An imposing china cabinet sits in the dining room. The game boxes are hidden in the lower cupboards. Classics - Risk, Stratego, Cluedo… - are stacked with Seven Wonders and other more recent titles. It is in this vast house near Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), with Bruno's grandparents, that the family celebrations are held. “At Christmas, when we old people go to bed, Bruno and his cousin Anthony play until no time,” says Gracy, a mischievous 79-year-old grandmother. Same on December 31st. I've always seen them do that. "Whether it is board games, cards or video, Bruno Hourcade, 30, has always loved them, with a predilection for those who appeal to general culture:" With family or friends, I loves quiz nights. I was also registered on a mobile application.Every day, you had to answer a questionnaire. Each victory brought in 20 or 30 cents. In the end, the app paid me 300 euros. "
His passion made Bruno a millionaire. On October 5, he was eliminated from the “12 Coups de midi”, after 252 participations and 251 victories. In this daily TF1 program, four candidates standing behind large luminous desks are interviewed by host Jean-Luc Reichmann on music, geography, gastronomy… The winner comes back the next day. Bruno finally fell to the "Fatal Blow", this face-to-face where the last two participants fight against the clock. “My opponent got it right on the bell. Me, there were only two seconds left on my clock, remembers Bruno. By the time Jean-Luc asked the question, it was over. Still, I had the right answer. But he has something to console himself with. The thirty-something leaves with 1,026,107 euros in gifts:around 700,000 euros in cash net of taxes and the rest in objects - nine cars, flat screens, furniture, consoles, golf clubs…
Some advice from Bruno Hourcade, the greatest champion of the “12 strokes of the midday” to win in a game show ⬇️ # Daily pic.twitter.com/67cGrrhAts
- Daily (@Qofficiel) September 29, 2021
With these eight months of daily presence on the air, where he was followed by more than 3 million curious, this sympathetic stranger has even entered the annals of television. The greatest champion of the “12 Coups”, he now holds the record for earnings won on television in France, thus dethroning Marie Friedel, a candidate of “Who wants to win millions? », Left with one million euros in 2004. Better still, with his 252 participations, Bruno won the world record for longevity, solo, in a TV game, until then held by another Frenchwoman: Marie-Christine Alaoui Soulimani with 218 participations (for 213 victories) in 2018 in “Everyone wants to take their place”, on France 2. This record will soon be worth Bruno Hourcade to see his name registered in Guinness. Not enough, however, to make his head spin.“We come from a modest family where we know the value of things,” says his cousin Anthony. We know when we should be happy. "
As a child, he read a lot and was curious about everything
But how do you become such a well of science? Bruno was born in Évreux, in the Eure region. Her father is in the army, her mother is at home. The couple separated when the boy was 3 years old. He will be raised by his mother Patricia and his new companion, Joël, also a soldier. Normandy, Reunion, Orléans, Metz… The reconstituted family moves according to the assignments of the father-in-law. Bruno puts up with it: “I was used to changing cities every two years. I used to like. We make new friends every time. »Finally, the family settled in Fontenilles, a village of Haute-Garonne, near Toulouse. The adolescent is 15 years old and of a reserved nature. "Not a talker", sums up his grandmother. At school, he does not participate, but reads a lot and is curious about everything. “When people talk about something I don't know, it almost annoys me and,in the evening, I go to Wikipedia to read the page concerned. And since Wikipedia is well done, I find myself clicking on other links and reading fifteen pages in a row. "
In summer, Bruno reunites with his grandparents. Before arriving, he sends a list of books that his grandmother has to pick up from the library. TV attracts him too. He is a big consumer of it. After his preparation in Toulouse and his business school in Bordeaux, he is therefore looking for a job in the audiovisual industry. In 2016, he landed a permanent contract at the Eurosport advertising agency, in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. At the office, the atmosphere is nice. During the breaks, some play table football, others, billiards. He embarks on Trivial Pursuit with a colleague, Matthieu. They both end up showing up for a TV game at the start of 2020: “Nobody had thought about it”, presented by Cyril Féraud on France 3. A first successful experience - in seven participations, the duo won 12,500 euros -, but nothing to flambé.It is the return to normal life.
