Karl Zéro
Encyclopedia
Karl Zéro is the stage name of Marc Telenne (born August 6, 1961 in Aix-les-Bains
Aix-les-Bains
Aix-les-Bains is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.It is situated on the shore of Lac du Bourget, by rail north of Chambéry.-Geography:...

, Savoie
Savoie
Savoie is a French department located in the Rhône-Alpes region in the French Alps.Together with the Haute-Savoie, Savoie is one of the two departments of the historic region of Savoy that was annexed by France on June 14, 1860, following the signature of the Treaty of Turin on March 24, 1860...

). Zéro is a political talk show host/personality (Le Vrai Journal) who has recorded albums of pop standards of the 1940s and 1950s. His pseudonym is all that remains from his punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...

 period (from 1977, when he was 16), other than a few scars from run-ins with 'rockers'.

His music was used in the X-Files episode "Improbable".

Biography

Karl Zero is the son of Annick Tellenne, a talk show host on KTO
KTO
KTO can refer to:* Korean Theater of Operations* Korea Tourism Organization KTO , a French-language television channel of the Archdiocese of Paris* Kuwait Theater of Operations...

 (a Catholic television station) and the author of Le goût de vivre; la recette du bonheur (The taste for life, the recipe for happiness - 2000). He has three brothers: Éric Tellenne, a writer under the name of Raoul Rabut, Bruno Tellenne (aka Basile de Koch), a comedian and co-director of the satirical comedy troupe Jalons, and Olivier, a business executive. He is married to Anne-Laure Tellenne, stage name Daisy d'Errata.

His first publication was a comic entitled The Adventures of Edmond in the fan magazine Jalons in the early 1980s. Subsequently he started to work for the publications Métal Hurlant
Métal Hurlant
Métal Hurlant is a French comics anthology of science fiction and horror comics stories, created in December 1974 by comics artists Jean Giraud and Philippe Druillet together with journalist-writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet and financial director Bernard Farkas.The four were collectively known as "Les...

, Charlie Hebdo
Charlie Hebdo
Charlie Hebdo is a French satirical weekly newspaper, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics and jokes. It appeared from 1969 to 1981, when it folded, and was resurrected in 1992. The current editor is cartoonist Charb. His predecessors are François Cavanna and Philippe Val...

, Zoulou, and L'Écho des savanes
L'Écho des savanes
L’Écho des Savanes is a French comics magazine founded in May 1972 by Claire Bretécher, Marcel Gotlib and Nikita Mandryka. It featured the work of French and international authors and graphic artists in mature-oriented comics over the course of 34 years, but temporarily ended publication in...

, first as an artist and then as a story writer. At the same time, in 1981, he started working for the society magazine Actuel as a journalist specialising in interviewing stars. He also joined the just formed team of Radio Nova
Radio Nova
Radio Nova may refer to one of several different radio stations, among them:*Nova , a network of radio stations in Australia:** Nova 96.9 , Sydney 96.9 FM** Nova 100 , Melbourne 100.3 FM** Nova 106.9 , Brisbane 106.9 FM...

, working alongside his future wife, Daisy d’Errata. He then joined the Globe and Lui
Lui
Lui is a French adult entertainment magazine created in November 1963 by Daniel Filipacchi, a fashion photographer turned publisher, Jacques Lanzmann, a jack of all trades turned novelist, and Frank Ténot, a press agent, pataphysician and jazz critic..The objective was to bring some charm "à la...

, where his talents as an interviewer attracted notice. For a few months he hosted a hilariously funny radio show on RFM
RFM
On Wikipedia, RFM may refer to Wikipedia:Requests for mediation. For other uses, see RFM .RFM is a method used for analyzing customer behavior and defining market segments...

 with Antoine de Caunes
Antoine de Caunes
Antoine de Caunes is a television presenter, actor, writer and film director. He is the son of two prominent French personalities, television journalist-reporter Georges de Caunes and television announcer Jacqueline Joubert...

 and Albert Algoud called Babebibou.

In 1986 Karl Zéro was hired by Europe 1
Europe 1
Europe 1, formerly known as Europe n° 1, is a privately owned radio network created in 1955. It is one of the leading French radio broadcasters and heard throughout France...

 to host their show Géant Gratuit (Free Giant) with Doug Headline (son of Jean-Patrick Manchette
Jean-Patrick Manchette
Jean-Patrick Manchette was a French crime novelist credited with reinventing and reinvigorating the genre. He wrote ten short novels in the seventies and early eighties. His stories are violent, existentialist explorations of the human condition and French society...

). They would be let go after four months. Zéro then returned to TF1
TF1
TF1 is a national French TV channel, controlled by TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network...

 while Doug devoted himself to film. At TF1, Zéro's show Pirates with Jean-Yves Lafesse lasted for only one episode in September 1987. Again, his sense of humour was considered 'inappropriate' and he was let go.

