A painful departure. “Constrained and forced”, they say. In a press release, sent to the “Parisien” and to AFP, Arielle Boulin-Prat and Bertrand Renard denounce the conditions of their departure from the game “Numbers and letters” on France 3. “We had chosen not to respond to requests from journalists, to digest this situation of rare violence”, explain the two entertainment referees who, last week, had not responded to our calls.
Present for 36 years for her, 47 years for him, those responsible for calculations and words claim not to share the “angelic declarations of Madame Redde-Amiel (director of games and entertainment at France Télévisions) in our columns last Friday. “Our version is less candy pink,” they point out. Starting with their alleged refusal to the reworked formula of the show, scheduled only on Saturdays and Sundays. “We didn’t refuse the supposed new version of the game, since we were never presented with it,” they say.
“France Télévisions demanded a drop in our salary of around 60%”
Another point of tension: their employment contract. “What is modestly designated as a contractual disagreement arose because France Télévisions demanded a drop in our salary of around 60% and refused to grant us the CDI that we had the audacity to claim, ”explain Arielle Boulin-Prat and Bertrand Renard.
The two sexagenarians thus indicate that they have been “on fixed-term contracts for 36 years for Arielle, and 47 years for Bertrand. “We do not exist while we are on the air every day, they write. This regularization was flatly refused to us, without explanation. It is humanly unacceptable before it is legally. »
“In short, far from wanting to leave or leave the show, it is France Télévisions where we have worked for so long who chooses to separate from us, to act alone a break that has never been asked of it”, deplore the two co-presenters. “The candy pink turns into soot black”, they conclude, confiding “all (their) affection and all (their) sadness” to the public.
From this Monday, August 29, instead of “Numbers and letters”, viewers of France 3 will discover “Family duels: the match of the regions”. A new entertainment created and hosted by Cyril Féraud, in which two families of four come to defend the colors of their place of life on general knowledge quizzes. At stake, 2,000 euros from Monday to Friday and 5,000 euros for the grand finale on Friday.
Bertrand Renard and Arielle Boulin-Prat will bid farewell to viewers on September 11, after the broadcast of the last numbers put in boxes before the summer. Then, according to our colleagues from “ Entertainment TV “, they will be replaced for the figures by Stéphane Crosnier, former champion of the program, and by “a professor of letters discovered on the educational channel Lumni” for the role held by Arielle Boulin-Prat since 1986.