“I will not dynamite the” 13 hours “of TF1”, assures Marie-Sophie Lacarrau

What surprised you during your tour in the regions to meet your future colleagues?

I did not expect them to be also numerous. I measured the love they had for their profession, their region and the people who live there. This confirmed a feeling I had while looking at the newspaper. It did me good to talk to them and to hear them say to me: “We are with you, we will continue together. I told them not to change anything. This newspaper, I will not blast it from January 4.

You will still bring your paw, right?

I come with my personality , Yes. Now, this love of regions, of the land, that’s what I am at the bottom. I will not have any difficulty accompanying this. In the 16 years of JT that I have behind me, I have always talked about the regions. I want to go even more in everyday life. I want to talk to families, to mothers. I want to talk about leisure, consumption… What do I put on my plate? How do I choose my products? I also want to highlight modernity in our regions. When we talk about traditions, we immediately imagine an elder who continues to exercise a profession that has disappeared. But, more and more, when we arrive on the ground to tell these traditions, it is young people who come to these trades.

The ” 13 heures ”of TF1 has the reputation of being a newspaper intended for retirees. Is there any truth in this?

I was surprised to find than the average age of 13 hours of TF1 is 58 years, where that of 13 hours from France 2 – I do not want to compare but in this case, it is necessary – is 59 years. The cliché is wrong. We must open our eyes: we are not only addressing retirees.

During the credits, I will think of all the ones I love. I will have a big thought for my parents. They carried me this far, they trusted me when I told them I wanted to be a journalist. We had no connection with this profession. I did not go to school, I trained in the field. They have always said “banco! As many voices around were saying “But no one is expecting you, how are you going to get there?” You don’t know anyone! “Indeed, I did not have a network but I managed to do the job I dreamed of when I was in college. It is a huge chance. Every morning, when my alarm goes off, I’m excited, I want to go. I never balk. I’m happy to get back to work every day.

The journalism qualified as a “passion job”, does that mean anything to you?

clearly one. We are in the exchange with others. I love reaching out to others, working for others. It’s a job where you don’t count and where you learn it every day. We can ask all the questions that come to our mind, we can go anywhere, to places where we would not go if we weren’t a journalist. This is what made me want to do this job. What a luxury to be the one who seeks information, checks it, prioritizes it and gives it to the public, in order to be relevant, close, serious but also with a smile.

There is, particularly in recent years, a form of mistrust towards journalists. What does this mean to you?

This forces us to rigor but I think we all already have a lot. Speaking of 13 hours of TF1, we are less in this feeling of distrust. There is this close link that has existed for years: the public is found in the newspaper. We’re not above anyone, in fact. More or less, we live the same life as our viewers. Five years ago, I lived in my Toulouse countryside, a village of 1. inhabitants. The territorial issues, with the essential car, the snow that disrupts everything, the fuel tank that you have to remember to fill when the prices are at their lowest, I know, I have lived it. I’m still living it because I’m almost at “three quarters” in Paris. As soon as I can I escape.

Not every weekend, otherwise it’s exhausting. But all the vacation periods, I need to go back to the South.

You have a southern accent. There is a lot of talk recently about “glottophobia”, that is, the stigma and discrimination of people speaking with an accent. Did you have it sometimes?

I feel like I don’t not have too much focus on the screen. I think I have it more off the air. I don’t know why, as soon as I find myself in front of the cameras, equipped with a microphone, it’s as if something was happening… I think it comes from certain letters that I have received: accused of not speaking French because I had an accent. The first one hurts, it stings, we take it for ourselves and for all those who talk like that. Then, we put things into perspective by telling ourselves that it makes no sense. Maybe I’ll think about erasing it less.

You dread to be targeted by critics when you present the “12 hours ”of TF1?

I’m never really went to read what they could say about me. Critics, I know there will be. A lot. I might ask some people to give me a digest. Not to erase negative reviews – I want to hear them too. But I want to protect myself from this. In the first few weeks, there will be comparisons. I just want to say: give me time to settle down.

I don’t want to bounce on this because I do not want to register in a match or a duel. I want to be in healthy competition with Julian. I wish him all the best on the 12 hours from France 2. I had a lot of fun embodying this edition. I just want us to keep making newspapers that correspond to us.

Did you stay in touch with Julian Bugier?

We sent each other messages when I was named, when he was named. I think we will send some after. With Julian, we were colleagues, we presented shows together, we shared 12 – July… I don’t want us to be installed as rivals.

You would have liked the France Televisions page to turn in another way?

On France 2 you also presented entertainment. You would like to animate some on TF1?

I really liked these little sides with these beautiful qualitative premiums, very stylish. Wonders will miss me. I adored these children, the values ​​conveyed on the meaning of effort, of work. Now, I have such a considerable challenge that awaits me that, at first, I want to devote myself entirely to 14 hours . Afterwards, life taught me that we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

I’m going to take a Christmas break first to be with my family, to recharge my batteries. It will do good. The week before the 4th, I’ll be at work, ordering topics and imagining what this journal will be like. But since, again, it won’t be fundamentally different from what viewers saw a week before, it won’t be the revolution. It will be more or less the same with perhaps the touch of modernity that I will bring. Femininity, too.

Has your femininity ever been a brake on your career as a journalist?

No. I would even say that initially I used it. I made my debut in motorsports. With my daddy, I had been on quite a few 4×4 raids in the desert, and one day, by sheer luck, I learned that a channel was looking for a reporter for an 4×4 show. This was the time when it was fashionable to put women in sport, you see… I took this opportunity. So no, femininity has never been a barrier. I never tried to erase it, nor to put it forward. I’m a woman, period.