An inseparable pair. For more than 20 years, Jacques Legros remained Jean-Pierre Pernaut’s joker, replacing him when the latter could not ensure the presentation during the 1 p.m. news. From the start of the health crisis in France, in 2020, Jean-Pierre Pernaut had chosen to withdraw from the 1 p.m. newspaper on TF1, leaving his seat to his eternal replacement. The latter thus ensured the presentation of the newsletter while his colleague presented his daily pastille from his home.
A formula that worked wonderfully since their television news continued to bring together millions of followers every noon. Interviewed in May 2020 by Puremedias, Jacques Legros returned to this passing of the baton with Jean-Pierre Pernaut, underlining the durability of their long collaboration.
“I remember that I’ve been his joker for 22 years and that I’m used to making the transition with Jean-Pierre several times a year,” he confided. “On Monday, I am told, ‘can you come tomorrow?’ I came the next day. For me, it was not something exceptional”. Prepared to take over the head of the newspaper in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, Jacques Legros was, during this time, the conductor of the 1 p.m. for long weeks.
However, the famous joker of the JT of TF1 remained in contact with the husband of Nathalie Marquay, even if each held his position at a distance. “We cannot be two pilots on the plane at the same time”, admitted Jacques Legros to our colleagues. “When we present a newspaper, we are the boss. So I am the boss of the newspaper at the moment. Things are well distributed between us and it goes well like that”.
A good professional understanding which was perceived on the air every noon on TF1. Were they as close by screen as in everyday life? At the time, Jacques Legros confided that their relations remained cordial. “Normally, when I come to TF1, we chat with pleasure, etc. But we meet more than we meet”.
However, in his forthcoming book Behind the screen: 40 years at the heart of the media, the 1 p.m. joker made unflattering revelations about Jean-Pierre Pernaut.
On October 5, 2022, Jacques Legros’ book, Behind the screen: 40 years at the heart of the media, will be published by Éditions du Rocher. Inside, he looks back on his career and in particular on the 25 years he remained in the shadow of Jean-Pierre Pernaut.
“We were not friends, but not enemies either, writes Jacques Legros. I would just say that our relations were more distant and less smooth than one could have imagined. His presence was rarely heavy, with the exception containment of course. No doubt he must have felt deep inside him the end of his adventure at 1 p.m. He had hardened. He had been sick“, can we read in an extract unveiled by Télé Loisirs.
But it did not stop there since the 1 p.m. joker returns to an episode of tension with Jean-Pierre Pernaut during this very special period.
“We had therefore installed an automatic mini-studio for him at his home. But he wanted to keep the leading role and solicited the team more than necessary. […] He wanted more and more to take control of the entire newspaper. […] I was starting to boil inside, until the day when I burst out, gathered my things and went back to the parking lot and my car. Since he wanted to do the newspaper for me, let him come and do it !” he wrote.
Not yet published, the book has already aroused significant reactions, in particular from Nathalie Marquay, widow of Jean-Pierre Pernaut.
The publication of this excerpt did not fail to make Nathalie Marquay react, who was indignant at the microphone of Guillaume Genton’s Morning without filter on Virgin Radio: “I completely hallucinated and above all, Mr. Jacques Legros forgets that he does not was only his joker and he allows himself to complain, that at that time, JP wanted to keep control of the content of the diary.
“I’m really sorry if it bothered him not to have the subjects in advance, but JP, unlike Jacques Legros, worked on instinct, without a teleprompter and with his live rants so much appreciated by his public,” she recalls.
Under the influence of anger, she also confided that Jacques Legros made “bitch shots” to Jean-Pierre Pernaut, while the latter “respected him a lot as a colleague and he often defended him to TF1”.
