Death of Jean-Pierre Pernaut: the tribute Claire Chazal and his former colleagues from TF1

Alexis Patri 10:18 a.m., March 03, 2022

INTERVIEW

It is one of the greatest figures of French television who is dying.

Jean-Pierre Pernaut died Wednesday evening at the age of 71.

Thursday, in 

, his former colleagues pay tribute to the journalist, star of 1 p.m. for 33 years, who before everyone else carried the voice of France from the villages and the soil.

"We were in this writing which was a kind of family", remembers on Europe 1 the journalist Claire Chazal.

"Jean-Pierre was like a father to journalists, who were often young and in the regions. He helped them a lot and he listened to them."

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Among these young journalists, Thierry Thuillier, who has since become the deputy director of the information division of the TF1 group.

"My first memory with Jean-Pierre is as a young journalist, since he trusted me on my first subjects. What support! What a mentor! What a teacher!", he rejoices.

"I remember his very human dimension. When you entered the editorial staff of 13h, in his editorial staff, you became his journalist and he defended you tooth and nail."

The Jean-Pierre Pernaut style, close to everyday life

His former colleague also remembers the mark of Jean-Pierre Pernaut that he installed in his 1 p.m. newspaper.

"He created, through his intuition and his ties to the regions, a newspaper that no one could have imagined. Sometimes even against the general trend", recalls Thierry Thuillier.

"He was a remarkable journalist who was very rarely, perhaps never, wrong. The special edition following the fall of the Berlin Wall, that of September 11, 2001, the interviews with Presidents of the Republic and minister... He was a complete journalist. The French trusted him. Even after 30 years, his ratings were still on the rise."

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Robert Namias, former deputy director in charge of information for TF1, specifies that Jean-Pierre Pernaut, for his part, had been able to restore momentum to a 1 p.m. newspaper in difficulty.

"Jean-Pierre Pernaut had taken over from a newspaper which was - it must be said - totally elitist, that of Yves Mourousi, and whose audiences were at half mast. We saw very quickly that Jean-Pierre was recovering the audiences" , he says.

"And, after a year, it had largely exceeded Yves Mourousi's diary," he continues.

"Jean-Pierre was a provincial who assumed it and brought its values ​​to the screen of TF1. Which existed on practically no television channel."

A mutual and never denied love with the French

This "Jean-Pierre Pernaut style" had indeed seduced the French.

And this success had never wavered.

“I was struck by the audiences last night. Do you realize: a tribute program to a television journalist who made 6.5 million viewers!” exclaims Robert Namias on Europe 1. “For a long time, one out of two French people listened to Jean-Pierre Pernaut every day!"

"He had a real meeting, which was not only television, but also political," he believes.

He is undoubtedly the one who felt the most what was being said in what he proudly called 'the Province' and the regions', and which exploded through the crisis of the yellow vests.

"He was on the air as he was in life"

Claire Chazal also retains the spontaneity of Jean-Pierre Pernaut: "He had no teleprompter, unlike me or Patrick Poivre d'Arvor", relates the journalist.

"His pitches were short, natural, and more direct than ours."

An analysis joined by Jacques Expert, who for five years was the editor-in-chief of the program

, presented by Jean-Pierre Pernaut.

"He was on the air as he was in life. It seems easy to say today, but it's the truth. He loved ordinary life and everyday life," he explains.

"And there was one thing that particularly fascinated him: wasted public money. It could put him in firecracker!"

Jean-Pierre Pernaut's legacy can already be found in the news of other channels.