Eric, the Breton, will he allow TF1 to permanently turn the bulky Christian Quesada page? This 46-year-old father has already unsoldered a foot from the statue of the "greatest champion in the history of TV games", sentenced in early April to three years in prison, for "corruption of minors", detention and dissemination of 'pornographic images.
Randomly of the calendar, a few days after this embarrassing condemnation for a chain which advocates "positive waves", the new champion of the "12 Coups de midi" beat the total amount of Quesada's earnings (809,000 euros). There are still a few days left for Eric Le Bloat to definitively send the former noon master to oblivion and beat his latest record, that of the number of participations (193) in the mid-day game by Jean-Luc Reichmann.
Her very first experience on TV
This Thursday noon, Eric will try to qualify for a 170th show. By the time you read these lines, he already knows if he has won his bet. Since the end of confinement, on May 11, Jean-Luc Reichmann has in fact been filming. In ten days, he has already boxed about 35 numbers to last until mid-June. But what happens on the plateau of La Plaine-Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) remains in La Plaine-Saint-Denis. And don't count on Eric to spoil the suspense. In more than six months of television, he acquired the basics of the trade.
However, "the 12 noon shots" are the very first cathodic experience of this designer draftsman who works in a design office in Lorient (Morbihan) and lives with his wife Stéphanie and his two daughters, Candice (15 years) and Justine (7 years old), 20 km away, in the village of Mellac (Finistère).
"I went there without saying anything to anyone"
“My older daughter has seen for years that I often just answer questions from game shows. And repeat to me that I should try my luck. There were selections in Lorient for the 12 Coups . I went there without saying anything to anyone. It is the first time that I dare to launch out, ”he confides on the phone.
For the father, the hardest part of his impressive journey was his first day of shooting. “The miracle is not to be eliminated from the first stage and to become the master of noon. The rest is a little easier. We are less intimidated, we know what to expect, ”says the quadra, who almost fell by the wayside during the 28th broadcast. "I was completely devolved ..." recalls the man who says he is "unbeatable" in history, geography, cinema, music and literature.
"Confined to Paris during the entire shooting session"
Deconcentration. It is his anguish as the record approaches. Especially since the recovery conditions, after two months of interruption due to confinement, are difficult. Eric had permission to come to Paris. Only. And there is no question of leaving for the weekend. The production rented an apartment near the recording studio.
"I am confined to Paris during the entire shooting session which will last 3 weeks maximum," breathes one who does not even dare to go out for fear, while social distancing is not respected by everyone in the capital. "These are very special living conditions ... But losing is out of the question! He laughs.
The champion took advantage of the confinement to review his weaknesses: the discographies of certain French singers and Russian and English literature. But not as much as he wanted. "I mostly helped the little girl with her homework," he explains. And while his wife, medical secretary, was mobilized at the Lorient hospital, Eric teleworked.
Social media violence
A detail for you, but not for the one who multiplies the leave without pay to be every day on the set of Jean-Luc Reichmann. “My hierarchy is benevolent. And financially, the balance is largely in my favor, "jokes Eric. With some 840,000 earnings already acquired, he promised his family to build a new, more spacious house ... in his native Morbihan.
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This adventure could be a nice cathodic fairy tale, without the insults received daily on social networks. "Anonymity allows some to let go ... We take full face without asking anything from anyone. This is hard to manage. While on the street, everyone is kind, ”he laments. This is called the price of success.