{"id":15498,"date":"2026-08-31T15:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T14:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bothersbar.co.uk\/?p=15498"},"modified":"2026-08-31T22:23:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:23:57","slug":"fort-boyard-2026-mission-accomplished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bothersbar.co.uk\/?p=15498","title":{"rendered":"Fort Boyard 2026 Mission Accomplished"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This year’s series finished at the weekend – so that means Summer’s over – and you can watch them subbed on Youtube<\/a> if you want (well the first seven on the international Replay channel anyway at time of writing, the last two episodes in the next few days presumably) – we have no idea of its official streaming numbers but certainly its overnights are half-a-million to a million up on last year so you would have to assume season 37 is safely coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me the season was a bit of a U shape – lots of excitement at the start, a lull towards the middle as you begin to see through some of the changes, but a strong final couple of episodes where some quite interesting things happen, even if it’s just “they played some games that had been unplayed on the Fort for years” – actually quite a few one-off outings this year, quite frequently of games you’d like to see a bit more often (Telepherisque! Prison Sous-Marine!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyril Feraud turned out to be an excellent host (not that he ever wasn’t going to be with his years of experience, but it was not necessarily a given his style would be a natural fit for this role), and it sounds like as a fan and as someone with long-term experience of the show he was pushing for good changes behind the scenes (he’s listed as “artistic counsel” in the credits). Even if the edit sometimes betrays what’s going on, he was always there to draw attention to a mechanic much more so than previous whilst keeping an element of mischief. The first episode that went out I thought he was a bit too much “7th member of the team” but I felt this a bit less as episodes went on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That middle lull came with a realisation that for all the show likes to say it now has bite and jeopardy, they’ve mainly shuffled the deck a bit but most episodes still end up with a treasure room with six players, three clues and about 2:30 on the clock. The last decade or so basically a celebrity variety show where everyone ends up in the same place, this year wanted to give the impression it’s a gameshow again with drama and jeopardy and rules, but except for one episode everyone escaped the prison (which basically just becomes a way to dodge the adventures), which made it a bit of a pointless exercise – we need more variety of outcomes, taking prisoners and making sacrifices should *hurt* – that is the point. The collective adventures are a fun idea, but the changes made to Metro, originally a top-tier challenge, make it a great deal less entertaining, Using only half of Laboratory feels like a massive waste. If you’re going to pretend there’s a 50-minute clock for finding the keys, you’re going to have to pretend a bit better – no way are you getting 6 games in 23 minutes and barely having time to fit five more in the 27 remaining, although a change to 11 attempts is welcome – I daresay removing half the sketches and *all* the segment introductions that got old after the second showing has really helped, less is indeed more. If Slippery Stairs can’t be won by two fitness Youtubers it’s too hard. Cabinet of Curiosities needs more curiosities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do I want next year? We’ve covered all the obvious ones already, so just some suggestions shooting from the hip:<\/p>\n\n\n\n