Les Douze Coups de midi
Les Douze Coups de midi is a French game show hosted by Jean-Luc Reichmann and broadcast everyday on TF1 since June 28th 2010.
History
Les Douze Coups de midi is an adaptation from the Argentine show El Legado on Telefe. This show consists of an individual quiz which can lead to winning numerous prizes and a jackpot.Broadcasting
This game was broadcast on TF1 to collect the midday audience, as a response to the success of Tout le monde veut prendre sa place, a game show broadcast at the same time on France 2.Since October 2010, Jean-Luc Reichmann has hosted the game with a virtual character, a fairy called Eulalie. Later, this fairy became a simple voiceover, but kept her name and her voice actor before her replacement by Zette which is voiced by Isabelle Benhadj.
From May 12, 2020 to October 9, 2021, to respect safety mesures due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, the show was broadcast without audience, and a new character, Docteur Maboul, made his appearance. His role is to clean up the candidates' desks.
Description
The winner of the show, now Maître de midi, puts his title on the table to try and win more prizes until his elimination.At the end of the show, each correct answer reveals one tile on a rectangle of 13x10 tiles hiding hints for the discovery of a celebrity. Since January 27, 2023, only a "coup de maître" with five correct answers lets the Master of Midday make a guess, to try to win the jackpot.
The show has known some evolutions since its creation. Since January 2018, the last round "L'étoile mystérieuse" was made harder by replacing the celebrity's picture by a number of hints, leading to guess said celebrity. The last four tiles hide this celebrity.
Visual identity
From September 2016 to September 2019, for the 100th mysterious star, the show changed its logo and artistic direction.In September 2019, the show changed its studio, its logo and its artistic direction.
The logo changes color for certain vacation or holiday periods. Fir example, the logo becomes red during Christmas and New Year, and golden and yellow during the summer. Starting in 2023, the logo turns green for the fall and changes to orange for Halloween.
Audiences
- On June 28, 2010, the launch of the game was welcomed by 2.9 million people with a peak at 4.6 million at the end.
- After a decrease in September 2010, around 2.3 million people were watching from home. The numbers went up again in October, and stabilized at more than 3 million.
- Ever since then, the game regularly gains audience, with a peak at 4.5 million on February 1, 2011. It is the leader at this time of the day.
- On December 26, 2016, no less than 4.73 million people watched the show, with a peak of 6.5 million in the end.
- In April 2019, following the Quesada scandal, audience decreased before coming back to normal shortly thereafter.
- On July 6, 2025, 4.98 million people watched the show and 7.1 million at the elimination of Émilien.
Records
Émilien holds the record for victories in the history of television games in the world.He also holds the show's winnings record and is the biggest winner in the history of French game shows in terms of winnings, ahead of Bruno Hourcade with €1,026,107 and a Who Wants to be a Millionaire contestant named Marie-Hélène who won €1,000,000 in the show on August 27, 2004
Ranking
The next list ranked the twenty best contestants as number of successive appearances.| Legend | Contestants ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd. | Contestant still in the game |
| # | Contestant | Participations | Global money | Debut appearance | Final appearance | Master strokes | Stars |
| 1 | Émilien | 647 | September 25, 2023 | July 6, 2025 | 193 | 23 | |
| 2 | Bruno | 252 | January 20, 2021 | October 5, 2021 | 92 | 9 | |
| 3 | Éric | 199 | November 21, 2019 | June 19, 2020 | 62 | 7 | |
| 4 | Christian | 193 | July 4, 2016 | January 14, 2017 | 64 | 7 | |
| 5 | Paul | 153 | April 29, 2019 | October 10, 2019 | 59 | 6 | |
| 6 | Stéphane | 153 | August 20, 2022 | January 20, 2023 | 44 | 5 | |
| 7 | Céline | 125 | March 14, 2023 | July 24, 2023 | 37 | 4 | |
| 8 | Véronique | 100 | April 5, 2018 | July 21, 2018 | 39 | 4 | |
| 9 | Léo | 98 | August 31, 2020 | December 6, 2020 | 31 | 4 | |
| 10 | Timothée | 83 | March 24, 2017 | June 14, 2017 | 29 | 3 | |
| 11 | Benoît | 82 | January 18, 2019 | April 9, 2019 | 28 | 3 | |
| 12 | Bruno | 80 | August 8, 2013 | October 26, 2013 | 34 | 3 | |
| 13 | Xavier | 76 | January 5, 2013 | March 21, 2013 | 32 | 3 | |
| 14 | Alexandre | 75 | November 12, 2010 | January 25, 2011 | 37 | 5 | |
| 15 | Sylvain | 75 | April 26, 2015 | July 15, 2015 | 30 | 4 | |
| 16 | Lucia | 73 | April 13, 2012 | June 24, 2012 | 30 | 5 | |
| 17 | Laurent | 72 | January 13, 2022 | March 25, 2022 | 20 | 3 | |
| 18 | Cyrille | 71 | February 12, 2011 | April 23, 2011 | 28 | 4 | |
| 19 | Sébastien | 68 | October 16, 2012 | December 23, 2012 | 20 | 3 | |
| 20 | Vincent | 62 | February 8, 2014 | April 10, 2014 | 22 | 3 |