Banijay files defamation complaint against Bastos

“I entered “The Apprentice Champions” feeling a little destabilized.” Last Sunday, during a session carried out live on his Twitch channel, Bastien Grimal returned to his latest filming in the reality TV show produced by Bprod (Banijay France) for W9. During the spring, the production company recorded a new program in Marbella, Spain, where two teams made up of reality TV candidates had to compete in a series of sports disciplines.

“Before even entering “The apprentice champions” I hear there are a lot of drugs on this set”said Bastos. The 36-year-old former model has had a string of experiences on reality TV shows since appearing in season 10 of “Secret Story” in 2017 on TF1. “Today, for some productions, it is very important to turn a blind eye to drug use at night during filming because without drugs, nothing happens.”

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“To claim that the production company would turn a blind eye to the taking of drugs by candidates on its sets and, even more seriously, that it would be complicit in this is false and mendacious.”

Banijay France

The influencer, who runs a YouTube channel with nearly 150,000 subscribers, goes even further by claiming that members of the production team are complicit in supplying the candidates with drugs. “I really witnessed it”he adds. On the filming of “Les Cinquante” made this summer in Oise, and which he did not attend, Bastos reported “echoes” according to which he was there “full of drugs”. Comments that he reiterated Monday evening on C8 in “Touche pas à mon poste!”.

Contacted on Tuesday morning, Banijay France responded to us in the evening via a press release from the production company Bprod: “For the past 48 hours, Mr. Bastien Grimal, aka “Bastos,” has been making numerous defamatory statements against Bprod and its teams. Claiming that the production company turns a blind eye to candidates taking drugs on its sets and, even more seriously, that it is complicit in this is false and misleading. If such behavior were proven, it would lead to immediate sanctions.”

And to continue: “These statements are all the more unworthy as they discredit all of our teams on a subject that is serious enough that no slip-up will be tolerated. This is why a criminal complaint for public defamation will be filed with the Senior Investigating Judge of the Paris Judicial Court so that Mr. Bastien Grimal be prosecuted and answer for his words before the courts”.