His references? The board games “Cluedo” and “Who is it?”. His universes? Those of followers of “the show off” such as Arsène Lupine and Fantômas. A week after “10/10, how much do you spend?”, TF1 is preparing to begin broadcasting another creation on its channel, “The Master of the Game”. A “Guessing Game”. ” which required two years of development. Puremédias attended TF1, this Wednesday October 2, 2024, at the press conference presenting this Fremantle production, presented by Laurent Ruquier. Here’s what you need to remember.
“The Master of the Game”: Broadcast date
TF1 will kick off its new entertainment on October 11, 2024 at 9:10 p.m. Two episodes will be offered every Friday. Three evenings have been announced on October 11, 18 and 25, 2024.
READ ALSO: “If she hadn’t joined France Bleu…”: Laurent Ruquier reveals that he wanted to recruit Valérie Damidot in “Grosses têtes” after filming “Maître du jeux” on TF1
“The master of the game”: The main rules of the game
In this new TF1 show, 12 celebrities are welcomed by Laurent Ruquier at the Château du Groussay. More intriguingly, they all don’t know who invited them. Guided by clues won during tests, they will set about investigating to unmask – not the masked singer of “Mask Singer” – but the host of the place, who calls himself “The master of the game”, and whose name is before their eyes among 100 faces. All celebrities, not quite. Among the 12 candidates, “The master of the game” has designated an accomplice, responsible for protecting his identity at all costs. Even if it means sabotaging the tests allowing players to glean clues or leading them on a false trail.
Informed very quickly of this intrusion, the candidates will therefore evolve between two intrigues: the search for the identity of the “master of the game” and that of the saboteur whose name will be revealed in the first episode to viewers. Couldn’t the secret have been kept longer? “For the viewer, our main narrative arc is the investigation into the master of the game, the association between the clues and the 100 faces (accessible from this Friday October 11 at 9 p.m. on TF1+, editor’s note) it is not the double investigation“, replied to Puremédias Julien Degroote, director of development and creation of the TF1 group. “By bringing back earlier the revelation of the accomplice, whose primary qualities are to lie but with panache, the viewer will have the opportunity to see him develop his stratagems to distract others from the truth“.
After having shared their thoughts in turn, the 11 investigators will try this evening to unmask the “corrupt detective” during another sequence, the suspicion ceremony. Each candidate must then take turns indicating which candidate they have the most confidence in. The last link in this “chain of trust” will be eliminated. If an “innocent” candidate is accidentally chosen, the accomplice will then use his power to eliminate the investigator of his choice. A double punishment! In exchange for this sacrifice, the remaining candidates will have access to a clue allowing them to eliminate up to 25 faces in the “room of 100 faces”. Please note that if the accomplice ends up being eliminated, he will be replaced.
“The master of the game”: The cast
12 celebrities therefore accepted the invitation from the master of the game. Viewers will carry out the investigation with the couple formed by the actor Arnaud Ducret and the dancer Claire Francisci-Ducret. Another dancer, Elsa Bois completes the cast with the animators Cartman and Valérie Damidot and the comedian Kody Kim, the “Big Heads” Max Boublil, Jeanfi Janssens and Chantal Ladesou, and the actors Frédéric Diefenthal, Sara Mortensen and Francis Perrin. “We said to ourselves that we were going to take people who played police officers, investigators. When you have played the role of prosecutor or police officer for ten years, you can pick up reflexes, a methodology“, a explicit Julien Degroote. “In the eyes of the public, they have credibility“, echoed Déborah Huet, director of programs at Fremantle.
“The master of the game”: The role of Laurent Ruquier
The winner of season 3 of the game “The Traitors” on M6 has left his red cape – the master of the game wears a black one – and returns to his role as host. “I’m happy when I’m asked to do my job as an animator. Animating games, I do that every day on RTL. The questions I ask are also riddles. And somewhere, these are investigations, certainly three minutes long, that the ‘Big Heads’ must solve every afternoon. In that regard, I was in my element“, assured the host. And to specify his missions: “I embody the show, I am the master of ceremonies. I am there to support them, provide elements of the investigation, comment, have fun with the bad leads they take“.
