Barely started, season 5 of “The Island” turned into a nightmare for Patrick Puydebat. The 53-year-old actor needed this adventure to prove things to himself and forget the last few difficult weeks. But his motivation was shaken from the first episode by an unfortunate twist of fate. A fate which also befell Carine Galli, victim of a triple ankle fracture before even being able to set foot on the “penal colony”, the name of this new season. For the interpreter of Nicolas in “The Mysteries of Love”, it was a stingray bite on his foot that precipitated his abandonment. “I felt like a stab”he explains to the camera, suffering martyrdom while lying on the beach of the Thai island of Ko Tarutao. Urgently called by the eight other castaways, the medical team could only observe the damage and evacuated the candidate by boat to the hospital.
3 months of care
Obviously bitter after this mishap, Patrick Puydebat was nevertheless aware of having escaped the worst as the pain was at its maximum. “A bite like that is a breeding ground for germs, it could end in amputation. They had to open it, I ended up with a hole in my foot for three months. It's a real scumbag.” he indicated, now recovered, to “Ouest France”. Proof that danger can come from anywhere in this hostile environment with which his eight other comrades will have to deal to reach their extraction point, synonymous with the end of the adventure.
Also read: “I was certainly a little harsh” with the candidates: Who is Loury Lag, the new presenter of “The Island”, broadcast this Tuesday on M6?
Filming therefore got off to a flying start for the castaways of this edition, presented by explorer Loury Lag. In the space of a few hours, they have already lost two adventure companions, and discovered the harshness of the experience that their survival guide had announced to them. In terms of audiences, viewers did not rush to the launch of the program, which only brought together 1,29 million curious on average (6,8% of the public aged 4 and over and 16,8% of FRDA-50) for the first episode. The second episode retained the attention of 1,07 million of viewers (7,3% individuals aged 4 and over and 14,9% FRDA-50). The kickoff of the previous edition, in 2018, was followed at the time by an average of 2.5 million expedition fans.
