"Fort Boyard": 35 things you might not know about the cult show, which is celebrating its anniversary

Like a candidate arriving at the lookout, do you think you know everything there is to know about "Fort Boyard," the cult adventure game that celebrates its 35th anniversary in an anniversary show broadcast Thursday, May 1st on France 2? Franceinfo has unearthed 35 anecdotes about the show that you might not know, hidden in the nooks and crannies of the Fort.

1. "Les Clés de Fort Boyard" as the first name. The very first show of the first season was broadcast on July 7, 1990. At the time, the hosts were Patrice Laffont and Marie Talon, and Passe-Partout was in charge of ringing the gong. The candidates, for their part, were complete unknowns.

2. A rugby player as the first star . The first celebrity to participate in the show was rugby player Didier Camberabero, a key player for the French national team in the early 1990s. Surrounded by friends, he won the tidy sum of 170,000 francs (26,000 euros). During the first seasons of the show, the winnings were not donated to an association, but ended up in the candidates' pockets.

3. A myriad of events . Although the Fort only has 66 rooms, it has hosted hundreds of different events – in 2020, France Télévisions counted 650. Some have been relegated to the fort's obscurity when the times changed, but others remain a firm fixture on the program almost every year. The tarantula event was introduced in 1991.

4. And the toughest test is... the cylinder test, removed in 2018, officially to renew the catalog, and perhaps also to stop sexist shots of candidates from below . Only 14% of the candidates who tried it succeeded, which makes it one of the most difficult in the game. Among the classics, Excalibur has a 40% success rate, and the formidable zip line is child's play, with an 88% success rate.

5. More than 700 riddles. Whether in his lookout or in his lair, Father Fouras posed 755 riddles to the various candidates who came to confront the Fort. And he put their brains to the test. The success rate for obtaining a clue is 45%, according to a fan site , which is slightly higher than for riddles rewarded with keys (40%, according to the same site ).

6. On the roof of the Fort. The record for the biggest win on a show goes to the Yamakasi athletics team . They collected 37,118 euros in 2001. In 378th and last place in the ranking, the team led by host Tex only pocketed 700 euros the following year. For comparison, "the average win on the show is around 14,000/15,000 euros," estimated the show's artistic producer in 2023, interviewed by Télé Loisirs .

7. We're at a loss. Every foreign producer obviously has to adapt the game to their own country. For the ultimate challenge in the treasure room, this sometimes requires modifying the giant alphabet that makes up the floor. Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, Georgian... Enough to make the heads of Felindra's tigers spin.

8. The tigers have retired . Since 2022, the felines have no longer been kept in cages in the Treasury Room due to controversies over animal abuse. Tosca and Kashmir have therefore retired to the home of their breeder and trainer, Thierry Le Portier, in Vendée. These were tigresses, not tigers, because males have the unfortunate tendency to urinate wherever they go.

9. Father Fouras has other hidden talents. Yann Le Gac, the main actor playing Father Fouras, doesn't just pose the puzzles in "Fort Boyard." He also helped design the challenges for the TF1 show "Koh-Lanta." The man behind the orienteering race that qualifies you for the final? He's the one.

10. Le Père Fouras, an international star . Named after the coastal town opposite the Fort, the century-old madré has changed its name internationally. It is known as Viscount Godefroid de Tribouriau in Belgium, Cheikh El Khouchkhach in Algeria, Le Magi in Greece, The Professor in the United Kingdom, Admiralis in Hungary and Skriaga Fouras in Russia, one of the few countries to have retained the reference to the locality. Along with Sweden, where a particularly badass Madame Fouras officiated, whose costume is reminiscent of Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.

11. The craziest Father Fouras is found in the short-lived Korean version, broadcast in 2003: Napoléon Kim. A reminder that the French emperor was behind the creation of the Fort (which he would never see completed during his lifetime).

12. Félindra didn't just shine in the tiger cage at Fort Lauderdale . Monique Angeon, her real name, also worked on the set of the Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator , and she wasn't short on scenes with felines. An internationally renowned tamer, she also took part in the filming of other films, such as Life of Pi .

