After three months on the BFM-TV news channel, Laurent Ruquier announces his departure on Tuesday December 26. The comedian and host has decided to end the show “Le 20H de Ruquier”, due to disappointing audiences, he announced Tuesday on Instagram.
“I prefer to stop there,” he wrote in an internal message revealed by the newspaper Le Parisien then published on the social network Instagram. “I could hide behind the economic situation and various dramatic events which certainly have not made my task easier since my arrival but it is clear that the public has not followed me in this different role for me,” he said. -he explains. He also spoke of “audiences not living up to [his] hopes nor the daily work that this represents”.
In the e-mail cited by Le Parisien, Marc-Olivier Fogiel, general director of BFM-TV, believes that “the audience (above what we did previously) is not the subject, which the reason to stop is the gap between the necessary investment and the pleasure he derives from what he can offer to viewers. »
Arrived at the end of September
The former face of France 2 joined the 24-hour news channel at the end of September. He was responsible for the news slot from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
An emblematic figure of public service, Laurent Ruquier was in charge of the second evening parts on Saturdays on France 2 from 2006 to 2022, the year in which he gave way to Léa Salamé, who joined him in 2021 to co-present “On est en direct”, program which succeeded “On n’est pas couch”. He had given up this time slot in the summer of 2022, frustrated by co-hosting.
The host was also at the helm of the daily newspapers “We tried everything”, for seven years, and “We only ask to laugh”, for two seasons.