Andrei Malakhov explained the reasons for his departure from the country's main television channel. The ex-presenter of Channel One said that he was tired of “reading from a piece of paper” and had long grown to produce his own show.

Andrei Malakhov. Photo: Channel One website

According to him, he is tired of being "the presenter in the ear" and has long had something to say to the audience without prompting.

“It's like in family life: first there was love, then it grew into a habit, and at some point it was a marriage of convenience,” he said frankly in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper.

Therefore, the TV presenter wanted to take the initiative into his own hands. "I want to grow up, become a producer, a person who makes decisions, including deciding what my program should be about, and does not give up my whole life under a salute and looks like a puppy in the eyes of people changing during this time. The TV season is over, I decided that you need to close this door and try yourself in a new capacity in a new place, "he continued.

At the same time, Malakhov did not comment on rumors that the main reason for his departure was a conflict with producer Natalya Nikonova. She came up with "Let them talk", and then left for 9 years in the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company and returned to the "First" only this year.

“I have always believed that in love and dislike you have to be consistent. It’s unusual for me to change my set of beliefs as if by magic. That’s where I’ll end the story,” he said.

The presenter assured that parting with "First" had no effect on his relationship with its leader Konstantin Ernst. They say that he realized that Andrei, due to life circumstances (in November, the presenter will have a first-born), will not be able to devote much time to the project and let him go in peace.

However, Malakhov did not hide the fact that he had sent the application by the Russian Post, and sent his representative to negotiate with Ernst about the extension of his contract.

The TV presenter signed a new cooperation agreement with the Rossiya TV channel. He will head the "Live" broadcast, which was previously run by Boris Korchevnikov.

By the way, the latter, in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, said that the era of his Live broadcast is over. "The program that will be released in his place will be different. But it will keep everything that made the" Live broadcast "successful and loved by the audience," he said.

Malakhov himself confirmed that part of the Let the Talk team moved to the second channel in the country with him. Thus, the new airs will be produced together with Alexander Mitroshenkov, who also did the "Big wash" earlier. But even here, the final word will remain with Malakhov.

"My wife calls me the boss-sucker. It is clear that television is a team story, but the final word is for the producer," he concluded.

The TV presenter has already published an open letter with his former colleagues.

Channel One employees, aware of the situation with the departure of the popular TV presenter Andrei Malakhov to Rossiya 1 (VGTRK), agreed to anonymously tell reporters about the reasons for the conflict that led to the showman's departure, the Federal News Agency reports.

Even in the first reports about the presenter's possible transition to "Live" on "Russia 1", it was said that Malakhov's decision to change his place of work was due to the arrival of producer Natalia Nikonova in the team of the talk show "Let them talk".

RBC, for example, reported that Malakhov had previously had conflict situations with this employee, and the TV presenter categorically objected to her return to the team, but this time the channel's management did not listen to him.

Now, when the situation was outlined by sources from Channel One, the state of affairs has cleared up: it turns out that Nikonova allegedly brought new trends related to the upcoming elections to the work of the editorial board of Let the Speak. In particular, she allegedly offered to devote more episodes of talk shows to political issues.

Andrei Malakhov, who throughout his work at Let Them Talk, focused on social issues, refused to change priorities and therefore had to leave the show.

At the same time, at the official level, the situation continues to remain extremely vague: none of the parties made official statements (except that VGTRK was warned that while the channel's management was on vacation, no drastic decisions should be expected). Accordingly, there is no confirmation of Malakhov's departure from Channel One either - as well as about his employment at Russia 1.

Journalists are no less worried about the question of who will replace the TV presenter on the talk show "Let the Talk". The media make different assumptions. In particular, the other day a hypothesis was made public that the channel's management is going to try as leading "non-media figures". Some publications, citing anonymous sources, claim that Malakhov's place can be taken by the former partner of the now deceased singer Zhanna Friske and the father of her child, TV and radio host Dmitry Shepelev.

Andrey Malakhov is 45 years old, he has been working on Channel One since 1992. In parallel, he is the editor-in-chief of the glossy magazine StarHit and lectures on the basics of journalism at the Russian State Humanitarian University. The journalist became the host of the talk show “Let Them Talk” on August 30, 2005. Prior to that, he hosted Good Morning, Big Wash and Five Evenings. In addition, he appeared as a presenter in such projects of Channel One as Lie Detector and Flea Market, did a “personalized” Saturday show “Tonight with Andrey Malakhov”. Over the years, the TV presenter has worked on large-scale projects "Golden Gramophone", "Eurovision", "Five Stars" and "Minute of Glory".

