"Ah good, Télématin, is it over for me?"
You teach me!
Moment of embarrassment.
On the phone, Laurent Bignolas really seems surprised by our call.
However, according to our information, he has been warned that his departure has been hanging in the balance for a month: he should not be renewed for a fifth season.
The only thing missing is the official stamp of the management of France Télévisions, which must receive it and definitively seal its fate in the coming days.
A very sensitive file, ranked at the top of the pile.
“If I have to stop, it will be a bit brutal, concedes the 59-year-old host.
But I can understand it very well.
Maybe I sawed off the branch I was sitting on?
I have often questioned myself.
Already, when I was asked to succeed William Leymergie, I told them:
Are you sure I'm the right person?
No place belongs to us.
There will always be someone to replace us.
I felt like I was helping.
I will leave with a smile.
“Internally, another name, with strong sympathy capital, was seriously considered to take over the morning of France 2. Without making anything concrete, for the moment.
Contacted, the management of France Télévisions declined to comment.
A slow erosion of audiences
The reason for such a change?
A slow erosion of audiences.
This began about ten years ago and Laurent Bignolas has not succeeded in stemming it.
Since the start of the season, “Télématin” has gathered an average of 686,000 viewers (21.3% of the public), six days a week. That is a drop of nearly 20% compared to Leymergie's last season, in 2016- 2017.
Opposite, BFMTV, carried by very busy news, has become a serious competitor.
On the same time slot (6:30 am to 9:30 am), the 24-hour news channel shows 567,000 followers (17.6%), almost three times more than ten years ago.
There is also CNews which nibbles audience share.
"With the news channels, we do not play in the same court, nuances the presenter of France 2. But it is true that the health measures, in particular the distance on the set that we were the first to put in place, no 'haven't fixed anything.
"
Behind the scenes, the atmosphere is "execrable"
For Laurent Bignolas, the problems began as soon as he arrived at "Télématin" on July 3, 2017. At the time, some of the columnists deplored the forced exile on C8 of their mentor William Leymergie, who had hired them all with good wages.
And did nothing to integrate their new gang leader, defector of the Franceinfo channel.
In the press, Bignolas is attacked by some of his new colleagues, on condition of anonymity.
"We were able to criticize William Leymergie, but next to Laurent Bignolas, he is an altar boy", confided one of them, while others claimed that he wanted "to launch the subjects alone and have as few columnists as possible ”.
Against a background of reorganization and shrinking budgets, the atmosphere behind the scenes had become "execrable" until the departure of a dozen historic faces of the show, at the end of September 2019. An eternity on TV.
"If you only knew how I took it"
"I was terribly bruised by it," says Laurent Bignolas.
All these lies, it was very cruel.
Insufferable, even.
There have been many defamatory comments about me.
It pushes people to the extreme.
»What if he had dark thoughts?
“No, but someone a little weaker would have ended up in burnout,” he continues.
That some people did not live this period badly, whether they felt grief or despair, I can imagine.
But to accuse me of being responsible for it, no!
If you only knew how I took it.
Fortunately, we have a good time with those who stayed.
They are very happy to be there and have been able to adapt to the desires of viewers.
It is for them that we remove headings and invent others.
"
A way out should be offered to keep him in line, for the one who held the helm during the storm.
Laurent Bignolas could also withdraw from himself.
“I have lots of ideas for programs in my head that I don't necessarily want to embody,” he says.
“He is a face of France Télévisions, a true enthusiast.
Anyway, it will be on the air, ”says a public service executive.
A new decor under study
A change of presenter would not be the only avenue of the “Télématin worksite”, launched in January by the production and the channel.
And in which Laurent Bignolas also took part.
He pleaded for "more proximity, with more subdued lights", "more relaxed outfits" and "more openness to the regions and overseas territories" so that there is "more border between Auvergne and Martinique ”.
Another option proposed: “Stand out from news channels, especially with cultural subjects, on which we have been ahead for the past six months.
"
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On the production side, we are working on the right balance between the magazine part and the info part which energizes the section, while keeping in mind the benevolence, which is the DNA of "Télématin". On the form, a new decor is being studied, more welcoming. The current one being considered too cold. This new version should see the light of day at the start of the school year. With a very clear objective: to stay first in the morning.