Paris (AFP)

Jean-Jacques Bourdin will stop back in September from presenting the morning show of RMC / RMC Découverte but will continue to conduct the political interview at 8:30 am, confirmed on Tuesday the mother house of these media, NextRadioTV.

"In view of the presidential election, by mutual agreement, at the end of this 2020 season, while the group is implementing its reconquest project, Jean-Jacques Bourdin and the management of Altice Média have decided to give priority "to Bourdin Direct, its 8:35 am interview broadcast on RMC / BFMTV, said the group in a press release, confirming press information.

"To devote himself to it, especially in anticipation of 2022, Jean-Jacques Bourdin will stop presenting the morning RMC / RMC Découverte", continues the group.

Jean-Jacques Bourdin, 71, has hosted the morning show since 2001 on RMC, which he had joined after a long career at RTL.

His replacement is not yet known but RMC could take the opportunity to rejuvenate and feminize its notoriously very masculine antenna, by appointing in its place the BFMTV journalist Apolline de Malherbe who is already the joker of Jean-Jacques Bourdin.

NextRadioTV's "reconquest project" includes a savings plan providing for the abolition of 330 permanent positions to cope with the impact of the Covid-19 crisis. The Altice subsidiary, which is largely profitable, anticipates a collapse of advertising revenue after the health crisis.

Employees of the group launched on Wednesday June 24 a new strike against these measures, pushing the management of the first French news channel to cancel its election night.

The workers suspended their strike on Monday "to allow negotiations to resume in favorable conditions as soon as possible".

© 2020 AFP