13. Félindra also found love on the Fort. "I met my husband during a recording in 1997. He was competing for a Norwegian team, it was love at first sight!" she confided to Télé2Semaines magazine in 2013. However, we have no information on Father Fouras's romances in 35 years of broadcasting.

14. Mute but omnipresent. There's a simple reason why Passe-Muraille or Passe-Partout (and Passe-Temps, until 2009) don't speak during the shows: it allows the characters to participate in the various foreign adaptations, such as the Israeli version .

15. Passe-Partout was able to give voice to release an album in 2005, under the pseudonym of Dédé le rockcoeu". In this opus, André Bouchet, his real name, who is also an RATP agent in real life, made his mark on the internet with his song Fort Boyard.

16. A problem of size. When the character of Mauvaise-Passe arrived in 2023, the president of the Association of Short People , Violette Viannay, regretted that "short actors" were "relegated to roles as extras and confined to their physical appearance" . The various characters of the show then reacted by defending their place in the program. "If these do-gooders have succeeded in getting the tigers fired, they risk having the skin of the dwarves" , worried Anthony Laborde, alias Passe-Muraille, in Sud Ouest .

17. The Masters of Time, masters of change. You thought the formula was as good as clockwork since their arrival on the show in 1995. Think again: their segment on the show has undergone no fewer than 16 changes, and they have successively been called Master of Games (from 1995 to 2000), Masters of Time (from 2001 to 2002), Masters of Darkness (from 2003 to 2009), and simply Masters in 2010, before the return of the Masters of Time in 2016, according to the website Fan-FortBoyard.fr .

18. The Bodin's, forever the first. In 2018, the famous comedy duo was invited to the Fort, but in a rather unusual way: it wasn't Vincent Dubois and Jean-Christian Fraiscinet who competed as candidates, but Maria and Christian Bodin who appeared in a round. To date, they are the only characters seen in the game who weren't created specifically for the show. Other well-known faces from the small screen, however, have already played a character, from Francis Lalanne to Cyril Féraud and Vincent Lagaf.

19. Patrice Laffont, the oldest member of the Fort. The long-time host of the show's heroic days became the oldest participant, at the age of 84, in a posthumous broadcast a few days after his death in the summer of 2024. On the women's side, former Petit Journal reporter Lucienne Moreau has held the title since participating in the game in 2014, at the age of 81.

20. Olivier Minne, doubly unique. The current host of the show is the only one of all those who have succeeded him not to have participated in the show as a candidate. The Brussels native is also the only presenter to have hosted the game for two different countries: France, of course (for a record number of 232 shows), but also Belgium, since 2024.

21. The personality who holds the record for participation in the show is none other than former Miss France Elodie Gossuin. The host has already appeared on twelve shows since 2001. On the men's side, it is host Bruno Guillon who holds the prize, with eleven participations.

22. Miss France also dominates the ranking. Sylvie Tellier (Miss France 2002) has appeared ten times, Camille Cerf (Miss France 2015) eight times, and Alexandra Rosenfeld (Miss France 2006) seven times. "We are not obliged to participate in the show; it is not part of our contract, but all the Miss France contestants do so," Indira Ampiot , Miss France 2023, explained to Le Figaro .

23. EnjoyPhoenix ended up in tears when faced with heights. During two participations in 2016 and 2017, the YouTuber was invited to confront her fear of heights, notably in the angel dive test. Unable to throw herself into the void, she returned to this sequence in one of her videos , a few years later, attacking the production, accused of trying to gain ratings by playing on her fears. The latter actually sends a questionnaire to candidates to find out their aptitudes, their medical restrictions or the tests they dream of doing, but "contrary to legend, we don't ask them about their phobias, we ask them what fear they would like to overcome" , Guillaume Ramain, artistic producer, assured 20 minutes .

