Every evening at 8 p.m., viewers usually have an appointment with Gilles Bouleau on the TF1 newscast. But during the holidays, it is his usual joker since 2012 who replaces him at short notice: Julien Arnaud. On Friday, July 8, the latter therefore took over the orders of the newspaper while his colleague took advantage of a well-deserved vacation. This was also the case last February, during the winter holidays, at a time when the news was burning. And for good reason, the war in Ukraine had just broken out and mobilized a large part of the journalists. If TF1 did not organize a trip to the field unlike France 2 and its journalist Anne-Sophie Lapix, special editions were still presented on the first channel by Julien Arnaud.
But, completely absorbed by the news and immersed in the intensity of the moment, the presenter ended up hurting himself. “I don’t know if there was a relationship in terms of adrenaline but shortly after the news, I crashed my scooter and broke my foot“, he reported in an interview with Pocket TV. Nothing too serious since Julien Arnaud had been able to continue to ensure his work thereafter.
Because the 48-year-old journalist is truly passionate about his profession. This is also why he did not hide his disappointment at having been excluded from the interview with the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron on July 14, in favor of his colleagues Anne-Claire Coudray and Caroline Roux. “I’m not going to tell you stories… I would have loved it! I hope the opportunity will present itself“, he confided, eager to take up this challenge. Never mind, he is already very happy to be able to ensure the presentation of the JT of TF1, where the audience scores continue to be very good. “It would still be very presumptuous to believe that the presenter is more important than the newspaper. That said, be careful, the presenter has his role to play“.
This role, Julien Arnaud has also held it on LCI since August 2021, where he presents the 12h/15h with Claire Fournier from Monday to Friday.