Two episodes and then gone. After noting that few viewers supported the concept, TF1 decided to cut costs by quickly canceling the last two evenings of “Gladiators”. The sentence fell on January 4, shortly after the hearings were announced the day before, with only 862,000 viewers responding to the call for the competition between ordinary heroes and seasoned athletes. Questioned by Europe 1 in “Culture Médias” about this failure, one of the three presenters of the program, Jean-Pierre Foucault, did not shirk.
“Plants help you move forward”
“If you could avoid talking about things that are annoying”, he first joked before taking responsibility for the fiasco. “It's true that we all messed up on 'Gladiators', we admit it, and the channel made the necessary decision, that is to say to broadcast in the second half of the evening“, underlined the septuagenarian, whose long career allows the necessary perspective. “You know, as they say, plants help you move forward. The most important thing is to have more success than plants, which seems to me to be the case for me,” he concluded. To compensate for this audience flop, TF1 has decided to call on Jeff Panacloc and Arthur who, with his last show for one, and “The Tourists” for the other, will take place in the time slot allocated to “Gladiators “January 10 and 17.
Jean-Pierre Foucault also responded to rumors that he would stop presenting the Miss France ceremony. “It’s early this year! It’s been announced that I’ll stop at the beginning of January”he laughed. Before firmly denying this information: “I have very bad news to announce to my detractors: I think that I will be in charge of the 31st (Miss France ceremony). I am even certain of it!”. Last December, the Marseillais indicated to “TV Grandes Chaînes” no longer want to play ringmaster “up to 90 years old”. Anyone who has rubbed shoulders with 1,200 Misses imagined a woman taking over when her retirement time came.