24. Overcome by small creatures. Teddy Riner also feels he was betrayed by the production regarding his phobia of snakes. "I'll never be a candidate again. Finished!" the judoka fumed in the columns of L'Equipe magazine . "Before the tests, I warned them that I didn't want any snakes or spiders. I'm scared. They couldn't think of anything better than to lock me up with a big yellow snake." A version disputed by the production.

25. "Fort Boyard" on global television. The game was filmed for some thirty foreign television stations around the world and broadcast in 70 countries. Two versions remain cult: the Italian one, for which a pilot was filmed in 1992, but never broadcast, and the American version, from 1991, again limited to a single episode, which showed the game's presenter arriving by helicopter at the Fort.

26. Sweden, fan number 1. Fångarna på fortet (which means "The Prisoners of the Fort" in the original version) had no fewer than twenty seasons, between 1990 and 2023, before stopping.

27. Test testers. Before recording the shows, the new tests must be validated. Therefore, the production team generally selects amateur athletes to conduct the initial tests in Paris. Then, extras are invited to come and test the new features at the Fort, Guillaume Ramain explains to Télé-Loisirs .

28. The world's coolest prison. The contestants sent to prison during the show for failing a test aren't actually languishing behind bars. The production actually invites them to spend time in the Fort's cafeteria or on the terrace until they're released, Le Figaro reveals .

29. No insect has ever bitten anyone ... even if the tests involving small creatures always remain impressive. Poor actress Laëtitia Millot, who had a panic attack during the telephone booth test in 2023, would not disagree. "It was a very traumatic moment for me," she summarized to Télé 7 Jours .

30. Occupational hazards. Contestants don't always emerge from the Fort unscathed. In 2010, Swedish model Marcus Schenkenberg fell four meters into the void when the safety rope snapped. He escaped with bruises and grazes. Host Laurent Petitguillaume suffered a minor collapse in 2014 during an underwater challenge. More seriously, in 2019, "Questions pour un champion" host Samuel Etienne landed badly during a fall. The result: three fractured ribs.

31. Only two candidates have been locked in the treasure room, whose gate closes after a short time to collect as many boyars as possible. A French competitor in 1990... and an unfortunate Russian competitor, who tried to throw coins through the gate, in 2006. The rules are clear: this disqualifies his entire team, who left the Fort with empty pockets. "You lost! Victory was within reach," the presenter chides.

32. Politicians who are fans of the show. Forget "L'Evénement," "Les 4 V" or "Dimanche en politique," ministers are falling over themselves to go and touch the tarantula or climb the zip line in Charente-Maritime. Cécile Duflot found the time to participate in the show after leaving François Hollande's government, an invitation that was made during an exchange with Father Fourason Twitter . Gabriel Attal, who claims to be a fan of the show, finally declined "after much hesitation," he confided to Nouvel Obs . Former Secretary of State Marlène Schiappa was also courted by the production. Her children pushed her to go, but her office dissuaded her, she recounted on Jordan de Luxe's ​​show on C8 .

33. Do you know the rap version of the theme song? Saved from oblivion by the website Bide & Musique , it even served as the final theme song during the 1999 season, before being released on a CD entitled La Musique de toutes les aventures .

34. A "very political" African version. The African version of "Fort Boyard," launched in 2019, brought together candidates from twelve nationalities. "This show is also a political message," producer Driss Bennani told Le Parisien . "Between African countries, we build business relationships, political relationships, but we lack a common culture." For this adaptation, the production team took care to adapt certain aspects of the game, removing the ski cell test and also the prison stints. "Prisons aren't really a subject of entertainment for them," a member of the team explained to the daily.

35. The whim of 2Be3. In the book The Secrets of Fort Boyard , Cendrine Dominguez recounts how she rescued an angry Filip Nikolic after the boy band team failed in the final round. "The real rule is that stars like us can't lose, it's our image that's at stake. We came to be showcased," argues the group's leader. The game's co-host eventually convinced him not to shoot a fake sequence instead: "He understood that we wouldn't make an exception for him."