Is there a leader to save Europe 1? According to our information, the management of the radio has a new name in mind: Patrick Sabatier, 70 years old. The former TF1 star should soon take control of a weekend show. “Is it a helping hand from his friend Sarkozy who asked Vincent Bolloré (new main shareholder)? »We ask ourselves internally. For Sabatier, it would be a return to his first love. It was on this same station that he began his career in 1976 before switching to RTL and hosting “Les Visitors du Wednesdays” on the front page, then “Avis de recherche” or “Le Jeu de la Truth”. .
In recent years, Patrick Sabatier had attempted a comeback on C8 by relaunching these old concepts. At the start of 2019, he hosted “We meet at Sabatier” with Cyril Hanouna as the first guest thread. He also tried “Truth Friday: 60 minutes flat”, without much success. Before that, he had regained visibility on France 2, with the animation of the game “Password” or the entertainment “The unexpected adventure” in the first part of the evening.
William Leymergie already recruited
On the side of Europe 1, no comment. The arrival of Patrick Sabatier would be added to that of William Leymergie, 75, in February. Since the start of the school year, the presenter of “William at noon” on C8 has presented “Samedi en France” every week. Broadcast between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., this weekly program invites listeners from Europe 1 to all regions of France and overseas.
Officialized this Thursday by Médiamétrie, the new wave of audiences promises to be very bad for Europe 1. “We are posting a historic record downward with only 2.3 million listeners,” said a radio executive in despair. That is more than 400,000 less in a year.