The abolition of the ORTF on 31 December 1974 led to the beginning of the public service channel
Antenne 2, which emerged from the division of the Office, to create a new editorial office bringing together most of the former journalists of
INF 2 and others from the former editorial offices of the first or third channel. The new editor-in-chief,
Jacques Sallebert, installed'' Le Journal d'Antenne 2'' every evening at 8 p.m. on 6 January 1975, with Jean-Michel Folon as the first to be credited.
Jean-Marie Cavada was the first presenter. In 1976, Jacques Sallebert entrusted the presentation to Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, who developed the audience for this information event, but who was to share the presentation of this edition with
Christine Ockrent in 1983.
Bernard Rapp and Claude Sérillon succeeded them from 1985 to 1987, then Henri Sannier from September 1987. In September 1988, he was replaced by Christine Ockrent (whose companion,
Bernard Kouchner, was then minister). On 7 September 1992, Antenne 2 became France 2 and the Managing Editor entrusted Paul Amar, who had previously been responsible for the presentation of FR3's 19/20, with the presentation of the
Journal de 20 heures de France 2. He was dismissed following a pathetic debate he organized between Bernard Tapie and Jean-Marie Le Pen in June 1994. He was replaced by Bruno Masure and Daniel Bilalian who would present the journal alternately. In 2001, the new Chief Information Officer Olivier Mazerolle recruited
David Pujadas, from
LCI, to present the
Journal de 20 heures. Viewership increased from 22% in 2001 to 24.7% of PDMs in 2004. On Monday, September 22, 2014, the program achieved its best audience since the end of March (excluding summer) with five million viewers and a 20.2% market share. On Thursday, June 8, 2017, David Pujadas presented
20 Heures for the last time. The editorial staff reserved a tribute of nearly ten minutes for him. David Pujadas said goodbye at the end of the newspaper, cheered by the editorial staff and his family, including Léa Salamé who was present. The newspaper has a strong audience with nearly 5.5 million viewers, with a peak at 7.1 million viewers, and a 25.8% market share. As of Sunday, September 10, 2017, after
20 Heures, for about 30 minutes on Sundays comes
20h30 le dimanche with guests. == Presenters ==