Jean-Pierre Foucault makes his big comeback on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” this week. A show that has not only made its candidates’ fortunes…
An emblematic figure of the small screen, Jean-Pierre Foucault is preparing to make his return in Who wants to be a millionaire? This time, it is as a luxury candidate that he will participate in an exceptional edition of the game, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary. An evening, hosted by Arthur on TF1, this Friday, September 20, which will not fail to delight viewers, nostalgic for the time when the Marseille host made sure to have “the last” word from everyone, according to the legendary formula.
At 76, Jean-Pierre Foucault has now considerably reduced his activities and enjoys life in his villa in Carry-le-Rouet, in the Bouches-du-Rhône. He does not, however, plan to hang up his boots for good, keeping up the animation of the Miss France competition each year, which he has presented since 1995. “It’s only once a year, and it’s a real pleasure […]. It’s the only last big live entertainment show. And this adrenaline, it’s my job, it’s my life,” he confided to Le Parisien in 2022.
It’s also a nice salary… According to figures revealed by Capital A few years ago, the host would receive no less than 35,000 euros per edition of the competition. Emoluments that match his fame and his audiences, but above all the equivalent of a nice annual salary for many French people. Concerning Who wants to be a millionaire?which he presented for almost 19 years between 2000 and 2019, his salary would have amounted to 15,000 euros per show. Less, however, than Holy night which earned him 30,000 euros in its heyday.
Added to this are the countless Loto draws, which reportedly earned him 4,000 euros for each appearance on the air. That is, a few minutes on screen. Jean-Pierre Foucault once justified these staggering figures with one of his own formulas: “generally speaking, the money I earn, I don’t earn for 50 minutes of broadcasting, but for 42 years of work and 50 minutes of broadcasting.”
At the head of his production company Parasol Productions, Jean-Pierre Foucault would have paid himself at the peak of his activity between 400,000 and 800,000 euros per year, also indicates Capital. His fortune has been invested in numerous companies, real estate, restaurants in Paris, advertising films, a group of schools in Marseille, as well as in lucrative stock market investments. He has also invested in photovoltaic power plants and renewable energy companies in Guadeloupe and Santo Domingo.
This fortune even got him into trouble with the tax authorities, who forced him to pay 365,394 euros in wealth solidarity tax (ISF) in 2022, for having pushed tax optimization a little too hard between 2011 and 2015, via his company precisely. According to tax administration agents, Parasol Production was then more focused on managing the presenter’s money (an estate estimated at around 7.5 million euros) than on his activity as a presenter…
