“I’ve been waiting for this for so long”: Michel Drucker presents his first program since his operation

Michel Drucker is back. The 80-year-old presenter presented his first program on Sunday Vividly Sunday since his heart operation earlier this year.

Visibly thinner but in good health, Michel Drucker thanked his audience from the first minutes, who received him with a standing ovation. “I thank you for this welcome that goes straight to my heart,” he said. “A heart that beats a little faster today because I’ve been waiting for this for so long.”

The show was recorded on August 22 at the Gabriel studio in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. Drucker was surrounded by various humorists such as Laurent Gerra, Alex Vizorek, Les Chevaliers du Fiel, Anne Roumanoff and Mathieu Madénian.

“True to what is”

Everyone was joking about the return of Michel Drucker after his health problems: “I’m going to explain the concept of retirement Michel, you have to take it alive”, Mathieu Madénian had fun during the show, according to what he said the parisian.

“I never doubted that I would return,” said Stéphane Sitbon-Gomez, number 2 of France Télévisions, in the newspaper’s columns Parisian. “The show is true to what it is, very popular, entertaining, warm-hearted and natural.”

“Doing a two-hour talk show with barely looking at his files, without a teleprompter and knowing the artists so well, he’s the only one who does that. Michel, he’s a force of nature,” he added.

“I was afraid of losing my vivacity”

“I can last two hours without losing speed”, rejoiced Michel Drucker in the columns of the Parisian after recording. “I was afraid of losing my vivacity, my dexterity, this ping-pong with the comedians.”

“My great anxiety was not being able to walk normally and having a neurological deficit given the hours of anesthesia I had in two and a half years,” he said.

The 80-year-old entertainer, who claims to want to leave television in 2025, was monitored by a caretaker during the recording. His surgeon also called him backstage while his doctors checked to see if he was too hot on set.

“In very good shape, or almost”

Michel Drucker has had several health problems in recent years. After his first heart operation in 2020to treat infective endocarditis of the mitral valve, Michel Drucker had to undergo the “same operation” last March.

Animator entrusted to BFMTV last May that he was “not far from the disaster” and described himself as “a survivor” after spending several months between resuscitation, intensive care and rehabilitation.

“Those who thought he was dead will still have to wait!” The presenter also humorously launched in an Instagram post last June, describing himself “in very good shape, or almost”.

In addition to Vividly SundayMichel Drucker will co-host next year with Léa Salamé a daily talk show called What games!on the occasion of the Olympic Games in Paris.