Star French TV anchor 'pushed out after 21 years'

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — France's star news anchor Patrick Poivre d'Arvor is to be ousted in favour of a glamorous younger woman in a mini-revolution for the French media landscape, reports said Monday.

Known affectionately by his initials "PPDA", the 60-year-old Poivre d'Arvor has spent 21 years hosting the country's most-watched evening news broadcast on private channel TF1 for a daily audience of some 10 million viewers.

Long a household name in France, the veteran journalist made global headlines in 1990 just before the Gulf War for smuggling an 18-month-old baby out of Baghdad in a travel bag.

But in a mini-earthquake for France's media landscape, RTL radio reported Sunday that he will hand over in September to Laurence Ferrari, a 41-year-old blonde who has hosted...