“The Island”: explorer, ex-convict… Who is Loury Lag, the adventurer who succeeds Mike Horn?

“Nothing is simple. (…) As soon as Loury is no longer there, it becomes harder,” recognizes Julien Cohen, the second-hand dealer known for having participated in the show “Affaire concluded”. “Loury” is Loury Lag, 37, the new host of “The Island, l’île du bagne”, an adventure program (re)launched by M 6 this Tuesday, January 7 at 9:10 p.m.

The show, broadcast for the first time in 2015, consists of one of the most extreme challenges for a television format: a group of individuals must try to survive for 28 days on a desert island without outside help. The participants are left to their own devices, including for the production of the show, since they have cameras and microphones to film themselves.

Candidates do not compete against each other and are not eliminated. They just have to get through the whole adventure by drinking and eating on their own, although they arrive on site with a few liters of drinking water and a few knives.

Before arriving on the island, they receive basic survival training. If during the first seasons the role was played by the American Mike Horn, the celebrities who participate in this “docu-adventure” were trained by Loury Lag.

Eight months in detention after an organized gang attack

This explorer has made his passion for nature his profession. Originally from the Bordeaux region, the man specializes in solo expeditions and survival in hostile environments. He explained in the show “Sept à Huit” broadcast on TF 1 in January 2023 that he grew up in a violent family, from which he regularly ran away.

Real name Loury Lagardère, the young man left home for good at the age of 17, after yet another scene of violence. “I see my father dragging my brother by the hair, and hitting him very hard, and there, I decide to go up to my room to retrieve a hunting knife that I had won at the fair with my brother, I threaten him with the “weapon and my mother comes between us,” he confided to the show’s teams.

Months of wandering in the streets began for him. This environment makes him fall into delinquency. Until incarceration. When he was barely 20 years old, after a year on the run, he surrendered and spent eight months in prison following an “organized gang assault with a weapon”. This experience of the prison world then pushes him to travel to discover the world and make the most of his freedom.

Already seen on TV

After five years of being banned from leaving the country, he headed to the United States. His first long journey, which takes him through Central America and to Colombia. After returning to France, the father of two children decided to give up everything at the age of 30 to live from his passion for exploring hostile environments.

Here he sets off on expeditions, each one more disproportionate than the last, armed with his experience in survival courses conducted in the armed forces, particularly in Guyana. Fans of the genre have already seen it in the show “Return to primary instinct”, broadcast on RMC Découverte in 2018, during which survivalists must survive for 21 days in a wild place in which they arrive naked and devoid of any material. The same year, he crossed Vatnajökull alone in Iceland, the second largest glacier in Europe.

A survival instructor role for candidates

This was followed in 2020 by the start of the “Icarus” project: “Seven challenges on the seven continents”, with explorer Matthieu Belanger. Each time, an ascent of the highest peak of the continent on which they are located, connecting the sites in a non-motorized way. The project was interrupted due to the health situation, after the two men notably climbed Denali, a peak culminating at 6,190 m in Alaska (United States).

Over the past five years, the explorer has continued his expeditions to the Sahara, the Alps and the Arctic, but has also made several crossings of the Atlantic by boat. By becoming a survival instructor for “The Island”, he will also comment on the actions of the castaways, their choices and suggest alternatives or advice to improve their approach. He will also deliver his techniques in the second part of the evening on the show “Les secrets de l’île”.