It was France in the 70s and 80s, of Giscard against Mitterrand and the Citroën CX: Jean-Pierre Descombes, who hosted “Les Jeux de 20 Heures” on FR3 from 1976 to 1987, died on Sunday at the age of 76 as a result of Parkinson’s disease. Co-presenter of this very popular show with, among others, Maître Capello, the host had been suffering from this neurological disease for more than ten years. He died at his home, according to his son Romain Descombes.
After “The 8 p.m. Games”, Jean-Pierre Descombes had been the voice-over for other successful entertainment shows in the 80s and 90s, “The Fair Price” and “Une famille en or” on TF1. From 2018, he participated in programs by Cyril Hanouna on C8, such as “Touche pas à mon poste!” or “The big laugh”. But it remains best known for “The 8 p.m. Games”, a flagship program from the end of the 1970s. Born at a time when there were only three channels in France, they competed with the television news of TF1 and Antenne 2.
“When they saw the news in the summary (of the news), people switched to channel 3,” the host recalled in 2023, interviewed on Jordan De Luxe’s celebrity show on C8. In “Les Jeux de 20 heures”, general knowledge questions were asked to celebrities on set and anonymous candidates in duplex from a provincial town.
The show was co-presented by Jean-Pierre Descombes, microphone in hand in the audience from the provinces, and other hosts on set, including Marc Menant, Jean-Pierre Foucault, Harold Kay and the referee Maître Capello (the linguist Jacques Capelovici). After their last episode in early 1987, “Les Jeux de 20 heures” had been replaced by another show that would become very popular, “La classe”, presented by Fabrice.
Originally from Romans-sur-Isère, the shoe capital, where his parents were salesmen, Jean-Pierre Descombes had “always dreamed of being an entertainer”. “During the holidays, I helped my father go to the markets, but in my head I already wanted to be an entertainer”, he told Jordan De Luxe, visibly diminished by Parkinson’s. In the 2000s, he had retrained in hosting trade fairs, events in shopping centres or galas such as the tour of former glories of the 60s and 70s “Age tendre et tête de bois” in 2012.
“For 5-6 years, I opened all the big furniture stores in France, I was in all the big supermarkets (…) I told people: “We’re going to play like on TV!”, he joked, assuring that he took the same pleasure in the audience as he did in the days of his fame. Father of two boys and a girl, Jean-Pierre Descombes “tried to hide” his illness for a long time, then was forced to reveal it after an appearance on a Cyril Hanouna show. “I was on last, at 1am, and the pills I had taken were no longer working (…) That’s when it was revealed and I could no longer hide it, because the cameras (were) there,” he explained.
