Fort Boyard (game show)

Fort Boyard
French logo of Fort Boyard from 2015 to 2018
Also known as	Les Clés de Fort Boyard
Genre	Game show
Created by	Jacques Antoine Jean-Pierre Mitrecey Pierre Launay
Presented by	France Patrice Laffont (1990–1999) Jean-Pierre Castaldi (2000–2002) Olivier Minne (2003–present) United Kingdom Melinda Messenger (1998–2001) Jodie Penfold (2003)
Starring	France Cendrine Dominguez (1993-2002) United Kingdom Leslie Grantham (1998–2001) Christopher Ellison (2003) Geoffrey Bayldon (1998–2001) Tom Baker (2003)
Theme music composer	Paul Koulak
Country of origin	France
No. of series	173 (in total, all countries to date) 30 (French version) 5 (English version)
No. of episodes	1,856 (overall total, all countries to date) 338 (French version, at the end of 2019 season) 78 (English version)
Production
Production locations	Fort Boyard, France
Running time	UK: 60 mins (inc. adverts) France: 130 mins (2015–), 60–120 mins (1990–2010), 100 mins (2011–13), 110 mins (2014)
Production companies	Adventure Line Productions United Kingdom Grundy Productions (1998–2001) Thames (2001) Ronin TV (2003)
Original release
Network	France 2[a]
Release	7 July 1990 (1990-07-07) – present
Related
The Crystal Maze The Desert Forges Fort Boyard: Takes On The World Fort Boyard: Ultimate Challenge Boyard Land [fr]
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Fort Boyard is a French game show created by Jacques Antoine that was first broadcast on 7 July 1990 (originally as Les Clés de Fort Boyard, however shortened to Fort Boyard from the second series in 1991). Many foreign versions of the show, totalling over 1,800 episodes, have aired around the world since 1990.

Set and filmed on the real fortress of the same name on the west coast of France, the programme appears similar to British game show The Crystal Maze which was created as an alternative format by Antoine for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, after the fortress was unavailable to film in because of its then ongoing refurbishment (during 1989). In both programmes the contestants have to complete challenges to win prize money. However, while The Crystal Maze varies the type of games quite considerably, Fort Boyard tends to focus mainly on physical and endurance challenges. Although Fort Boyard was something of a pioneer in the area of game show fear and adventure, later programmes such as Fear Factor have pushed things even further, requiring Fort Boyard to react and adapt with new twists and games, including a couple of seasons in which the contestants spent the night in the Fort (this was particularly popular in the French and Russian versions).

Fort Boyard is the most exported French TV format and the fourth most exported adventure-style game show format in the world after Wipeout, Fear Factor and Survivor. In 2019, a spin-off called Boyard Land [fr] was launched.
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