"I am ..." Julien Lepers has long embodied the game "Questions for a champion", which is broadcast on French television on an English version of "Going for Gold". Samuel Etienne took over the 2016 game in 2016. The principle remains the same: Answer the questions as best you can to be... champion!
How are these questions created? They are written by who? Everything is woven in Paris at Fremantle's premises. A dozen editors and proofreaders work on the second floor to refine titles.
It looks just like a library. These "question writers" rely on books in every field. We use the Internet but prefer reliable sources. Wikipedia is not our main source of information. Veronique Drouhet is the editor-in-chief.
These questions should not be too long or too complicated. Particularly for the "4-in-a row" test, Samuel Etienne and candidates need to be fast!
After the questions are written, the team will organize a "Question Meeting". The principle is that one person asks questions and the other answers. The editors of Questions for a Champion play this game year-round! "We imagine ourselves as a candidate, and we anticipate and plan for all possible answers, especially in the second round of open questions. Veronique Drouhet continues, "We play and make small adjustments." Is the team unbeatable? "Not necessarily. We also learn about it everyday!
These questions can be sorted by topic or difficulty. They are all different, despite their many years. We have a database of over 500,000 questions! This tells us the date and time a question was played last. This can be used to make it new by rewriting it. The questions are placed in an envelope and then go on the board.
Veronique Drouhet is involved in all filming. This amounts to 6 to 7 days per month. "I use headphones that produce a very loud sound. I must hear all answers from the candidates. We cut if there are any doubts about an answer. If someone has said something that is not on the form, I review it and, if it is good, we give the point of the candidate. They are amazing. The entire team of "Questions to a champion" is often also amazed. The candidates who answer the questions are what make them possible.
There have been instances when viewers brought up errors or inaccuracies. The editor-in-chief stated that "We aren't infallible but errors are very rare." "If it's a candidate who tells us he answered correctly after his answer was rejected, we don't have 50 ways to fix our error. We have him replay on set.
Veronique Drouhet: "Julien Lepers has left after 27 years of presentation, Editor's Note), but we stayed ...",. Many of the members of the editorial staff have remained the same over the years. The questions are changing. "Culture is endless, you can find new themes and ideas every day by reading articles or watching TV. It's brain gymnastics. Even though the broadcast is a month away, we are still in tune with the news.
The general culture is...general. We can ask questions about Kamasutra or eroticism, but those are not always the topics that candidates choose. They will say, "ouhlala", what questions will they ask me about this?, concludes Veronique Drouhet. Champions, are you too modest?
France 3 broadcasts "Questions for champion" every day at 5:45 pm.