The host of the talk show "Let Them Talk" Andrei Malakhov decided to leave Channel One because of the desire of the new producer to "add more political themes." This was reported by the Russian BBC service, citing anonymous sources.

According to the newspaper, Malakhov had a conflict with the management after in May 2017, producer Natalya Nikonova, producer of the rival show “Live” on “Russia 1”, came to the channel. Before leaving Channel One for VGTRK, she had already worked for Let Them Talk.

With the appearance of Nikonova and her team on the show with an agenda about society and show business, more and more topics about politics and politicians began to appear. This was supposed to "shake up the bloc before the presidential elections," the BBC found out. Such topics are now more often discussed on Live TV, but, according to Mediascope, they cause less interest from viewers.

Another reason for Malakhov's dissatisfaction was Nikonova's "attitude" to "Let them talk" and the team that was already working on the show by the time she arrived. According to the interlocutor of the publication, the producer did not take into account that "the team has already formed."

BBC source on Channel One

When she [Nikonova] came, everyone did not really understand what was happening. There was no conflict as such, but everyone tensed. She also did "Live" on "Russia 1". And this is shit. The editors don't want to do shit.

In the summer of 2017, Channel One aired several episodes of Let Them Talk on political topics. On July 10, the studio discussed Oliver Stone's film about Vladimir Putin,

This week, the top presenter of Channel One Andrei Malakhov appeared: on the sidelines they whisper that the showman was lured away by his competitors - the channel "Russia 1". The Russian service of the BBC found out that the updated concept of the talk show "Let them talk" became the reason for the conflict between the presenter and employers. According to their version, Malakhov might not like the fact that too many political topics were added to the show, which specializes in social topics and show business.

1tv.ru

It turns out that the new producer Natalya Nikonova, with whom Malakhov has a tense relationship, invited him to move away from the favorite everyday topics of the program “Let Them Talk” and to discuss political topics on the air more often. That is why recently the guests of the talk show discussed the interview of Vladimir Putin to Oliver Stone, and several programs at once were devoted to the assassination of former State Duma deputy Denis Voronenkov.

1tv.ru

Sources on Perviy, who speak to the press anonymously, said that a change in course is expected just before the 2018 presidential elections. Thus, the channel's management wants to establish a dialogue with the voter. Political analyst Konstantin Kalachev believes that Channel One wants to "defuse" its audience:

We need some kind of relaxation, anxiety, phobias and fears need to be removed. We need an expansion of social optimism, our citizens' social well-being is falling. As part of the search for a new approach on TV, the appearance of political topics in the program for Malakhov is also one of the options for conducting a dialogue with the voter.

However, so far neither Channel One, nor Russia 1, nor Andrei Malakhov himself have commented on rumors about possible changes. In the meantime, the journalists found out that on the First Channel already a new presenter "Let them talk." It can be the presenter of the news block Dmitry Borisov.

• Andrey Malakhov is the most popular TV presenter. The program, which he has been conducting for 16 years (at first it was called "Big wash", then "Five evenings" and, finally, "Let them talk") is one of the most famous on Russian television.

• According to the Mediascope company, almost every week at least one of Let Them Talk's episodes hit the top lines of the rating of the most popular programs.

Channel One decided to add more political topics to Andrey Malakhov's talk show "Let Them Talk". This was the reason for the conflict, as a result of which the channel threatens to leave its most famous presenter, according to BBC sources.

RBC reported about Malakhov's possible departure from the First Channel at the beginning of the week. The information was confirmed by three interlocutors of the BBC Russian Service on the channel.

Recently, the presenter had conflicts with the channel's management, the staff of the TV company explained in a conversation with the BBC (everyone asked for anonymity, since they are not authorized to communicate with the press).

The problems began in May, when producer Natalya Nikonova returned to the channel, previously heading the studio for special projects of the First and already supervising, among other things, the production of the show Let Them Talk. In recent years, Nikonova worked as a producer of "Live" on "Russia 1" - a competing program "Let Them Talk".

The main thing that caused the dissatisfaction of Malakhov's team was the topics that appeared on the program with the arrival of Nikonova. The show “Let Them Talk” has always specialized in discussing the social agenda and show business: from the mass poisoning by Hawthorn to the addiction of the presenter Dana Borisova.

Now, according to two BBC sources, political themes have begun to appear on the program. According to a BBC interlocutor in the television industry, this could be the reason for Malakhov's conflict with the producer.

"Nikonova returned to the First to shake up the socio-political bloc before the presidential elections," - says a BBC source.

