Last March, on the occasion of the Grand Entretien that the DH dedicated to him, François De Brigode, 62 today, said he was not afraid to stop the news. “I don’t want to do one newscast too many. When it’s over, it’s over. I won’t be the guy hanging around the news corridors after retirement. You have to know how to make room for the young people.”
If the Carolo leaves the presentation of the pivotal program of any television grid, he does not say goodbye to RTBF or to the airwaves. The promise he makes is that of new adventures. From January, he will present a new program dedicated to culture. It will be on Fridays, in prime time. Nothing surprising about that, the journalist is curious by nature. “I have many interests besides the news, he confided to us as spring approached. There is photography, obviously, but also music and cinema, which I am passionate about.” Classic 21 listeners can hear it in Time Lineand jazz fans in a podcast offered by the Musiq 3 Jazz platform: Crossed Views. “My next few weeks will be devoted to preparing this new cultural event on La Une which will highlight our local talents, a new challenge and a lot of fun in perspective”he confided in an article published on the RTBF website following the announcement of his withdrawal from the news.
François de Brigode, from the small to the big screen: “I like to think outside the box”
“I have no regrets”
The native of Charleroi joined the JT in 1988, first in the Society department before joining the Politics department. In 1996, he was editor-in-chief of the midday television news, then he took up the presenter’s chair of the 7:30 p.m. news in December 1997.
A strange fate for the Belgian PPDA (may he forgive us the expression, he who does not hold the French in high esteem and this since well before the morals affairs with which he is now associated) who first dreamed of becoming a farmer before becoming passionate about radio.
“He was very pretentious”: François De Brigode reveals his worst TV guest
And to think that his career could have taken place on RTL. Because before being hired by the public service where he had done an internship, François De Brigode had caught the eye of Jean-Charles de Keyser and Eddy de Wilde who wanted to hire him. But Luxembourg said no…
“I have no regrets about accepting the RTBF offer and I am very proud to have made my career there. I have the chance to do many varied things there.”he told us during the Grand Entretien published in the DH.
On its website, RTBF announced that the name of his or her successor will be announced soon.
François de Brigode (RTBF) 51 years old and 29 years of television
Forever associated with “Bye Bye Belgium”
December 13, 2006, 8:21 p.m. RTBF interrupts its programs for a special edition of the news. Belgium has just been shattered, Flanders has unilaterally declared its independence. All the codes of television news are respected. It is hard to believe that history is not being written before our eyes. And yet… RTBF will call it docufiction, the detractors will call it a hoax.
That evening, François De Brigode was at the helm. He is the one who directs this special edition… very special. And for nearly 20 years, this Bybe Bye Belgium sticks to him like Captain Haddock’s sticking plaster. “I also suggested that on my grave we put ‘Bye Bye François’.”he jokes.
Bye bye Belgium: the shock one year later!
“I am proud of this show. It is proof that RTBF dared and did something that marked the history of television in the broad sense of the term. I don’t think I could have done that anywhere else. We crossed the white line of ethics by initially announcing bad news but that we corrected. It was not fake news but a ‘hoax’ like the Washington Post said it so well. We were in the hoax but close to the truth”he confided to us recently.
10 years ago, RTBF buried Belgium live (ANALYSIS)
And of course, this episode of his career is widely covered in his autobiography François de Brigode: Tomorrow is another day published this year by Kennes.
However, François De Brigode has presented and developed some programs. We are thinking of Focushas Answer the question but also to the unmissable election evenings and other special broadcasts such as the one entitled Stolen children, raped childrenbroadcast the day after Julie and Melissa’s funeral.
