Denis Brogniart on the set of “District Z” -
© ALAIN ISSOC / SATISFACTION, THE TELEVISION AGENCY / TF1
TF1 is launching
District Z
this Friday, a show in which celebrities fight zombies in order to raise money for associations.
Denis Brogniart embodies this new program and stands out more as the essential face of the chain's adventure games.
"We enter the homes of millions of people thanks to television, it is not negligible and it has a real impact," he told
20 Minutes
.
After weeks spent on a paradise island, a change of mood for Denis Brogniart.
From this Friday, the host will be in charge of
District Z
, the new adventure game from TF1.
The sandy beaches are a distant memory for him, who finds himself parachuted into a forbidden zone populated by zombies and other extraordinary creatures.
Chosen to embody this new ambitious bet, Denis Brogniart is more than ever an indispensable face of the chain.
For
20 Minutes
, the one who now has twenty years of home in the chain says more about
District Z
and confides in his status as an indestructible host.
After fifteen weeks of
Koh Lanta
, you do not leave the box since Friday night you land in
District Z
.
What will your role be on this show?
I would be the facilitator, the guarantor of the rules and the link between Professor Z and the five personalities to whom he opens the doors of his district to allow them to compete in the events.
I am also the accomplice of the personalities because my wish is for them to perform as well as possible and to win as much money as possible for the association they defend.
I have a role of proximity a little stronger than on
Koh-Lanta
.
I have to be less impartial because the personalities do not play against each other, they are the same team.
There is also more mood, we had a lot of fun challenging them, watching them be afraid, seeing that they were able to transcend their fears.
As Arthur said, I had never been seen in this role.
On
Koh-Lanta
, I have this essential distance to remain impartial.
This is not my role at all, but I still have this kind of Mr. Loyal cap.
Was it Arthur who came to see you to embody the program?
It's Arthur and TF1.
I think the producer and the channel agreed to give me the presentation.
It was a great honor for me to work with Arthur, whom I only knew as a host and colleague at TF1.
He turned out to be a very considerate and precise producer.
I was especially very happy and flattered that I could be thought of for a French blockbuster.
I insist on this: many programs are taken from foreign programs, and here it is completely the opposite, it is a French program that Arthur will perhaps sell abroad.
How does the show differ from
Fort Boyard
, where we also see celebrities surpass themselves in events?
The events have absolutely nothing to do, we are in a very big spectacle, in events of great dimension.
Obviously, there are celebrities but the universe with zombies and strange creatures, the atmosphere and the hallucinatory settings give a grandiose aspect.
There are personalities who play to earn as much money as possible for an association, it is a common point.
You have so many projects that you had to give up
Automoto
this year.
Is it the first time that you have to give up shows to devote yourself to others?
I think I had been around
Automoto
and it was taking too much time for me compared to all my other projects.
You also have to be able to renew yourself and I think it was time for me to move on.
I'm doing an audio podcast on life's adventurers, I've finished writing a novel.
After eight years, I thought it was good to hand over.
Anyway, I didn't really have a choice to be able to endorse the presentation of
Ninja Warrior
,
Koh-Lanta
once or twice a year,
District Z
and major sports events.
The last year, I was doing
Automoto
but my replacement had been doing more weeks than me, it didn't make sense anymore.
I think that in professional life, you have to know how to turn pages from time to time.
It was a very beautiful page, it nourished and built me a lot.
A Friday evening without Denis Brogniart, is it possible?
Aren't you afraid that viewers will tire of seeing you?
I do not ask myself that question, I am flattered by the confidence of the channel and of the producers who offer me concepts.
Above all, I believe that viewers are aware that I have a cap on TF1, that of games with a sporting connotation with surpassing oneself.
That's what's good about TF1, we each have their own world.
Mine is well defined and I'm lucky to have several programs, but I don't think you have to think in terms of weariness.
Obviously, for
Koh-Lanta
, it's been 20 years so people are starting to know me, but I didn't feel that way and I don't see it on social networks or with the people I meet.
Do you feel like you have passed a milestone in the recognition of the public that follows you like never before on social networks?
I always had the impression of having a closeness with the viewers.
I am very happy to be quite unifying and to be the head of the most powerful program on television,
Koh-Lanta
, for so many years.
This is what makes me a little bit back in people's homes.
And then, I think that one recognizes me a form of authenticity, of naturalness in my life and of not having become someone else with the notoriety.
Work is an important part of life and when you are lucky enough to have an exciting job, you inevitably have a more pleasant life than those who have a boring job.
I try to pass on some of this passion and this luck that is mine to people.
And social networks are an incredible facilitator to convey this message.
That's why I think people like me.
They see that I am not cheating and that what I show is who I am.
The leitmotif of my life is to always be amazed.
This is what I impose on the people who work with me.
We always say that it is a fleeting profession, that it is a complicated profession.
Of course it's complicated, but like a lot of professions.
If you look at TF1, there is a fairly impressive loyalty, a recurrence with viewers which gives us proximity.
We enter the homes of millions of people thanks to television, which is not negligible and it has a real impact.
Overall, people are nice to me, whether in Papeete or at my baker's, in the street or at the traffic lights when I'm on a motorcycle.
It feels good because I have the impression that there is a real sharing with the viewers.
You return from French Polynesia where you filmed the next season of
Koh-Lanta
.
How did it go ?
It was a complicated shoot insofar as we absolutely had to avoid the Covid.
We are the only ones in the world to have shot
Koh-Lanta
this year.
The Americans preferred to abstain and postpone their filming.
We took this risk by creating a real health bubble around the production team, whether the French or the Polynesians.
We lived on a boat where we were really far from everyone, we each arrived with five or six tests against the Covid in a fortnight to our credit, all negative.
Strictly, keeping the masks on and not being around anyone else nearby, we ended the shoot with zero positive cases.
As there was a real rigor on the part of the technical team, we managed to pass between the drops and so much the better, because we have a very good
Koh-Lanta
season in the club
.
The show will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year.
Should we expect a particular event?
The birthday will not be in this
Koh-Lanta
filmed in Polynesia but in the one after.
We're going to celebrate 20 years.
With whom and why, I can't tell you.
Even if I knew it, I wouldn't tell you about it but we are in the process of thinking about it.
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