Journal de 20 heures

The Journal de 20 heures (The 8pm Journal), also known as 20 heures and symbolized as 20h on-screen, is a French television news program that broadcasts at 8pm every evening on France 2, as its name suggests. This program is the successor of 24 heures actualités, 24 heures sur la Deux, and INF 2 which have been broadcast successively since 15 September 1967 on television.

Journal de 20 heures
French	Journal de 20 heures
Genre	Television news^[1]
Presented by	Anne-Sophie Lapix Laurent Delahousse Karine Baste Thomas Sotto Alexandra Bensaïd^[2] Béatrice Schönberg (weekend edition; 1997–2007)^[3]^[4]
Country of origin	France
Original language	French
Production
Production locations	Headquarters of France Télévisions (since 1998) Rue Florian Delbarre [fr]/Avenue Montaigne (from 1981 to 1998) Rue Cognacq-Jay [fr] (before 1981)
Running time	35-40 minutes (weekdays) 30 to 40 minutes (weekends)

History

The abolition of the ORTF on 31 December 1974 led to the beginning of the public service channel Antenne 2, which emerged from the division of the Office, to create a new editorial office bringing together most of the former journalists of INF 2 and others from the former editorial offices of the first or third channel. The new editor-in-chief, Jacques Sallebert, installed Le Journal d'Antenne 2 every evening at 8 p.m. on 6 January 1975, with Jean-Michel Folon as the first to be credited. Jean-Marie Cavada was the first presenter.

In 1976, Jacques Sallebert entrusted the presentation to Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, who developed the audience for this information event, but who was to share the presentation of this edition with Christine Ockrent in 1983. Bernard Rapp and Claude Sérillon succeeded them from 1985 to 1987, then Henri Sannier from September 1987. In September 1988, he was replaced by Christine Ockrent (whose companion, Bernard Kouchner, was then minister).

On 7 September 1992, Antenne 2 became France 2 and the Managing Editor entrusted Paul Amar, who had previously been responsible for the presentation of FR3's 19/20, with the presentation of the Journal de 20 heures de France 2. He was dismissed following a pathetic debate he organized between Bernard Tapie and Jean-Marie Le Pen in June 1994.^[5] He was replaced by Bruno Masure and Daniel Bilalian who would present the journal alternately.

In 2001, the new Chief Information Officer Olivier Mazerolle recruited David Pujadas, from LCI, to present the Journal de 20 heures.^[6] Viewership increased from 22% in 2001 to 24.7% of PDMs in 2004.

On Monday, September 22, 2014, the program achieved its best audience since the end of March (excluding summer) with five million viewers and a 20.2% market share.^[7]

On Thursday, June 8, 2017, David Pujadas presented 20 Heures for the last time. The editorial staff reserved a tribute of nearly ten minutes for him. David Pujadas said goodbye at the end of the newspaper, cheered by the editorial staff and his family, including Léa Salamé who was present. The newspaper has a strong audience with nearly 5.5 million viewers, with a peak at 7.1 million viewers, and a 25.8% market share.

As of Sunday, September 10, 2017, after 20 Heures, for about 30 minutes on Sundays comes 20h30 le dimanche with guests.

Presenters

The newspaper is presented during the week, from Monday to Thursday, by Anne-Sophie Lapix. On weekends, 20 Heures is presented, from Friday to Sunday, by Laurent Delahousse.

During absences or holidays, Anne-Sophie Lapix is replaced by Julian Bugier and Laurent Delahousse is replaced by Thomas Sotto.

In 2018, Alexandra Bensaïd replaced François Lenglet.^[2]

Controversies

In December 2012, the Actuchomage website published an article in which it criticized 20 Heures for participating in the stigmatization of the unemployed and being pro-Medef.^[8]

In 2014, Bruno Masure criticized the presenter David Pujadas for the place he gave to "criminal miscellaneous facts" and for having transformed the TV news "into a neo-liberal propaganda outlet, with subtle, repetitive and totally open promotion".^[9]

Polemics

In December 2016, 20 Heures stated that a bar in the municipality of Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis) was banned for women, generating many debates on the rise of communitarianism. Later, the Bondy Blog showed that this was not the case (the establishment serves alcohol and welcomes clients), which other journalists confirmed.^[10]

See also

• France 2

References

1. "Journal 20h00". www.france.tv. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
2. "Alexandra Bensaid of France Inter replaces François Lenglet at the éco on France 2" (in French). HuffPost. 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
3. Benyahia-Kouider, Odile (16 September 1997). "Mauvaise blague pour Masure. Le 'journaliste préféré des Français' est écarté du 20 h de France 2" [Bad joke for Masure. The 'French's favourite journalist' is removed from France 2's 8 p.m.]. Libération (in French). from the original on 10 December 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
4. Kerviel, Sylvie (25 September 2006). "Mme Schonberg quittera le JT de France 2 le 25 février" [Ms Schonberg will leave France 2 newscast on February 25]. Le Monde (in French). Archived from the original on 10 December 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
5. Débat entre Bernard Tapie et Jean Marie Le Pen arbitré par Paul Amar dans le cadre de la campagne pour les élections européennes, June 1, 1994, Journal de 20 heures de France 2 - INA (video) (1:01:52)
6. Portrait of David Pujadas, in Le Tube, October 11, 2014
7. "Record audience for the 8pm France 2 news yesterday". Jean-Marc Morandini's blog. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
8. "Unemployed cheats, here we go again for a ride!". Actuchomage.org (in French). December 5, 2012. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
9. Bruno Masure : « David Pujadas a transformé le JT du service public en officine de propagande néo libérale » ("David Pujadas has transformed the public service news into a neo-liberal propaganda agency") - Le Figaro, 4 December 2014
10. Bréville, Benoît (2018-04-01). "The power of the shadow". Le Monde diplomatique (in French). Retrieved 2018-03-27.