Pierre Desgraupes

Pierre Desgraupes
Born	(1918-12-18)18 December 1918 Angoulême
Died	16 August 1993(1993-08-16) (aged 74)
Occupation	Journalist

Pierre Desgraupes (born 18 December 1918 in Angoulême; died 16 August 1993 in Rueil-Malmaison) was a French journalist, television producer, and television executive.

Biography

Early Career in Journalism

Born in Angoulême, the son of a factory director, Pierre Desgraupes spent his youth in Agen. He briefly attended the Lycée Pasteur in Neuilly-sur-Seine and studied philosophy until he was mobilized in 1939. He resumed his studies in 1943, earned his degree at the Sorbonne, but decided against taking the teaching certification exam to pursue a career in journalism.

In 1944, he joined the press service of the Ministry of Veterans and Prisoners of War, led by Henri Frenay. In 1947, he entered the literary department of the RTF and became the editor-in-chief of Journal parlé, a position he held for nine years. He also contributed to the Arts and Shows section of Le Patriote Résistant, a monthly magazine published by the National Federation of Deportees and Resisters.

A pioneer of French television, in 1953, he launched Lectures pour tous, a literary show he co-hosted with his friend Pierre Dumayet until 1968. He produced En votre âme et conscience, in which, between 1956 and 1969, Dumayet and Claude Barma discussed major legal cases, allowing the audience to act as the jury. In 1959, he was called by Pierre Lazareff to work with Dumayet and Igor Barrère on Cinq colonnes à la une, a news and documentary program.

He continued his radio collaborations with RTF, then as a producer for Radio Luxembourg and Europe no. 1, while also working for the daily newspapers Paris-Presse and France-Soir.

ORTF

Demanding greater freedom in public news during the events of May 1968, Desgraupes went to work for TSR (Swiss Radio and Television).

In September 1969, Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas appointed him director of news at ORTF, where he instilled a sense of freedom from political influence in the post-May 1968 spirit. He revitalized the newsroom by hiring prominent voices from radio stations such as RTL, Europe 1, and from the press, including Le Nouvel Observateur and Le Monde (e.g., Philippe Gildas, Joseph Pasteur, François-Henri de Virieu, Étienne Mougeotte). In November 1969, he launched a new television news format with a single anchor and a teleprompter. Opposition parties and unions were also given access to the airwaves.

After being dismissed in July 1972, he retired to Ville-d'Avray, continuing as a producer and editorialist for Le Point.

Antenne 2

He returned to public television as CEO of Antenne 2 in August 1981. He reassembled the team he had left in 1972, gave the 8 PM news slot to a woman, Christine Ockrent, introduced morning news programming, created autonomous program units, and encouraged dynamic, innovative, and high-quality programming (e.g., Michel Drucker's Champs-Élysées, Les Enfants du rock, La Chasse aux trésors, Gym Tonic, and Cinéma, Cinémas). He also pioneered intimate confessions on TV with Pascale Breugnot's magazine Psyshow and strengthened the network's focus on French fiction with shows like Châteauvallon. Under his leadership, Antenne 2 surpassed TF1 in audience ratings by 1982. After the resignation of the Prime Minister and the introduction of a law lowering the retirement age for heads of public companies to 65, he was not reappointed and left in November 1984.

Desgraupes left behind the image of a sometimes gruff but fiercely independent man, able to resist political pressures from both the right and left.

La Sept

At the request of Georges Fillioud, Secretary of State for Communication Technologies in the Laurent Fabius government, Desgraupes led a mission, starting on 14 November 1984, to create a European cultural television channel. In June 1985, he submitted the CANAL 1 report, which emphasized culture as a unifying factor. This report inspired the creation of the European public television channel La Sept in July 1985.

He then presided over Sofica Création from 1985.

Nuclear Safety and Information Council

Desgraupes became vice president of the Nuclear Safety and Information Council. In July 1991, he published a report on radioactive waste management, recommending greater transparency and better coordination between various organizations responsible for storage and disposal of radioactive materials.

Filmography

In 1964, he appeared at the beginning of the film Tintin and the Blue Oranges. He also authored a cancer prevention educational film titled K le Crabe.

Private Life

He married Madeleine Blum on 14 December 1951 and had three children: Michèle (1945), Bernard (1954), and Hélène (1956).

Pierre Desgraupes' grave is located near the entrance of the small cemetery in Saint-Léon-sur-l'Isle, near Périgueux.

Honors

• Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (1983)

Publications

• En votre âme et conscience (with Pierre Dumayet, 1963)
• Poètes d’aujourd'hui, Rainer Maria Rilke (1970)
• En direct de la médecine (1976)
• Le mal du siècle (1978)
• Non-lieu (1981)
• Hors antenne: Entretiens (1992)

Documentary

• Rembob'INA: Pierre Desgraupes, a Television Pioneer, LCP, 2022.