Chiara Francini, Rai cancels ‘Forte e Chiara’: “The desired results were not achieved”

Too low ratings, the variety show hosted by Chiara Francini on Wednesday evenings on Rai 3 it closes early. The last episode of Strong and Clear in fact, it will not be broadcast. Prime Time management announced this. Rai suspends the most self-referential show in the history of TV, in which the actress – good at theatre, cinema, fiction – was completely out of place. The audience left immediately. The project conceived with experimental purposes, we read in a note from Rai, “despite conveying important and original values, has not however produced the desired results”. The management thanked Chiara Francini who, the note concludes, “confirmed that she is a great artist by accepting the challenge of bringing this idea of ​​hers to the prime time of Rai 1”.

The public’s disaffection was clear and strong. Francini’s one woman show, upon its debut on April 10, attracted 2,176,000 spectators (with 13.9%). Not much, but on Wednesday 17 April the audience was even smaller: 1,784,000 spectators equal to 11.2% share. She had been surpassed by Vanina – An assistant commissioner in Cataniafiction with Giusy Buscemi aired on Canale 5, with 2,676,000 viewers (16.9% share). Also Who has seen? on Rai 3, it had beaten the Francini show, gaining 1,841,000 viewers (11.5% share).

Drastic decision. But evidently in Rai they have done the math and still lose audience, in a complex season (in which experiments such as Come on people! on Rai 3 and other program shifts) was not convenient. Failing with the variety show, on Rai 1, Viale Mazzini can’t afford it.

“Ladies, gentlemen and everything in between,” Francini writes in his Instagram post, “we didn’t go easy on it. Sorry if we were too strong like a gin and tonic without tonic. With Strong and Clear we tried to put together cardinals and porn stars, ballets with feathers and stories of children in a concentration camp, cartoon songs and drag queens in the same show. Maybe I exaggerated. But risk includes a dose of courage. We end here, with a well-feathered guitar playing. Let’s take it as a diet: instead of one size less, one bet less. But even if more subtle, the joy, the passion, the desire to tell will continue to feed us with large spoonfuls. I thank all those who loved and didn’t love my show, I’ll wait for the first ones at the theater, the others… too. Gourmets.” It cannot be said that the girl, even in a dark moment, does not show off her style.