For a long time the TV host's job was denigrated in the world of television professionals. Through the sea-changes which have taken place since the 1980s, their metamorphosis into 'host-producers'? has substantially improved their status and image, and the income they can expect. TV host Thierry Ardisson's singularity makes him an indicator of the extent of these changes. From a heretical approach when he started out in the mid-eighties, he ended up incarnating the 'values'? of the 'public service'? in the 2000s. The conditions allowing for this type of trajectory attest to all the changes to the rules of TV games, which have permitted the redeployment of various 'barely legitimate'? resources in the world of television, now dominated by commercial TV.