After the arrival of Vincent Bolloré in 2014, Antoine de Caunes lost the presentation of the “Grand Journal”, which he experienced badly. However, he does not regret still being part of the Canal+ group.
“When you see the channel today, you wonder how it can have the same name“, declared Omar Sy a few days ago about Canal+ in La Tribune Sunday. But despite all the changes that have occurred in recent years, some faces have remained faithful like Mouloud Achour or Antoine de Caunes, who has never left the channel since its creation in 1984. This Monday, November 4, he will also be in charge of the special program which will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Canal+.
Antoine de Caunes defends his choice to stay on Canal+
This week in Télérama, Antoine de Caunes answered the questions that some are asking about his loyalty to Canal+ despite the controversies that have stuck with the group since the arrival of Vincent Bolloré as majority shareholder: “We live in a fairly brutal capitalist world, and sometimes it shows more than others. I am wary of the ambient ‘morality’. I cannot feel guilty or complicit in ‘crimes’ that I did not commit. I don’t feel like I’m breaking a moral line or that I’ve changed my nature in order to continue to exist in a system that is the opposite of who I am. I work for Canal+, which is part of a group where there are other channels with different managements. I’m in the flagship, I’ve never been on the side of extremes. (…) Do you know people from the cinema who don’t work with Canal? I don’t. However, are they the guarantors of a system?“. In 2019, however, he admitted to having hesitated to leave the channel.
The time Antoine de Caunes met Vincent Bolloré
Antoine de Caunes himself paid the price for this ruthless capitalism in 2015 when he was replaced by Maïtena Biraben in The Grand Journal two years after his arrival at the head of the talk show. The audiences then took a hit, and the program was buried two seasons later. He says he experienced this decision very badly: “I take it very violently. I then request an appointment with Vincent Bolloré for him to explain to me. One hour alone. It’s the only time in my life that I saw him“. But does Antoine de Caunes benefit from the same freedom as before? Not sure, according to comedian Charline Vanhoenacker, who makes a behind-the-scenes revelation about Antoine’s show broadcast from 2015 to 2017. “Following one of my columns where I scratched Bolloré, Antoine told me that there were now darts on my portrait at Canal, and that it would not happen. I bothered him a lot with that“, she balances in Telerama.
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