Usual – nice – hustle and bustle in the studio European Nights, a program which, after more than two weeks of broadcasting, has now established its ‘business name’: to inform Rai 1 viewers about the progress of the European Football Championships underway in Germany, but above all to entertain and amuse them with teasing and jokes between those present in the studio. Even the episode broadcast last night, in fact, passed by ‘lightly’ and in a light-hearted atmosphere, thanks to the inevitable barbs between the hosts Paola Ferrari and Marco Mazzocchion whose love-hate relationship – a bit like “Sandra and Raimondo” – much of the vitality of the show is based.
The evening started, as always, with a tactical focus on the National team’s current situation. On the table for discussion was the topic of the system to adopt against Switzerland (Saturday afternoon there is the do-or-die match in the quarter-finals) but also Italy’s ‘hunger’ for goalswho have so far scored just two goals in three games and, even more worryingly, without any attackers on target.
Soon, however, the live broadcast veered towards informality thanks to the usual Mazzocchi, who suddenly decided to put Paola Ferrari in difficulty putting her in front of a poisonous question: “We know that the European top scorer is called…”. The question caused embarrassment to the presenter, since the player in question – a certain Georges Mikautadze – objectively has a tough surname to pronounce. “I have it, I have it… I also know where he plays, I know everything. But don’t test me on the pronunciation of the names of the Georgia players unless I am sufficiently prepared” replied Paola, who after having acted (almost ) the Georgian’s name and surname perfectly froze his colleague: “Is that okay with you? But I’m not joking with you tonight!”. At that point Mazzocchi diverted his attention towards him the comedian Emanuele Aureli, special guest of the episode, asking her to recite the names of the bench players of the same team. She obviously stumbled after a thousand consonants in a handful of surnames. “Now do you understand me Emanuela? Do you understand what I have to put up with every evening?”, Paola Ferrari intervened, referring to the omnipresent skits organized by Mazzocchi, who then received yet another dig from her colleague: “You have a liking for me, because it’s like this every night. You are truly adorable”, Paola’s comment, however pronounced with grim look and a hint of perfidy.
Before closing the evening, there was time for a new curtain call. This time it was Paola who put Marco in difficulty, revealing a behind the scenes occurred during the advertisement. The revelation concerns the show for a few intimates starring Mazzocchi with the cameras off. “For us it was a tiring commercial, because Marco danced flamenco and even sang. It was a probative experience“, he revealed to viewers, with Mazzocchi caught off guard and unusually speechless after the ‘low blow‘ of the friend-enemy.
