It’s no secret: TF1 journalists are very well paid… but they were even more so in the good old days! If today, Gilles Bouleau and Anne-Claire Coudray admit to earning nearly 40,000 euros gross monthly, their predecessors earned much more than them: Jean-Pierre Pernaut, Claire Chazal and Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, who reached the heights of bringing together up to 12 million viewers, earned more than 120,000 euros per month. And they weren’t the only ones! In an interview he gave this Tuesday, January 2, 2024 to Sud Radio, the journalist Jean-Claude Bourretwho has been part of TF1 since its creation in 1975, revealed the tidy sum he amassed during all his years spent directing and presenting the news.
“I was winning at the time the equivalent of 6,000 euros todayas editor-in-chief of TF1 and presenter of the weekend news. Berlusconi and Hersant offered me 12,000 euros, that is to say double (to join La Cinq, editor’s note). Everyone would rather earn 12,000 than 6,000 (…) I am perfectly aware that I was already privileged” explained Jean-Claude Bourret. But in 1987, when the journalist, who suffered a heavy failure in the morning with Bonjour la France, informed his bosses of his intention to join La Cinq for twice as much, his boss Martin Bouygues took out the checkbook like never before: “He had just bought TF1. When he learned that I was going to work on La Cinq, that I had contacts with Berlusconi, he brought me in, and he offered me 110,000 euros per month, plus a car with a driver seven days a weekwhich corresponds to more than 10,000 euros per month, plus a credit card with unlimited fees“.
“I could spend 1000 euros per day”
Jean-Claude Bourret explains that Martin Bouygues gave him carte blanche on the credit card: “I could spend 1000 euros per day. So that was the equivalent of 150,000 euros per month”. An exceptional salary, which Jean-Claude Bourret nevertheless refused: “I said no, and I went for twelve times less on La Cinq.”And to justify it: “Money doesn’t interest me. It’s not my primary motivation, far from it, and I’ve demonstrated it.” A risky choice that he perhaps regretted, since the journalist did not survive the disappearance of La Cinq in favor of France 5, and left the channel in 1997. Since then, he has continued his career by publishing numerous works, the last of which is devoted to the history of La Cinq, from its creation to its disappearance.