With the broadcast of Koh Lanta: The Sacred Fire on Tuesday evening, Denis Brogniart made a slightly more glorious return to the spotlight. At the end of January, the host had been talked about for much less brilliant facts. Back to the “Brogniart affair”.
[Updated February 21, 2023 at 11:30 p.m.] Crazy anger, insults, humiliations… Here was revealed on January 27, 2023 a whole different facet of the famous and charismatic host of Koh Lanta. As the program resumed for a new season entitled Koh Lanta: The Sacred Fire, this Tuesday, February 21, the return to the spotlight of Denis Brogniart will not have failed to awaken the specter of the “Brogniart affair”. In its prosecution investigation, Here revealed that several former collaborators of the TF1 host shared unpleasant experiences in his company, accusing him, among other things, of behavior “not far from moral harassment”, “public humiliations ” or even “insults” and “crazy anger”.
Invited to the microphone of Sud Radio, Tuesday, February 21, the producer of Koh Lanta, Olivier Magne, did not fail to return to this file. “Denis Brogniart is not volcanic”, he assured. Before continuing: “A lot of things have been said about Denis the tyrant. You have to be careful because words have meaning.” Olivier Magne did not hesitate for the occasion to discuss his own professional relationship with the host-star of Koh Lanta. “To work with him since 2005, he has nothing of a tyrant. He has annoyances that can happen, but like everyone on a shoot like this who is very demanding, and he is not tyrannical at all,” he insisted.
Several former TF1 employees, especially women, accuse Denis Brogniart of having been “verbally violent” against them and of “public humiliation” based on “insults” and “mad anger”. Sports journalist Charlotte Namura accuses him of having insulted her on the set of Mag in 2018, when she hesitated on a question to ask the public. She claims that he would have told her, during the commercial break, that she was “just a piece of shit, only good enough to smile at”. Charlotte Namura then alerted her superiors, asking not to work with the man who had “deliberately insulted and humiliated her on set”.
For her part, Anne-Laure Bonnet assures that he does not “support co-presentation and throws mad rages with his subordinates”. Finally, for Marion Jollès-Grosjean, working with the presenter on Auto Moto for two years was “the worst memory of her career”. Several episodes are recounted during this investigation, and several recount the host’s anger. A TF1 union official is even categorical: “Everyone knows that Denis Brogniart is capable of humiliating anger in public, especially with women.”
Denis Brogniart reacted to the accusations made by his former collaborators and spoke in the columns of Here. He thus wanted to apologize: “I am very committed, a perfectionist and on the occasion of two live broadcasts on TF1, where the pressure is very intense, I had words that exceeded my thoughts, comments that hit some people and I regret it. Nothing justifies my behavior, which followed certain difficulties.” However, he also mentions “isolated facts” which, according to him, “do not reflect the privileged relationships based on respect and benevolence that I maintain with the technical and editorial teams of the programs in which I have participated for thirty years. I would like to apologize to anyone I may have hurt.”
In the wake of the accusations published on January 27 in Here, Le Parisien questioned Thierry Thuillier, director of information at TF1, about an incident involving Denis Brogniart during a filming in Biscarosse on July 14, 2022. following a problem on the air, Denis Brogniart would have “screamed” at a journalist and a production manager. Thierry Thuillier confirms having received “lifts” on this subject. An investigation was carried out by the human resources department of TF1. This tends to confirm what happened, but was also able to highlight “several problems” in particular “undersized” means. Thierry Thuillier was able to discuss with Denis Brogniart about this incident: “I had an interview with Denis. We said things to each other. For me, the subject is closed.”
The day before the start of the broadcast of Koh Lanta: Le Feu Sacré on TF1, Laurent Maistret was on the set of Figaro TV Magazine to discuss his own adventure program Apprentis Aventuriers. He also returned to his experience with Denis Brogniart, whom he rubbed shoulders with for three seasons of Koh Lanta. “Denis is hot-blooded and doesn’t do things halfway. I’ve seen him get angry before, but not necessarily in front of a woman. With men, he’s also hot-blooded. He’s already got angry at me “, he explained. “During my first season of Koh Lanta, on an event, I had not gone to the end and he had been disappointed. He had made me a little harsh reflection, like: ‘It doesn’t surprise me not from you, Laurent.’ It was to wake me up, to shake me up, for my own good in the end.” Laurent Maistret specifies however that Denis Brogniart “can be very human”. “When my mother died, he called me,” he particularly insisted on pointing out.
