As France when into strict lockdown Tuesday, its most reassuring face on television was forced off the screen by the coronavirus.

Jean-Pierre Pernaut, who has presented the lunchtime news on its biggest commercial channel, TF1, for nearly 32 years, thought it wiser to stay at home and hunker down against the virus.

The folksy star — who will be 70 in a few weeks — is revered as a comforting uncle figure to millions of French people, and his bulletin is the most watched on TV.