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Michel Denisot traces the history of the Grand Journal, created in 2004, the year of the tsunami and the death of Sagan: episode 0/10 of the podcast La retro

Madonna, Lady Gaga, Prince, these international stars have all appeared on the Grand Journal, making this set a must-see at the start of the 21st century. “The Grand Journal” it's also Omar (Sy) and Fred (Testot), Kyan Khojandi, Eric and Quentin…

“Ségolène Royal has only one fault, it’s her companion”, This is what we heard on the set of Le Grand Journal on January 17, 2007. This sentence was said by Arnaud Montebourg, spokesperson for the presidential candidate. This is one of the rare times where we saw the host Denisot remain speechless for a few seconds. Montebourg will then leave his functions.

2004: Le Grand Journal, a tsunami, homosexual marriage, the death of Fraçoise Sagan

2004, year of launch of Canal+ and the Grand Journal, year of creation of The Facebook by Marc Zückerberg and his friends, it is also the year of a devastating tsunami in Asia on December 26, that of an attack at a train station from Atocha to Madrid, the year the series was born More beautiful lifeof the first French homosexual marriage, and that of the deaths of Françoise Sagan and Ray Charles. Michel Denisot remembers the death of Françoise Sagan from this year: “someone who meant a lot to everyone but I met her too, she was close to Yves Mourouzi, it was airy conversations, she was very attentive“. 20 years later Michel Denisot published Very First Time published by Flammarion.

The 9:20 a.m. interview Listen later

Lecture listen 21 min

Le Grand Journal, its stars and talents

The Grand Journal was created by Michel Denisot after the end of Nowhere Else and several failed restart attempts. He was then fired from Canal+, and said before leaving: “ok we're leaving but I would like to do something in the evening“, and it worked. The basic concept was all found, a table, microphones and cameras all around, and as Michel Denisot confides, then you have to bring in the right guests for it to work. “When you create something, it is better to take over from something that is not very successful, that was ruin!

U2, Prince and others, Le Grand Journal has hosted many music stars. For that, “it was technically very strong“, there was an important quality of production for that. And all these stars came back because Michel Denisot was forging links, he confides having learned to do that at Inter and from Yves Mourouzi on television.

Many young recruits broke through after “The Grand Journal“, including several Miss Weather like Louise Bourgoin or Charlotte Le Bon which was directly noticed by the Spielberg team who showed the director videos of his weather. He will then send the young woman text messages where he tells her about the weather forecast from the Grand Journal. Incredible, even unimaginable, sequence that Michel Denisot relates in his book Very First Time among other anecdotes about the beginnings of TV stars. Because they all had to start one day.

The rest can be listened to here…

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