Bruno here with his mother, Patricia, and his stepfather, Joël, in his grandparents' house, near Pau, where board games are piled up. LP / Philippe Glorieux
In March 2020, the Covid-19 settles in, and Bruno confines himself to his parents' home, in Fontenilles, where he teleworks. Every day, he eats lunch with his mother, who does not change his habits. While preparing the pasta and seasoning the salad, in her kitchen, she watches "Les Douze Coups de midi". The click. “In my mind, there was noise all the time in these shows,” Bruno recalls. The candidates had to sing, dance… It was more a matter of humor than of general culture. I don't have the personality for that. But with the crisis, the production suppressed the public. It was much more intimate, calm and collected. “Bruno registers, passes the selections and, on January 20, 2021, viewers discover this frail young man, his big smile and his talent. From the outset, it is a hit. First day,he wins the largest possible sum, 30,000 euros. And start again the next day.
Clearly, he surpasses the other participants with his all-terrain culture. “He knows a little bit about everything. He can answer both on History and on people, ”marvels his father-in-law Joël. Her grandma Gracy never misses a visit from her grandson. “I told my daughter: you didn't realize he was very smart! "Patricia, the mother, wonders indeed:" It is true that he has memory. From the age of 3, he was enrolled in the library and I read books to him. We went to museums too. Was he born with a brain that records everything or is it because he has read a lot? But it's not just knowledge. Bruno often gets away with his deductive spirit and his ability to thwart traps. “Since I've been a fan of games for a very long time, I know their mechanics. For example,as soon as you specify a date or an album title, you have to be wary. If you are told:
who sings such and such a song on such an album
, the known performer should not be answered.
Every time, we talk to you about a cover, so you have to choose a younger artist.
"
"I have the impression that moms and grannies love me a lot"
As his victories progress, Bruno gains confidence. This introvert opens up, tells his family and loved ones, some of whom sometimes appear in video-conference on the air, to support him. One day, the four candidates are all single, the host Jean-Luc Reichmann offers everyone to place a classified ad. Surprise: Bruno evokes his homosexuality. “I said I was looking more for a tall, blond guy… In these shows, we often talk about his life, and our companions are part of it. If I had been in a relationship with a man, we would have seen him on video. This outing earned him an interview in Têtu, the quarterly devoted to LGBT news, and thank-you messages on Instagram. “It was not protest, but maybe it normalizes homosexuality in the collective unconscious.The more minority people there are in the media, the more people can see that these people are normal and nice. "
For several months, Bruno thus takes days off to participate in the recording sessions: three weeks of filming at the rate of five shows per day. He then arrives on the set with a suitcase full of clothes, to change his outfit throughout the day. And to keep energy, he runs on Diet Coke in his dressing room. “My only requirement. More and more strangers recognize him in the street and ask him for a selfie. “It's always kind and caring. Often when people stop me they say:
My mother - or my grandmother - loves you
, Bruno laughs.
I feel like moms and grannies love me a lot.
Finally, he bowed during the program broadcast on October 5.
A peaceful outing, just like him.
“From the start I knew this game would come to an end.
I had always considered it a big digression.
This ends, I take back my life.
"
Bruno Hourcade on the set, the day he exceeded one million euros in earnings.
TF1 screenshot
The fact remains that the young millionaire is now unemployed - Eurosport, which reduced its payroll, dismissed him in April - and without housing. He made his Paris apartment. So, he divides his time between the capital, where he has friends, and his family. His nest egg, which he has not really used, allows him to calmly apprehend the future. "Just the 700,000 euros in cash represent between twenty-eight and thirty years of my former salary," he calculated. Today, he plans to invest his money in apartments for rent: "The start of a real estate empire, like Donald Trump, before getting into politics ..." he jokes. He imagines finding work, perhaps part-time, in the theater or the cinema, and getting involved in associations.He is also ready to look at the media proposals that may arrive. “We will see him again on TV, prognosis for his part Jean-Luc Reichmann, who speaks of an“ elegant ”candidate. He likes the image, even if he pretends he doesn't like it. He took a liking to it. "
In the meantime, to occupy his time, Bruno does not refuse a game of board game.
You have to see it, in front of the board strewn with pawns.
His natural restraint is erased, to reveal the competitor.
He moans when he draws a card that doesn't suit him and lights up when he hits a nice move.
His mother had warned: “He is not a bad loser, but he plays to win.
"