Alain de Greef of Canal+
Canal+
Canal+ is a French premium pay television channel launched in 1984. It is 80% owned by the Canal+ Group, which in turn is owned by Vivendi SA. The channel broadcasts several kinds of programming, mostly encrypted...

 (a French pay for view TV channel) then offered him the direction of Nulle part ailleurs (Nowhere else) with his old collaborator Antoine de Caunes. He made use of video gags to bring political personalities into his sketches, which often focussed on current events. In 1993 he successfully proposed adding a television news report parody called "Zerorama", "telling events of moral rearmament", in which he used a mode of presentation and tone inspired by newsreels of the Vichy regime under Philippe Pétain
Philippe Pétain
Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Joseph Pétain , generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain , was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France , from 1940 to 1944...

 in order to satirise Édouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur
Édouard Balladur is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 29 March 1993 to 10 May 1995.-Biography:Balladur was born in İzmir, Turkey, to an Armenian Catholic family with five children and long-standing ties to France...

's government and the media supporting it. Also in 1993, he directed an offbeat film called Le Tronc, in which he appeared alongside Albert Algoud, José Garcia
José Garcia (actor)
José Garcia , sometimes credited as José Luis Garcia, is a French film and television actor.- Early life and education :He was born in Paris, France.- Career :...

 and Lova Moor
Lova Moor
Lova Moor , is a French dancer, singer and occasional actress.-Biography:She began her career as a nude dancer...

.

From September 1996 to June 2006 he was the presenter of Le Vrai Journal on Canal +, a television news show with the intention of 'saying out loud' what other French news shows 'kept hidden'. Karl Zéro is not a journalist and does not have press credentials. In the show, he mixed classic news reports, usually filmed by the CAPA Agency, and sketches using video gags, in which his wife Daisy d'Errata frequently played a part. When talking with politicians, he attempted to make them accept the informal mode of address. Over 10 seasons, his audience remained steady at a 10% market share
Market share
Market share is the percentage of a market accounted for by a specific entity. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 67 percent responded that they found the "dollar market share" metric very useful, while 61% found "unit market share" very useful.Marketers need to be able to...

, i.e., 1.5 million viewers a week. He became the reference point for politicians who wanted to reach young people.

Between 2000 and 2002 he published a printed offshoot of the show, le Vrai Papier Journal. Also from September 2001 to June 2002, at the suggestion of Eric Guillaumond, he co-produced with Michel Malaussena Le journal des bonnes nouvelles, also on Canal +. In March 2003 this was renamed Le contre-journal. He also produced 60 jours 60 nuits, which told the story of the intersecting lives of Joeystarr and Francis Lalanne
Francis Lalanne
Francis Lalanne is a French singer, songwriter and poet. He is the brother of composer Jean-Félix Lalanne and film director René Manzor.- Studio albums :* 1979: Rentre chez toi...

.

In 2004, Zéro also hosted C’est quoi ce jeu? on Canal +.

In 1996, when Le Vrai journal was beginning, Karl Zéro agreed to John Paul Lepers' request that he meet with Pierre Carles
Pierre Carles
Pierre Carles is a French documentarist, who has often been compared to Michael Moore for his use of the documentary form to denounce mainstream media, which he accuses of having conflicts of interest .-Filmography:...

, who had been censured a year earlier by Canal + for his film criticising TV journalism, Pas vu à la télé. Carles proposed filming an exposé of Canal + censorship, which Zéro was naturally unable to do on that same network. Carles' second proposal, on Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...

's practice of choosing the journalists who would interview him, notably Michel Field, who at the time also worked for Canal +, was also rejected, this time by Alain de Greef, who was head of programming. In 1998 Carles produced a film titled Pas vu pas pris in which he juxtaposed statements by Karl Zéro on his desire to say and show anything on his show with telephone conversations between the two in which he alluded to oversight by his bosses. Zéro, for his part, deplored Carles' wasting his time "beating down open doors", saying that "When one works for a television network, they're the ones who have the final cut
Final cut privilege
Final cut privilege is a film industry term, usually used when a director has contractual authority over how a film is ultimately released for public viewing.- Condition :...

".

A Catholic, Karl Zéro nonetheless does not hide his sympathy for anti-American and anti-liberal
Anti-liberal
Anti-liberal philosophies:*Authoritarianism*Communism*Fascism*Revolutionary Socialism*Conservatism*Traditionalist School...

 points of view, and often presents reports favouring alter-mundialist
Alter-globalization
Alter-globalization is the name of a social movement that supports global cooperation and interaction, but which opposes the negative effects of economic globalization, feeling that it often works to the detriment of, or does not...

 positions. More generally, his shows are more favourable to the left wing than the right, although he willingly quotes Jesus saying "My kingdom is not of this world". His shows are produced by his own production company, La Société du spectacle, which is currently 50% owned by Endemol
Endemol
Endemol is an international television production and distribution company based in the Netherlands, with subsidiaries and joint ventures in 23 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Poland,...

