“Celebrity Hunted”: Eight stars play hide and seek throughout France

Paris, Place du Trocadéro. The day has just dawned on the capital when eight celebrities come out, bundled up under their hoods. Music of tension, countdown on the Eiffel Tower, scary voiceover, they all line up, facing the camera, before the start of Celebrity Hunted is given. That's it, the counter displays "00:00". The four pairs go in an opposite direction. From then on, the stars of the program have ten days to go on the run without ever being caught by agents at headquarters.

A shooting in preparation

Athletes Laure and Florent Manaudou, youtubers Squeezie and Seb, actors Franck Gastambide and Ramzy Bedia, as well as artists Dadju and Darcy have all agreed to give up on their daily life during the Amazon Prime Video show, shot last March. "We were offered it at the end of last year but I was pregnant so I had trouble planning myself," says Laure Manaudou at 20 Minutes . Fortunately, the swimmer was able to count on her brother who drew up the plan for their escape. “I had taken a map of France but I did not know where we were going to arrive. I tried to move a little every day, to find connections everywhere and little by little, we refined the plan”, he confides. On the ninth day, players still in competition must go to a specific exfiltration location, regardless of their current position.

Taking part in Celebrity Hunted is obviously unlike any other TV show filming. "We had still written all the escape, seen everything it was possible to do, contacted people potentially available or not", lists Seb. "We did the whole roadmap of our trip upstream and after, day 1, it started, we followed everything we had planned to do except a few times when we changed things at the last minute because we were getting paranoid,” adds Squeezie.

Unable to access public surveillance cameras

At their heels, the members of the headquarters follow the tracks of the celebrities. Over the course of the episodes, we discover video surveillance images of the streets of Paris or the commercial areas they cross. From the first minutes of the program, viewers are informed that the means usually made available to the police during investigations are reconstituted.

“French law prohibits an audiovisual production from accessing public surveillance cameras, replies Amazon. The film crew following a pair followed them by a few minutes to install a GoPro camera at a vending machine, a toll or a street corner where there was a camera. This allowed them to then provide, and only if HQ requested, reconstruction images. »

The eight personalities taking part in the competition were fighting against invisible enemies. None of them really knew how HQ worked, how many people were behind them, or if they were close or not. However, experts in cybersecurity, profiling and military intelligence professionals were working from Paris to track them down. “We quickly became paranoid because they are dressed in civilian clothes so we could see them at any time,” reports Laure Manaudou. As soon as the HQ agents touch a celebrity, he is eliminated from the game.

Celebrity, advantage or disadvantage?

Celebrity Hunted stars, considered fugitives, were accompanied by a cameraman and a journalist. Inevitably, this catches the eye of onlookers, but it was not the only handicap with which the participants left. About fame, Squeezie reports that "it's a burden because people can help you but there are also others who can recognize you and give clues to the investigators telling them that they have us seen at such a place. »

On the other hand, it can be rare to come across personalities in remote corners of the French countryside. When locals come across them, a trace is often quickly left on the Internet, “like “I saw him in such a city, what the hell is he doing there?” says Squeezie.

"When you're known, you can also make connections fairly quickly and HQ doesn't necessarily know that you can go to these people, tell them about the concept of the show and that they can welcome you" , testifies Florent Manaudou who therefore sees notoriety as an advantage in this competition. The proof of this assertion will perhaps be provided at the end of the six episodes of the program, of which only the first three are available for the moment. The final three will follow on November 5.