archery event, Claude who defeats Moussa in 52 seconds during the obstacle course, Claude who puts Inès face to face with his contradictions of comfort, Claude who eliminates Régis to avenge Jessica and Teheiura, Claude who helps his opponents during the decisive orientation test, Claude who breaks the record for the number of individual victories. And Claude, who wins Koh-Lanta , will it finally be for this year?
When confinement exacerbates passions
Besides the repeated twists and turns, the context in which Koh-Lanta was broadcast this year obviously played a role in the construction of its own legend. The eight weeks of confinement allowed those who had abandoned the program to return to it, the proof in figures: in two months, two million viewers took the adventure along the way. “I hadn't watched Koh-Lanta in years. But the confinement led me to watch the 4th program of this season simply out of curiosity… Then I was completely hooked, ”says Daniel, a 20 Minutes reader .
How can we not talk about the half-episodes, which have raged hundreds of thousands of people across France? Because yes, at the time when the sports competitions were stopped, Koh-Lanta replaced the football matches, and to see an episode ending at 10:30 p.m., it was like an end of match at the 80th minute. The fervor and enthusiasm, which could only be expressed via social networks, also approached an atmosphere of Stade de France on an evening of the final.
If this stratagem was used to organize a live final in the rules of the art (which will be the case, even without audience), the televiewers perceived the half-episodes as a way of spreading the suspense for several weeks . Impatience was born a craze which one could not escape. “Each week, I wondered who Claude or Régis was when I was not on the show at all. But everyone is talking about it, ”says Marie, 29. During the confinement, the French turned massively to their television. Beyond the game, the very broadcast of this Koh-Lanta will be remembered for playing with the nerves of the fans, and even viewers who had nothing to do and who had to undergo the program longer than expected .
"The Marseillais in Fiji"?
As the expression means, we cannot please everyone, and even less in television. This season of Koh-Lanta has therefore left a bitter taste among some fans of the program, who even consider "The island of heroes" as the worst edition of the game. The fault of the cast, precisely, that we rented without measure a few lines before. By choosing personalities also pushed to the extremes (there is a world between Sam and Joseph), the production made the choice to potentially provoke more clashes and strategies.
"It's the worst season ... Before, we saw adventurers and now, lazy people who tan and blow up the strongest," said Tiffany, a 20-minute reader . "This year, it's sad to see most of the bad adventurers on the tests, who do nothing on the camp and eliminate the best", expresses Martine, who agrees with Chloé: "The reality TV has distorted the concept original, took the ascendancy on the adventure and we feel that among the candidates, a package will be found in Les Anges or Les Marseillais . "
But without a strategy, what would Koh-Lanta be ? Without its reversals and its betrayals, "The Isle of Heroes" would not have fascinated viewers as much. Without its eclectic cast, the show would not have revealed as many heroes and antiheroes. In a period of confinement, the game offered the public, each week, two hours of catharsis and, dare we say it, of communion, like no other TV show can do today. Strongly the next season ...
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- Television
- TF1
- Denis brogniart
- Confinement
- Koh Lanta