Europe 1 with AFP // photo credit: AFP 15:50 p.m., August 27, 2023

At almost 81 years old, Michel Drucker, returns to France 3 for his 59th television season. The iconic host had serious health problems and had undergone a second heart operation five months ago. His flagship show "Vive dimanche" is back on the screens for its 25th season.

Five months after his second heart operation, at almost 81 years old, the indestructible Michel Drucker returned to France 3 Sunday for the 25th season of "Vive dimanche", interrupted for several months because of the serious health problems of his host. "Your welcome goes to my heart, a heart that beats a little faster today because I have been waiting for this for so long," smiled Michel Drucker while raising his fists, to the applause of the audience of the show, recorded on August 22. "My bosses didn't let me go, and that's good because there were times when I wondered if I would ever see this beautiful set that I love so much," he said.

Always in the same elegant pose on his red sofa, thinned, with cautious gestures, Michel Drucker welcomed a line-up of comedians he knows well, from Laurent Gerra to Anne Roumanoff and Michèle Bernier. Throughout the show, the comedians kindly chambered him on his health. "Kerdru is longevity... It's not a human, it's a cyborg: every night, it's on a charger, and in the morning, it flashes," said Laurent Gerra, imitating Fabrice Luchini. "I was scared, I had big doubts... I almost bought the sofa," joked Michèle Bernier. "Michel Drucker, the invincible," added Anne Roumanoff. "If you die, I manage the funeral," Mathieu Madénian called him.

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59th season on TV

"You know we make up the dead?" "Why do you think my makeup artist is there all the time?" retorted Michel Drucker. After the recording, says the newspaper Le Parisien, Michel Drucker was tired, but relieved to have succeeded in his return for his 59th season on television. "It's better now", "I can hold on for two hours without a drop in speed. My great anxiety was not being able to walk normally and having a neurological deficit considering the hours of anesthesia I had in two and a half years. I was afraid of losing my vivacity, my dexterity, this ping-pong with comedians," he told the daily.

His doctors were on the alert. "They let me go back, but wanted to make sure it wasn't the heat wave on set. And my surgeon called me backstage!" he said.