Several issues of Let Them Talk, aired since May, were indeed devoted to politics. For example, on July 10, a program was released about Oliver Stone and his film about President Vladimir Putin. In the June 27 issue, they talked about the murder of former deputy Denis Voronenkov in Kiev. Another issue on the same topic was released on July 12 - "Maksakova and Voronenkov: new details of the operation" elimination ".

Topics about politics and politicians are often discussed at the direct competitor of Malakhov's program, on Live TV, where Nikonova's producer came from. While in Malakhov's studio, the program participants are watching funny videos from YouTube (the Childhood Burns episode on June 1), they talk on Live TV about the age difference between the new French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife (The Unequal Marriage episode was released that the same day, June 1).

But, as the data of "Mediaskop" show, political topics arouse much less interest among viewers (see graph). Even the rating of Direct Line with the president on Channel One turned out to be lower than the rating of Let Them Talk on the same day. In the studio, Malakhov then discussed scandals with actor Alexei Panin.

All the changes that are now taking place on Russian television must be viewed through the prism of the upcoming presidential elections, says political analyst Konstantin Kalachev.

“We need some kind of relaxation, anxiety, phobias and fears need to be removed,” he said. “We need an expansion of social optimism, our social well-being is falling among citizens”. According to him, in the search for a new approach on TV, the appearance of political topics in the program of Malakhov is also one of the options to conduct a dialogue with the voter.

The harsh propaganda on television needs to be changed, and it should have been done for a long time, says political analyst Grigory Dobromelov. In his opinion, doing this right before the elections is dangerous for the authorities - any changes bring instability. Dobromelov notes that Malakhov is not a propagandist and has little to do with politics.

“It is rather like a drug on which a significant part of our fellow citizens are sitting - if it goes to another channel, they will watch it there, too,” the political scientist noted.

Andrey Malakhov is the most popular TV presenter. The program, which he has been leading for 16 years (at first it was called "Big wash", then "Five evenings", and finally, "Let them talk") is one of the most famous on Russian television. According to the company Mediascope (formerly TNS), almost every week at least one of the Let the Speak episodes hits the top lines of the rating of the most popular programs.

For several years in a row, Russians have included Malakhov himself in the list of representatives of the Russian elite. So, in December 2016, 4% attributed it to representatives of the country's elite (Levada Center survey).

And in 2011-2012, the TV presenter was in the top ten of the elite, along with President Putin, Foreign Minister Lavrov and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill (VTsIOM poll). Moreover, the patriarch lost to Malakhov in popularity.

The TV presenter's dissatisfaction was caused by many changes that appeared in the program after the change of the producer. Nikonova brought a part of the team with her, and the program “Let Them Talk” began to be filmed in a new studio.

“When she came, everyone did not really understand what was happening. There was no conflict as such, but everyone tensed. She also did "Live" on "Russia 1". And this is shit. The editorial board does not want to do shit, "a BBC source explains the reasons for the conflict between the editorial board and Nikonova.

The conflict, which resulted in Malakhov's threat to resign, developed not only because of this, but also because of Nikonova's attitude to the program and the people working on it in general. "She did not take into account that the team is already established," - sums up the BBC's interlocutor.

New people are already being tried for Malakhov's position, RBC wrote. BBC interlocutors on Channel One say that they heard about the casting for the presenter's position. One of the contenders is the current host of Vechernye Novosti, Dmitry Borisov. Another candidate is Dmitry Shepelev, who recently began to lead the program "Actually" on the First Channel. Shepelev and Borisov did not confirm this information, but did not deny it either.

Malakhov himself can go to "Russia 1" in "Live", transferring the staff of the talk show "Let them talk" there, RBC argued. However, the BBC's interlocutor, close to the editorial board of Let the Speak, claims that so far no one has written a letter of resignation.

Television critic Irina Petrovskaya is sure that the information about Malakhov's departure to VGTRK is "80% fake." "It's like assuming that Putin will move from the presidency to work in the Moscow mayor's office," she added. Malakhov is a sane person, notes Petrovskaya, but there is no common sense to leave the First.

The First did not respond to the BBC's request. VGTRK neither confirmed nor denied Malakhov's transfer. “We have all the management on vacation, so this physically cannot happen at the moment,” a representative of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) told RT.

The holding's press secretary, Victoria Arutyunova, did not respond to calls from a BBC correspondent. Nikonova declined to comment on the situation. Malakhov also did not answer calls. His spokesman declined to comment, saying that Malakhov was on vacation until August 10.

In an interview with the magazine in June 2017, Malakhov answered the question in such a way that he could force him to leave the First: "Only if, in order to increase the ratings, I would be forced to fuck a pig on the air."