Thierry Ardisson, a staple of the French television landscape for nearly four decades who ruffled feathers as an iconoclastic journalist, host and producer of often explosive talk shows, died on Tuesday from liver cancer. He was 76.
His wife, Audrey Crespo Mara, who is also a TV host and journalist, confirmed the news to French news agency AFP. “Thierry passed away as he lived: a courageous and free man,” she said in a statement. “His children and mine were united around him until his last breath.”
Nicknamed “the man in black” because of his invariable black outfits, Ardisson broke ground in France with his first major talk show, “Tout le monde en parle,” which would air late every Saturday night on France Télévisions Channel France 2 and became a hit in the late 1990s. Unlike many other TV hosts who often seemed complacent, Ardisson was known for doing in-depth research on his guests to find blind spots, even roasting them live. His brash and transgressive interview style occasionally provoked walkouts — such as Milla Jovovich — and yet, he kept luring stars like Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Brad Pitt. When Pitt visited the talk show in 2004 to promote “Ocean’s Twelve,” Ardisson asked if he’d visited Pigalle, the Parisian red light district, to which the actor replied: “I’m married!”
The late-night talk show became so popular that its audience neared a 30% market share at the height of its popularity. In 2006, Ardisson joined the pay TV group Canal +, where he hosted and produced “Salut les terriers,” which also became iconic.
Ardisson was passionate about cinema and tried to venture into moviemaking in 2008, when he attended the Cannes Film Festival and announced in Variety that he had enlisted Robert Moresco and Larry Cohen to develop two films, “10 Days in Cannes” and “Talk Show.” But those ambitious projects stalled, even though he had managed to secure some partners in France.
To this day, Ardisson’s interviews are still watched by millions on the YouTube channel INA Arditube, which he co-created with France’s Institut National de L’audiovisuel (INA), drawing nearly 4 million visitors each month.
In recent years, he dedicated himself to “Hotel du Temps,” an innovative yet short-lived show which brought back legendary figures, including Princess Diana, French actor Jean Gabin and singer Dalida, with the use of AI and work from MacGuff, the leading visual effects and animation company behind “Despicable Me.” When announcing the show in a 2021 interview with Variety, Ardisson shared his aspiration for the format, saying he wanted to “enlighten people, tell them things they don’t know about history and also entertain them in the spirit of what public television is meant to be.” While “Hotel du Temps” didn’t take off and stopped airing in 2023, Ardisson said it was the project in which he had invested himself the most.
Ardisson wrote three books, the last of which came out this year, “L’homme en noir.” Weaving autobiography into a fictive plot filled with humor and French pop culture references, the book depicts a famous host getting shot during the opening credits of his talk show and imagines his funeral being attended by everyone from Jesus Christ to Marie Antoinette, Freddy Mercury and Johnny Hallyday.
Last year, Ardisson’s impact on French culture was celebrated by President Emmanuel Macron, who gave him the prestigious Medal of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. Macron paid him tribute today in a statement co-signed by his wife Brigitte Macron, praising him as a “great television personality of his century.” The statement calls Ardisson “a voice, a silhouette, a style, a spirit, tinged with curiosity and irreverence,” adding that “he welcomed his guests with a warmth that could easily turn into fire.”
Tributes have been pouring in since news broke of his death this morning. In a post on X, French culture minister Rachida Dati said: “Thierry Ardisson knew how to capture the spirit of the times, decipher it with irreverence and describe it with intelligence. With his inimitable style, free spirit and taste for transgression, he shaped today’s television. He will forever remain one of the greatest figures in French broadcasting.”
He is survived by his wife Crespo Mara and his three children, Manon, Ninon and Gaston.
See more tributes to Ardisson below.
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