France Inter: Claude Askolovitch on Ouest-France TV, Sonia Devillers stops the 7:50 a.m. interview... The morning show's transfer window

There's a change in France Inter's back-to-school schedule. Following the announcement of the departure of Claude Askolovitch , one of the leading voices in the morning show, it's Sonia Devillers' turn to shake up listeners' routines. The public station announced on Friday, May 16, that the journalist would be changing slots at the start of the school year: she will move from the 7:50 a.m. news interview to the 9:05 a.m. news interview, which will focus more on society.

"The ambition is to tell the story of the era with guests who have experienced firsthand what they will be talking about in the first person," Sonia Devillers told Le Monde . This interview should last about fifteen minutes. For two years, she has conducted interviews that have become very political at 7:50 a.m., on the most listened-to morning radio show in France, with nearly 4.9 million daily listeners . However, the Nicolas Demorand-Léa Salamé duo should in principle remain at the helm of the morning show after the fall, of which they are "the pillars," emphasizes the radio director, Adèle Van Reeth .

A replacement, either internally or externally at Radio France, is currently being recruited to succeed Sonia Devillers in her original slot, which will become crucial with the 2027 presidential election on the horizon. According to information from Le Parisien , Benjamin Duhamel is strongly considered for the position. The management of the public radio station is said to be actively discussing with the 30-year-old journalist, who has become one of the most sought-after personalities of this 2025 transfer window. Alain Duhamel's nephew made a name for himself on BFMTV, which he joined in 2019 before becoming one of the main faces of the channel over the seasons.

The public broadcaster also needs to find a journalist for the press review currently being provided by Claude Askolovitch, who is leaving. The Ouest-France group also announced on Friday, May 16, that the journalist will be joining its future television channel Novo19 as a columnist, which will be broadcast starting in September.

"The journalist who has been hosting the morning press review on France Inter since 2017, is joining Novo19, the Ouest-France group's TNT channel, as a columnist on the evening talk show, " the group said on its website. "He will return on September 1, 2025, alongside Claire Arnoux, who will be the presenter," Ouest-France added, specifying that this daily meeting "will give pride of place to the regions."

Claude Askolovitch, 62, who has also worked for Marianne , Le Nouvel Observateur , Le Journal du Dimanche and Arte, explained the reasons for his arrival on the future TNT channel: "It is in the regional press, and particularly Ouest-France, that I find the things with which I am most in tune. We read there that, no, we are not a country that shares nothing and where people have nothing in common. On the contrary, France still knows how to create a society."

"I'll do what I know how to do, namely tell stories. But in a different form: it will be an extension. I hope we invent something new, that we tell the story of a changing society, that we make it intelligible, that we show that not everything is hopeless," the journalist assured Ouest-France .

Eleven DTT frequencies were reallocated in December by Arcom. The regulator selected two new channels, one launched by CMI France, the group controlled by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, and called T18 , and another by Ouest-France. T18, starting June 6, and Novo19 starting September 1, will replace C8 and NRJ12 , which ceased broadcasting at the end of February.

The future free channel from the Ouest-France group will offer a variety of programs (news, magazines, cinema, documentaries, etc.) as well as a 75-minute talk show every weekday evening.