Julien Lepers lost the first leg of his legal battle against his former producer. Four years after his ousting of Questions for a champion , the former TV star was dismissed almost all of his claims for compensation, which exceeded 3.4 million euros, according to information from the Parisian .
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Julien Lepers had attacked FreemantleMedia, the production company of the show, after his dismissal at the end of which he had been replaced at the head of the game by Samuel Etienne. He then considered that his dismissal constituted discrimination on grounds of age, a few months after the resounding remarks of the boss of France Télévisions Delphine Ernotte on the excessive presence within the group of "white men over 50 years old ".
A balance of any account of 800,000 euros
The former host therefore asked in particular 1.4 million euros for "dismissal without real and serious cause", but also 480,000 euros due to "brutal and vexatious conditions in which the dismissal took place," recalls Le Parisien . Requests rejected, therefore, by justice.
"To rule, justice is based on the letter of dismissal addressed to the ex-host, which highlighted hearings 'durably tapered' [...] In this letter, FremantleMedia also put forward a 'cleavage' between Julien Lepers and 'public expectations', which emerged in a study by the company Think Out. We can read in particular that Lepers 'personality' generates real weariness 'and' can lead to distancing from the program '", details Le Parisien in his article.
Julien Lepers however obtained payment of a balance of any account of 800,000 euros from his ex-employer. An amount which corresponds to severance pay after 28 years as an employee. With the daily newspaper, Me Pierre-Olivier Lambert, the lawyer of Julien Lepers, assures that he has already appealed this judgment.