“I passed a casting and I was taken.“This is how a banal love story that has lasted since 1998 between Olivier Ménard and the L’Équipe channel begins. Since 2008, he has been presenting a daily show called The evening team, where we like to replay the match, between frank laughter and real expertise. At his side, a merry band of faithful where you can meet old figures of journalism like Didier Roustan and younger faces like Giovanni Castaldi (Benjamin Castaldi’s half-brother), ex-footballers like Johan Micoud, and even, in an eventful way, two former Presidents of the Republic, François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, assiduous viewers of the talk show. “It was easier to have them than to invite professional footballers…”, smiles Olivier Ménard. It was also on his set that the facetious Yoann Riou became known, becoming famous for his filmed comments of football matches without the images.
Olivier Ménard: his beginnings with Michel Drucker
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A program with an eclectic tone, like the career of this 52-year-old journalist, who, as a child, in Angers, lived very close to the Jean-Bouin stadium (now the Raymond-Kopa stadium), home of the professional club of the city, the SCO. Passed by a history faculty option “nightclub“, he says, then by a school of radio, it starts at Michel Drucker, in Studio Gabriel, backstage side. In 1998, he had a professional interview with the leaders of Équipe TV, which was about to be launched. “One of the first things they told me requested was to give the name of the winner of the Tour de France in 1970, my year of birth. I knew the answer, Eddy Merckx. I was hired on the spot!“, he says.
“Our challenge is to bring real added value to the viewer”
Since 2008, he has imposed on the channel evening team, this talk show split into two parts. The first, from 7.45 to 9.00 p.m. (depending on the sports programme), and the second, from the end of prime time to midnight, attract 205,000 and 295,000 fans respectively on average. Even if the show is intended to be multi-sport, this father of two college girls gives a very large place to the round ball. “Football is the mass sport. The presence of French clubs in European Cups and the France team bring us back from the world. We always stick to the news. Our challenge is to bring real added value to the viewer who already knows the result of the competition of the day when he connects to our channel“, decides the one who says he does not support any team … not even the SCO of Angers!
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