Comedian and television personality Laurent Ruquier is stopping the daily show he hosted in the evening on the news channel BFMTV after only three months, due to disappointing audiences, he announced Tuesday on Instagram. “I prefer to stop there (…), it is clear that the public has not followed me as much as we hoped in this different role for me,” he wrote in an internal message unveiled by the newspaper Le Parisien then published on the social network.
“The audience (above what we did previously) is not the subject,” assured the general director of BFMTV, Marc-Olivier Fogiel, in another internal message consulted by AFP . “What leads him to stop is the gap between the necessary investment and the pleasure he derives from what he can offer to viewers,” continued Marc-Olivier Fogiel. According to him, it was Laurent Ruquier who “asked to release him from his commitment at the end of the year”.
“You have to know how to accept your failures”
After 23 years of entertainment on France 2, Laurent Ruquier, 60, created a surprise by joining BFMTV at the start of the school year. Since September 25, he has been hosting “Le 20h de Ruquier”, Monday to Thursday from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. This current affairs debate show was in competition with “L’heure des pros 2” by Pascal Praud (CNews), “Touche pas à mon poste” by Cyril Hanouna (C8), “Quotidien” (TMC) or “C à you” (France 5), in addition to the 8 p.m. news from the major channels.
“I do not regret having left France Télévision last June for BFMTV, because I lived these three months as an exciting and incredible experience, one that I could not imagine living, but you have to know how to accept your failures” , estimated Laurent Ruquier in his message. This surprise departure comes as BFMTV (which belongs to Altice, the group of billionaire Patrick Drahi) is going through a difficult time. Long the leading news channel in France, it is now closely followed by CNews (Canal+ group, controlled by billionaire Vincent Bolloré).
In November, the latter had eroded the gap which separates it from BFMTV over a full month (2.5% against 2.8%). And from December 4 to 10, CNews was the leading news channel in France in terms of audience over a full week for the first time since its creation in 2017.