how super typhoon Mawar disrupted pole shooting

KOH LANTA – A super typhoon among the finalists. The final episode, broadcast this Tuesday June 4 at 9:10 p.m. on TF1, of the adventure show called this year “ The immunity hunters » is unlike any other in the previous 24 seasons. And for good reason, during the filming of Koh Lanta In the spring of 2023, super typhoon Mawar, formed in the open sea, once threatened the coasts of the Philippines, with winds blowing at more than 250 km/h.

Behind the scenes, this unusual situation gave the teams responsible for producing the show a hard time. After weeks of competition punctuated by unexpected alliances, the three finalists Julie, Meïssa and Léa faced off in a final event like no other. Because of the wind and swell at sea, the legendary poles were relocated to a river sheltered from bad weather.

Julien Magne, general manager of Adventure Line Productions and producer of Koh Lantaagreed to answer our questions and reveals to us the logistical and human challenges they overcame.

HuffPost : How did you learn of the arrival of super typhoon Mawar during filming?

Julien Magne: The Koh-Lanta teams are always in anticipation. We have a person responsible for security, including weather forecasts. So when the typhoon appeared on radar, we focused our attention on it. We studied the forecast and its potential trajectory. If a typhoon of this intensity hits land, it destroys everything.

When we realized that he was heading towards the filming location, we turned to our specialists and our maritime manager. We concluded that we would necessarily be impacted but that we would still be able to operate provided we adapt to the wind, rain and swell.

How did you manage to organize the remaining events while ensuring the safety of the adventurers?

There was no way the posts would run in the same place. We therefore chose to move the adventurers to another beach, just as deserted, but much less exposed to the swell that would be formed by the arrival of the typhoon.

“The adventurers sheltered in a school”

We had an initial site that we were forced to change. We opted for another place that we had already spotted and which was much easier to access than the first. The swell was so strong that the waves hit the cliffs and ricocheted back off the poles. These are the images that we filmed at the end of the orientation test and at the start of the pole test [diffusées en toute fin de l’émission du 28 mai, ndlr].

In line with the local authorities and for obvious security reasons, at the end of the orientation, the adventurers were installed in a school on dry land, sheltered from the forecast bad weather. It was essential for us that they were safe.

Have you ever faced a similar situation?

We already had the same pattern in 2006 during Koh-Lanta: Vanuatu. A cyclone had hit the Pacific, and the filming area was impacted by wind, rain and swell. At the time, the candidates were still a team, their camp had been submerged by water. We had to shelter them in buildings on the mainland while waiting for the tail of the cyclone to pass.

Even though it’s an adventure show, we do everything we can to ensure the safety of adventurers. Throughout the filming, the key word is anticipation. This is what allowed us not to film a program with mock tests and discounted posts for this final.

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