They showed the second 35th anniversary special of Fort Boyard on France 2 on Thursday night, this is the one with Jean-Pierre Castaldi in it. They begin filming the new series very soon, but there was a bombshell press release on Friday where M6 revealed they’ve poached Olivier Minne who is set to become a new face of the channel from the Autumn. This was apparently top secret and came as a surprise to everybody, although reports are suggesting he’d not been happy at France Televisions for a while. However, whilst they could have put him on gardening leave, basically they haven’t had enough time to find replacements for filming Fort Boyard and his popular daily quiz Tout le Monde a Son Mot a Dire (it’s basically French Alphabetical/Alphabet Game) for the next few months so it looks like he’s going to be allowed a proper send-off for his 23rd series in charge of the Fort.
The question is, assuming it continues next year, who replaces him? Willy Rovelli is properly funny as auxillary host, but perhaps he’s made too good a job at it and it would be weird with him at the helm. Mr France Televisions Entertainment Cyril Feraud is probably the favourite – he already plays a character part time and has had a long association with the Fort as he first started working in TV as a runner there. But he already basically hosts everything already both shiny floor and La Carte aux Tresors so will he have the time? Another potential issue going forward is Yann Le Gac who plays Pere Fouras is getting almost as old as the character he’s portrayed for over 30 years, and it’s weird when someone else plays PF – surely he’ll want to hang up the mask at some point.
This might not be the end of Minne at the Fort as he also hosts the domestic Belgian version.
We may actually get a rest year. With the fort under renovations and now no host. Could we see the return of boyardland to fill the void
Or a localised version of The Crystal Maze?
My money’s is on neither of these things happening – Boyardland is a noted flop, not worth building a set for. If they stop making FB, chances are they don’t start again.