Pierre Ménès accuses L'Equipe channel of deliberately sabotaging L'Equipe du Soir

Pierre Ménès has leveled serious accusations against the management of L’Equipe channel, claiming they are deliberately orchestrating the decline of L’Equipe du Soir to better justify its cancellation at the end of the season.

In his YouTube column Face à Pierrot, the former Canal+ consultant pulls no punches: “When you want to kill your dog, you say it has rabies. But here, it’s more like when you want to kill your dog, you give it rabies. That’s what the channel boss is doing by decapitating this show.” According to him, the strategy is clear: provoke a drop in viewership to have a financial pretext for stopping the program.

The return of the late-night talk show was indeed marked by radical changes. Johan Micoud, a historic figure on the show, was sidelined, as were most of the established commentators. Management also removed the “river” segment and the head-to-head debates that structured the program, before partially backtracking in the face of protests from loyal viewers. Ménès judges this reversal insufficient and without lasting effect.

“Now there are only four commentators and I’m sorry, but this gender parity to talk about men’s football, it doesn’t make sense,” he continues. “It makes no sense and I think viewership will suffer extremely. At the end of the season, the channel boss will have an easy time stopping the show because he’ll say viewership is in free fall. When you do everything to make viewership drop, of course…”

No viewership figures have leaked since the show returned to air in late August. But the ground was already mined: last March, Paris Match revealed that Vincent Broussard, the channel’s director, was considering ending the show after the 2026 World Cup, citing continuous audience erosion. The program was ultimately maintained, though nothing guaranteed its future.