As the tireless worker that he is, he immediately got to work, in meetings with Rai managers and his collaborators, starting to choose the team with which to share this two-year adventure. Carlo Conti is a workaholic – in the last two months he has: hosted the new edition of the Best Years, hosted the David Di Donatello, hosted the World Children’s Day, hosted With the heart in the name of Francesco da Assisi – and he knows well that there is no ‘it’s time to waste. It doesn’t seem like it, but the 2025 Sanremo Festival, which will take place from Tuesday 4 to Saturday 8 February, is as if it were already around the corner and the Tuscan host, already at the helm of the event from 2015 to 2017, is clear about the fact that the next few months will fly by. And so while from tonight to Friday he will be busy in Piazza del Popolo with the Tim Summer Hits 2024, sharing the stage again together with Andrea Delogu after the David di Donatello (“I know her well because in unsuspecting times I had included her in the commission of my first Sanremos. She is an excellent presenter, she has facility with language, sympathy, panache, rhythm and has a musical ear to be on a stage like this”, he said of his partner, and there are already those who take her for granted. his presence in the cast of the Festival), the first background stories related to the Sanremo to come filter through. The first surprise? The return of the Pippobaudi-inspired Dopofestival.
The indiscretion launched in recent days by Dagospia on the return of the night program which, starting from around midnight and a half, i.e. immediately after the end of the Festival episodes (yes, Conti has decided to reduce the duration of the evenings, as a sign of discontinuity compared to the era of his friend Amadeus), was relaunched by TvBlog, according to which Alessandro Cattelan could host the Dopofestival. But Stefano De Martino (next host of “Affari Tui” in place of Amadeus) and Piero Chiambretti (about to return to Rai with “Fin che la Barca Va”) would also be in the running. The Dopofestival knows the latter well: it hosted it in 1998 and 2007, as well as hosting the actual Festival for three editions, in 1997 with Mike Bongiorno, in 2001 with Raffaella Carrà, Megan Gale, Massimo Ceccherini and Enrico Papi and in 2008 with Pippo Baudo himself.
The Dopofestival had disappeared from the radar for four editions, from 2020 to 2023. The formula was somehow dusted off this year by Fiorello with his Viva Rai2… Viva Sanremo, together with his crew and Alessia Marcuzzi. Among the three all-hosts in the running, Cattelan is in pole position, eager to relaunch his career in Rai, after the so-and-so results of “Da Close Up Nobody is Normal”, the three-episode show that he hosted in prime time on Rai2 from 20 May to 3 June (the first was seen by 912 thousand spectators, the third by 709 thousand spectators – no figures are available for the second due to the strike by Nielsen, which collects the data). Behind her is the powerful manager Marta Donà, who with her artists has won the Sanremo Festival four times: in 2013 with Marco Mengoni, in 2021 with Maneskin, in 2023 again with Mengoni and this year with Angelina Mango. And according to what was reported by TvBlog, Cattelan should also be at the helm of the first evenings of Rai2 dedicated to the new Sanremo Giovani formula.
Yes, because always as a sign of discontinuity compared to the Amadeus-branded festivals, Carlo Conti would have decided to further enhance the Sanremo Giovani brand, another invention of King Pippo. If in the Amadeus era the selections of the contestants took place behind closed doors, according to what is filtering now they could instead take place on TV, with some appointments in prime time on Rai2. The selections will then culminate in December with the final, which should instead be hosted by Carlo Conti from Sanremo. It is not clear whether Conti will continue with the formula of the single group of the big names at the Festival, with the winners of Sanremo Giovani who will be added to the champions, or whether he will instead restore the distinction between Big and New Proposals of his Festivals, abolished by Claudio Baglioni in 2019, when Mahood – after winning among the Youth in December and then finding himself directly among the champions in February – won the Festival with “Soldi”.
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