“Cyril Hanouna did not believe in my return”

Friday morning, the leaders of RMC Story couldn’t believe their eyes. The day before, the channel relaunched “The Bigdil” with Vincent Lagaf’ more than twenty years after it stopped on TF1. And to everyone’s surprise, the premiere of the game attracted 1.8 million viewers, or 9.1% audience share. With 21.3% PDA among 25-49 year olds, the show is the most viewed entertainment on TNT. While the second number is scheduled for Friday at 9:10 p.m., the host has agreed to return to this success.

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TV MAGAZINE. – Did you watch the premiere of “Bigdil”?
Vincent LAGAF’. – Of course ! I had seen V1, the sound was not mixed, the colors were not calibrated… My partner and I watched the show with pleasure but with a little anxiety.

For what ?
I had a terrible night. Did it work? Did I do the right thing? Won’t the public be disappointed? Did we do the right thing by using the same Bill, the same decor, the same gifts? I asked myself a whole bunch of questions so I didn’t sleep well and fell asleep around 6 o’clock. Then, around 9 a.m., I got up, turned off airplane mode on my phone, drank my coffee and then it started. Patadam patadam, patadam, patadam, lots of messages. Stéphane Sallé de Chou [directeur général du pôle entertainment de RMC Story, RMC Découverte et RMC BFM Play, NDR] called me and said: “Do you know? We made 1.8 million! ».

Which is a very nice score…
I don’t realize it anymore. I’m a little bit old school, so for me, making 1.8 million isn’t huge. However, I remember the exchange I had with Stéphane Salé de Chou the day before the broadcast. I told him: “I would love for this premiere to make at least 1 million”. And he said to me: “Vincent, don’t get carried away, if you make us between 650 and 800,000 I will be very happy”. It’s true that 1.8 million with twenty-eight channels is not the same as 6 million with six channels. Ultimately, I almost want to say that it is better to have made 1.8 million with twenty-eight channels than 6 million with six channels.

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“The little tackle on Fabrice Bailly did me a lot, a lot, a lot of good”

Vincent Lagaf’

What was your feeling when this figure was announced?
I was very, very moved to know that I had given the viewers who have followed me for so many years what they were waiting for. They wanted something simple, honest, unpretentious, just someone who comes along, who messes around, who doesn’t take themselves seriously.

Who called or sent you messages?
Olivier Minne, Guillaume Genton, Patrick Sébastien, Olivier Lejeune, Willy Rovelli, Moundir, Julien Courbet, Guillaume Pley, Alexia Laroche-Joubert, Pierre Billon, Arnaud Ducret, Nicolas de Tavernost, Gérard Louvin, Laurent Fontaine, Jean-Pierre Foucault, Christophe Beaugrand, Jean-François Lancelier, Jean-Luc Reichmann, Cauet, Éric Naulleau… From all sides of the world, there are the popular, the intellectual, the trendy. It lasted all day. It made me really happy to see that all these people had a kind word for me, and for the most part they are people I love very much and who have never given up on me.

Did you celebrate this record?
Not at all, it’s not my type. I do my job then I go to sleep, because the next morning I get up early. I have absolutely essential things, like going for a walk up the hill with my dogs, going paddle boarding, etc. My life is drastically simple I would say to be fit and healthy.

On BFMTV, you wanted to dedicate this success to Fabrice Bailly, antenna director of TF1…
To be very honest, this little tackle did me a lot, a lot, a lot of good. Granted that I didn’t tackle TF1, far be it from me to spit in the soup. But I had an old score to settle with Fabrice Bailly. 17 years ago, he had been below everything in terms of elegance. At the time, I had done “Le Bigdil”, “Le Juste Prix” and “Boom”, I was no longer under contract with TF1. During a lunch at the chain’s restaurant, I proposed to Jean-François Lancelier [directeur des antennes, des programmes et de la production, NDR] and Fabrice Bailly to resume “Le Bigdil”, but in prime time and once in a while. In response, Fabrice Bailly threw me in the face: “It’s an excellent idea, we should still change the host and the name of the show”. Since then, I’ve had it in my throat. How can this guy allow himself to talk to someone who has worked well for TF1? I had a really bad experience with it and I told myself that one day or another, I would have the opportunity to get back in his face. This was the unexpected opportunity.

Do you know to which other channels “Le Bigdil” was offered?
I know that Arthur and Antoine Henriquet proposed it to several channels. M6 said: “No, we’re not interested”. When we were recording “Le Bigdil” at the Cité du cinéma, they were filming “La Roue de la fortune” with Éric Antoine in the studio next to ours. Antoine Henriquet told me that they had a lot of fun when they came into the control room while we were recording.

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“If I hadn’t divided my fee by five, we wouldn’t have made “Le Bigdil””

Vincent Lagaf’

With the return of “Bigdil” and this first audience, you are returning to the forefront. Do you think this will change anything?
It will change that, perhaps, people will listen to me a little more when I say what I want to do. I said several times that I would like to cover “Le Bigdil” but I never called anyone to say: “I need to work, I want to work, take me back!”. Never ! Antoine Henriquet was the most intelligent producer because he respected 100% the way I wanted to cover “Le Bigdil” and he fully kept all his commitments. We speak the same language, he has tattoos, he likes sports cars, he’s young, when he wants to say shit to someone, he says it in their eyes.

What state of mind are you in a few days before the broadcast of the second issue of “Bigdil”?
I no longer have anxiety because I know that, in any case, a premiere has the effect of surprise and, afterwards, the audiences drop a little. But let’s be crazy, let’s imagine that with the noise it made, the word of mouth, people were just as curious. If I manage to match the audience we had for the premiere, I will be the happiest man in the world. I’m going to be ironic. Cyril Hanouna said he didn’t believe in my return, he said we would make 500,000. Well he wasn’t wrong, we made 500,000… but two days later at 7 p.m. on rebroadcast. In the end, we are already at 2.3 million viewers.

Are there plans to film other numbers?
No, for the moment, nothing has been done.

What will you do if other channels contact you?
In “We’re redoing TV” on RTL, I said that it’s not because I’m at the neighbor’s house right now that I won’t return home. I shouldn’t have because it was inappropriate. Today, if TF1 came to pick me up, I think I would have a hard time looking at myself in the mirror if I said yes. What would the public say? What would I pass for? I don’t see myself letting go of the people who allowed me to do what I did. I’m happy at RMC Story, they don’t bother me with the audiences, they don’t bother me with anything. You can’t know what happiness it is to have a channel boss who calls you and says: ” What do you want ? ».

Don’t you regret having negotiated your salary so badly?
If I hadn’t divided my fee by five, we wouldn’t have made the show. It’s not Canal+, it’s not Netflix, RMC doesn’t have the same resources. In addition, you should know that Antoine Henriquet doesn’t earn a fortune, he did it for prestige. Now he will be able to negotiate with RMC for the future. If the chain wants to do it with another company, I will say no. I started with him, I end with him.