Laurent Ruquier imposed a condition on TF1 to present the program. “I had already shot ‘The Traitors’! If at M6, I was not a presenter and therefore had no special account to give, my first reaction was to say to TF1, ‘listen, I was a candidate in ‘Les traîtres’, at least out of loyalty, if I can say, I just want you to guarantee me that ‘The Master of the Game’ will be broadcast after ‘The Traitors’. That would have been inappropriate of me and, for that matter, I would not have agreed to host the show. That wouldn’t have been very fair play on my part. Right away, I was guaranteed it and TF1 kept its promise.”.
“The master of the game”: Where was this closed session filmed?
During the six days of filming, the candidates took up residence at the Château de Groussay in Montfort-l’Amaury, in Yvelines. The area on which it is located includes an Italian-style theater, an obelisk in the park and a Dutch room. Redecorated for the needs of the show, the castle belongs to “a wealthy family who does not wish their name to be revealed“. It was also for a time owned by the former television producer Jean-Louis Remilleux, president from 2001 to 2004 of the former Match TV channel.
“The master of the game”: “The wall of 100 faces is iconic in our format”
The TF1 and Fremantle teams recognize this themselves. “On the set, it was sometimes complicated, we searched a lot. We rewrote, changed elements at the last minute at night for the next morning“, told the representatives of TF1 and Fremantle at a press conference. As an aside, Déborah Huet clarified on October 3 to Puremédias that “as ‘The Game Master’ is a creation, we have no reference program. Often, in the evening, with the director, the production teams and the editors-in-chief, we met to change the next day’s duty sheets, make adjustments to the proofs (for example with the addition of a stopwatch, which had not been envisaged at the start, editor’s note) which we could not repeat the week before because of the weather and adapt to the progress of the investigation candidates”.
The producer and her teams notably changed their approach for the filming of the meeting between the investigator who inspired the most confidence and the master of the game.Basically, it was supposed to be filmed in a room in the castle with a sort of sulking chair (double seat, cut by a backrest arranged in such a way that the people sitting there turn their backs to each other, editor’s note). On the eve of filming, we realized that we could not film this sequence well and we decided to organize this face-to-face meeting in the theater. So we dismantled the light from the original room, installed the lamp in the middle of the theater but it didn’t work. We worked like this, and this sequence is super important in our format. This is the only time when there is one of the detectives who can meet him and have vital information to eliminate up to 25 faces from the wall of 100“.
This wall made up of 100 faces is “iconic in our format“, insisted Déborah Huet. “This ‘Who is it?’ giant of 10 meters by 7 meters is “one of the finest finds in our format. It has another merit, which is that you can adapt it anywhere abroad“It’s time.”the most innovative“of the program according to Laurent Ruquier.”For me, this is the climax of the show. It’s different from what we’ve seen so far and that’s where the viewer will feel the most concerned. We know that the person who invited us to the domain is among these 100“. As for the “suspicion ceremony”, the other structuring sequence of the game, “it’s perhaps the only moment that resembles other shows (“The Traitors”, editor’s note), it’s a tiny part of this show“, recognized the host. Julien Degroot cut it short: “‘Loups garous’ (on Canal+) and ‘Les traitres’ (on M6) are quite close, with this logic of loyalists or villagers facing traitors or werewolves! We are in our own lane, we are on another proposal, an Agatha Christie-style investigation with a lot of humor“.
Also read: Who is behind “The Master of the Game” on TF1? The list of all the clues and our predictions on his identity
“The master of the game”: “The last 5 minutes of the show have not yet been filmed”
To keep the identity of the game master secret for as long as possible, the production decided to postpone the filming of the reveal as long as possible.
“The last five minutes of the last episode, which correspond to the moment of the reveal, have not yet been filmed. We wanted to film as close as possible to the broadcast“, revealed the head of TF1. “If we had shot this sequence in June, as there were a lot of us, the information could have gotten out. If I read the last page of a novel before reading the beginning, I lose all the fun.” “We will be in a micro-team for this reveal, we will not be 80 or 100 like in June“, underlined, for her part, Déborah Huet.
“In fact, we’ve shot several versions so far. They found the master of the game or they didn’t find him. They don’t know if they have it or they don’t, even me for that matter. I still have a doubt“, specified Laurent Ruquier. “There are 8 of us who know exactly who is the master of the game, even Ara Aprikian doesn’t know!“, says Julien Degroot. Let the investigation begin!
