"A journalist never sleeps. I work even on vacation," says presenter Josef Mádle. What time does he have to get up and how does his day actually go?
You are currently one of the prominent faces of Prima TV. But how did you actually get to the job of a presenter? Was it your childhood dream?
Originally, as a little boy from the village, I started acting as an amateur. At the same time, I used to play around with moderating various pageants and academies. These first experiences were gradually followed by others - moderating various balls and events for the town. After graduating from high school, I spent half a year in England, but eventually I came back to the Czech Republic. For a while I tried to study something else, but my interest in acting and moderating never left me. For a while I worked as a freelance actor with a touring theatre, and I was always moderating all kinds of events.
But as far as TV presenting was concerned, that was my main goal, and I was drawn to it from childhood. But it's very difficult to get to this job. You certainly can't expect to meet someone on the street who will help you along the way and put you at that table. I tried it in different directions - I became interested in news and reporting. First I worked in regional television, and then I was approached by Prima, where I have been for six years. I started as an editor there too, but gradually I got various opportunities in the form of presenting specials. Nowadays, I am mostly a presenter and political reporter.
You mentioned acting, which is also important to you. Is it true that you took preparatory courses at DAMU?
Yes. I took the talent tests at DAMU. The first time was right after high school, when I failed. Then I had a tendency to do it again, but because I'm also a very economically minded person and I enjoy marketing and PR, I found acting very uncertain. Because even if someone has a degree in this field, they never have a guaranteed income. So it was crucial for me to have a back door. So I have an acting background, although I failed the exams, but no wonder. There's a big overflow, with several hundred people applying, but in the end they only take maybe 12. I certainly didn't worry about it, because I managed to get into acting in theatre and film without going to school.
Do you feel that your acting experience has helped you in some way in presenting?
In moderating, you are on your own and you have to be able to guess the audience, which is similar in theatre acting. The actor also communicates with the audience and perceives how they react - whether they laugh or it's a bit more complicated. Moreover, acting has definitely freed me from nervousness, which I don't suffer from in any way.
Can you describe what a typical working day is like for you?
I wake up at 3.30am and the broadcast itself runs from 5.55am to 9.00am. Our job is to tell the viewer what is going on that day in the Czech Republic and abroad. We must not miss the current information that we usually follow continuously until the evening of the previous day - for example, the government meeting. We also have interviews with guests, which my colleague and I share. As a presenting duo, we share equally in writing the three-hour script.
I joke that sometimes when I get home after noon, because I usually take care of various private matters after the broadcast, I get sucked into the couch for a couple of hours and immediately fall asleep. But when my alarm goes off around 3:30, I'm all broken up and it's hard for me to start working on a new script for the next day. It usually takes me until ten in the evening, and by 3:30 I'm up again. For example, preparing some lighter topics or questions in interviews with politicians doesn't take me that much time, because if you have an overview, it's not that hard.
Did it take you a long time to get used to this mode that is basically unnatural for the human body?
I'm a bit of a night owl, so I've always had my best ideas at night. Besides, I don't have a problem with resting during the day, and if you add the crucial factor that you just have to enjoy this work, it's manageable. Sometimes I regret that I miss some evening events and that I can't go to a concert or the theatre so often. But the upside is that I only ever get up early one week. The next one I have the classic political reporter shifts, so I can make up for it.
Do you have any time for other activities?
I certainly like to relax, and on the one hand there are those opportunities - whether it's culture or going to the gym. But on the other hand, a journalist always has to be on the phone and has such an obligation to follow everything - even on holiday in Croatia, when you don't get a chance to film a column of Czechs at the border. So it's usually the case that you rest for half a day and then, out of your own conviction, devote some time to work. Which is manageable, you just have to be able to coordinate your time well.
Of course, the war in Ukraine has been the main topic in the media lately. To what extent do such events affect your work schedule?
As far as moderating is concerned, we have shifts divided in advance, and if, for example, someone is not ill, we stick to the schedule. But the war in Ukraine has the worst effect on the psyche. I remember that on the day it broke out, my colleague and I were supposed to have funny and interesting guests from show business in the studio. During the night, however, one learns that the invasion has begun, so we arrived at work three quarters of an hour early with a completely clean, unmarked paper. The old script we had prepared earlier could just as easily have been thrown in the trash. Instead, we had to keep track of what was going on, because we then passed that information on to the audience. Something like that is really challenging. Now, I don't mean to be able to pick up and capture everything, but in 2022 nobody expected this situation. Plus, it's not pleasant at all to report that soldiers are shooting civilians. But of course, we can't compare ourselves to rescue workers or people who experience this directly.
There is no shortage of topics on the show you host. Is it a challenge for you to "switch" like this?
It's going to sound like a cliché, but I've always wanted to do a morning show and be the one to take the viewer through a new day. I like interacting with people and diversity suits me. I enjoy consumer topics, guests from the political sphere and light-hearted lifestyle and culture, where I can relax again, which I couldn't afford as a parliamentary correspondent. This balance is great, you don't have to be tied up in a tie, but you have the chance to - as they say - blow your top a bit and simply afford more than on other shows. But there are limits to everything, so political interviews have to be factually based and you have to be prepared so that you don't get distracted by the guest or start making subjective assessments.
You said that the presenter speaks for himself. Was it difficult for you to tune into the dynamics of the presenter duo?
It's challenging in that when you're moderating in a pair, you just have to sit with the other person humanly. I certainly can't say that I have a problem with anyone here, but last year we rotated within the pairs and it was clear that while I got along with one colleague more, the other was better at improvising and the third one had a great overview. I am currently paired with Sonia Porupková and I hope I can speak for her when I say that I am very happy that we found each other, because she combines all the qualities mentioned above. Plus, we are friends, so we can find common ground even outside of broadcasting. We also know what to expect from each other and that we can rely on each other.
We mentioned at the beginning that a college degree is not absolutely necessary to work in the media. But what do you think a good presenter can't really do without?
Sometimes I feel a pang of nostalgia that I became interested in a job so early and missed that wild youth when I would pack a backpack and disappear for a year and a half somewhere abroad to learn a language or surf. At least if I ignore my one and only and also very short experience in England fresh out of high school. I can't do anything like that at the moment, because I could hardly jump on the bandwagon again. There is a lot of interest in both moderating and acting, but few people actually manage to get into those fields. It's all about diligence, determination and focus. It's also about not giving up and persevering when things don't work out right away. Maybe that's why I'm where I am now.
