Fort Boyard is a French game show developed by Jacques Antoine, that was first broadcast on 7 July 1990 (originally as Les Clés de Fort Boyard, then shortened to Fort Boyard from the second series in 1991). Many foreign versions of the show, totalling over 2,000 episodes, have aired around the world since 1990.
Set and filmed on the real fortress of the same name on the west coast of France, the programme appears similar to the British game show The Crystal Maze (February 1990 onwards) which was created as an alternative format by Antoine for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, after the fortress was unavailable to film in because of its then ongoing refurbishment (during 1989). In both programmes the contestants have to complete challenges to win prize-money.
However, while The Crystal Maze varies the type of games quite considerably, Fort Boyard tends to focus mainly on physical and endurance challenges. Although Fort Boyard was something of a pioneer in the area of game show fear and adventure, later programmes such as Fear Factor have pushed things even further, requiring Fort Boyard to react and adapt with new twists and games, including a couple of seasons in which the contestants spent the night in the Fort (this proved particularly popular in the French and Russian versions).
Broadcast for over thirty years, it is one of the longest-running French game shows and one of the flagship programs of the summer in France. Fort Boyard is the most-exported French TV format and the fourth-most exported adventure-style game show format in the world after Wipeout, Fear Factor and Survivor. In 2019, the France 2 channel launched a spin-off called Boyard Land although this proved to be less popular and was cancelled after two seasons.
