Secret Story is a French reality competition television show. Despite not being a direct adaptation of the Big Brother franchise's format, created by producer John de Mol Jr. in 1997, the show has a similar concept while including its own game mechanics, and is also produced and owned by Big Brother's production company Endemol Shine Group/Banijay.
It follows a group of contestants who live together in a specially constructed house named La maison des secrets (The House of Secrets) that is isolated from the outside world for a cash prize. The contestants are continuously monitored during their stay in the house by live television cameras as well as personal audio microphones. Throughout the course of the competition, contestants are evicted from the house, by being voted out of the competition by the spectators. All contestants have a secret that they try to hide, while trying to discover the other housemates' one. Finding a secret allows the candidates to add money to their prize pool, while the candidate whose secret was discovered loses money. Several challenges and secret missions are also offered to the candidates during the adventure to help them earn money or clues.
Each seasons are composed of daily shows that airs during the afternoon, except on Sundays. From the first to the eleventh seasons, the show also featured weekly live shows that aired on Friday evening to reveal the evicted member of the week. For the twelfth season, only the inaugural and final shows aired in the evening, with the eviction live shows replaced by a live daily show on Friday afternoon. From the third season onwards, the live shows were followed by an after show titled After Secret, co-hosted by Castaldi and Adrien Lemaître from seasons three to eight, and Beaugrand from the ninth to twelfth.
Secret Story premiered on 23 June 2007 on TF1. For the ninth season, the daily and after shows moved to NT1 while the live shows where still airing on TF1. Following a ratings declined, the tenth and eleventh seasons where moved completely to NT1, with TF1 only airing the first live show of each seasons. In May 2018, the show was canceled after eleven seasons. In October 2023, the TF1 Group announced that the show will be revived in 2024. The revival premiered on 23 April 2024 on TF1, with the after shows on TFX.[2] In November 2024, it was again cancelled by TF1 following a conflict between the network and Endemol France regarding the budget for a potential thirteenth season.[3]
Secret Story has spanned a franchise with numerous international adaptations including Portuguese, Dutch, Peruvian, Lithuanian, Spanish, and French-African versions. Some of his game mechanics were also used in selected seasons of the Big Brother franchise internationally.
At the beginning of each season, the "house of secrets" also contains hidden rooms. It contains for example a "Chamber of truths" in the first season (room accessible by pressing a button hidden in the tapestry), a "Cave of love" in the second season (room accessible by a passage in the pool), or "a house of intruders" in the third season (room accessible by a secret passage on the floor). Some "Secret rooms" are also set up for each season where two contestants announced as eliminated to the other candidates have to remain locked up in order to see all their comings and goings through television screens.
Other rooms are inspired by Big Brother, as the "confessional" where each contestant goes every day to give his impression or opinion on events that happen in the house to "The Voice", or a double-door entrance, an intermediary passage between the house and outside, where "nominated" (contestants who have been chosen to leave the house by the others) learn their elimination or reintegration in the house where some contestants can come into contact with other candidates who have already been eliminated through a glass pane.
The Voice
An Ericofon, a red telephone used during seasons 2 and 6.
An invisible male character named "The Voice" (La Voix) can speak at any time to the contestants through the speakers and give them instructions. This is the voice of the radio host Dominique Duforest. "The Voice" always starts its interventions with the sentence "This is the Voice" and ends with "That is all … for now".
At the beginning of the game, "The Voice" imposes some rules that the contestants have to obey during the whole game if they don't want to be penalized (no more warm water, withdrawal of a contestant's kitty bank for example).
During the game, a "red phone" makes its appearance from which "The Voice" can get the contestants that answer win or lose money, give a resident one more vote against him for nominations, or allow a contestant to "nominate automatically" another one.
"The Voice" also has the ability to propose an emotional or entertaining "secret mission" to one or several contestants of its choice, allowing him or them to win money without the knowledge of other contestants. Activities and parties are also organized by "The Voice" in order to break contestants' everyday life, but also to replenish their kitty bank.
Secrets
The characteristic of Secret Story is the fact that each contestant must hide a secret that relates to them to protect their kitty bank initially filled up with 10 000 euros. The secrets of the contestants are usually personal as "I decided to change sex", "I survived a tsunami" or "I have Einstein's IQ", but they can also be changed or imposed by the production as "We are a false couple" or "We are the intruders of the house".
The contestant who thinks he guessed the secret of another one can "buzz" the latter, that is to say setting off a kind of sound alarm located in the confessional. Then there is a "confrontation" between the two contestants in private and in the presence of "the Voice" where the defendant has to justify himself without revealing his secret. The discoverer can confirm its "buzz" by investing a part of its kitty bank (the sum set by "the Voice" is 5000 euros). In this case, the answer is given later in front of the other contestants. If he guessed right, he wins the whole defendant's kitty bank; otherwise, he lets him having the total of the "buzz" (excepted in case of free "buzz" offered previously by "the Voice" or by the public and/or the Internet users who vote for the election of the best investigator of the week).
Fanny Rodrigues from the second season of the Portuguese version, returned for the tenth season of the original French version, with a secret link to the fact that she already participate to Secret Story. She was also a contestant in two all-stars editions in Portugal, becoming the contestant with the most participation in the franchise.
An official video game adaptation of the show was released for the Nintendo DS on 17 September 2009 in France. The game was developed and published by Anuman Interactive.[4]
Secret Story mechanics in Big Brother
Both the Secret Story and the Big Brother franchises are owned by Endemol Shine Group/Banijay. In 2010, the company started to add some of the game mechanics from Secret Story, mainly the concept of secrets, in selected seasons of Big Brother internationally.