, which specialises in reality television.

In June 2003, with network consent and without naming them, he read aloud on the air the accusations of the serial killer Patrice Alègre (in the form of a letter which he had received from him) and of two former prostitutes that certain prominent people in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

 were involved in a sado-masochistic group which had covered up sexual assault, torture and murder. One of the accused was later found innocent. It also appeared that Zéro had paid one of the ex-prostitutes
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

15,000 as an advance on a book. The possible violation of journalistic ethics, frequent mentions of Zéro and Canal + in publicity about the accusations, and resulting political pressure contributed to the termination of his contract for Le Vrai Journal in June 2006. After three years of investigation, in March 2007 Judge Nathalie Turquey excused Karl Zéro from the necessity of appearing in the case, subject to future appeals.

Karl Zéro's blog, video, and forum site Web 2 Zéro has hosted many videos by his fans, the 'zéronautes', and interviews especially with September 11 Truth advocates
9/11 Truth Movement
9/11 Truth movement is a collective name for loosely affiliated organizations and individuals who question the accepted account of the September 11, 2001, attacks....

, a position in which he is interested. Also online, in 2006–07 he hosted on AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...

 Le Club du Net, a weekly round-up of interviews concerning the French presidential election campaign produced by Power Podcast, and in mid-March 2007 JT2Zero, a daily video on demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...

 online newscast about the campaign produced by Havas Media. Zéro supported the candidacy of José Bové
José Bové
Joseph Bové is a French farmer and syndicalist, member of the alter-globalization movement, and spokesman for Via Campesina. He was one of the twelve official candidates in the 2007 French presidential election...

, and in his official campaign clips, Zéro was the interviewer.

Since September 2007, Karl Zéro has hosted a segment called "Les Faits Karl Zéro" on 13e Rue, a show on unsolved crimes produced by Troisième Œil, and beginning in spring 2010 was to host 90-minute spin-off shows in prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...

.

In January 2008 he accepted a position as head of the media division of the Belgian holding group Rentabiliweb.

Since September 2008, Karl Zéro has had a daily prime-time show on BFM TV
BFM TV
BFM TV is a news channel based in France and available in the whole world via digital television, cable and satellite. Its name is a combination of "BFM" and the acronym "TV"...

. Initially an interview show called Karl Zéro sur BFM TV and inspired by CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

's Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....

, following the 2008 release of his film Starko! la saison 1 on Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....

's first year as President of France, on 7 September 2009 this became Sarko Info, a parody of television news shows in which he conducts an interview following a commentary on the news by Michel Guidoni playing the part of Sarkozy.

Films directed and produced

  • Le Tronc (1992)
  • Dans la peau de Jacques Chirac (2006), an 'unauthorised autobiography' which won the César Award
    César Award
    The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....

     for Best Documentary in 2007
  • Ségo et Sarko sont dans un bateau co-directed with Michel Royer (2007)
  • Being W, co-directed with Michel Royer (2007) with Jim Meskimen
    Jim Meskimen
    Jim Ross Meskimen is an American comedian and actor, perhaps best known for his work on the improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? and as the voice of President George W. Bush and other politicians for the internet Jib Jab animated shorts...

     as George W. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

     recounting 'his' version of his life and 'his' world vision
  • Starko! la saison 1 (2008) a film about Nicolas Sarkozy
    Nicolas Sarkozy
    Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....

    ’s first year as president which was to be released in English in the USA, distributed by Michael Moore
    Michael Moore
    Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...

    .
  • En la piel de Fidel (Dans la peau de Fidel Castro) (2010) TV film with Eddy Calderon playing Fidel Castro
    Fidel Castro
    Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...

  • Being Michael Jackson, co-produced with Tarak Ben Ammar (2010)

Discography

  • Songs for Cabriolets y Otros Tipos de Vehiculos (2000) Naïve Records
    Naïve Records
    Naïve Records is a French independent record label based in Paris, specializing in electronic music, pop music, jazz and classical music. It was founded in 1997 by Patrick Zelnik, Gilles Paires and Eric Tong Cuong.-Artists:* Aṣa* Asian Dub Foundation...

    , used by Fox
    Fox Broadcasting Company
    Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

     in the X-Files episode "Improbable". The single "Inouis" a duet with his wife Daisy d’Errata, was issued in Taiwan a Mandarin Chinese version and rose to number 1 in the charts there.
  • HiFi Calypso with The Wailers
    Wailers Band
    The Wailers Band are a reggae band formed by the remaining members of Bob Marley & The Wailers‎, following the death of Bob Marley in 1981.-Previous Wailers' incarnations:The Wailers‎ started as Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh...

     (2003) Naïve
  • HiFi Calypso Vol. 2 (2005)

External links

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