Antonio Riccithe inventor of The news spreads and many other great successful programs on Italian TV, makes an appeal to Pier Silvio Berlusconi, vice-president and managing director of Mediaset: «Mediaset once had the big variety shows. Now Saturday evening is up to De Filippi. Well, I’d like to try the big variety shows, and then I’d take a look at dramas, even if Mediaset prefers to have Turkish series, which are cheap and have good ratings.” And then, smiling, he blurts out: «If Pier Silvio Berlusconi let me have all three networks for six months, I would start a revolution, with completely different programs». To know, however, the consequences of this revolution you need to read the interview below in detail. In which Ricci explores the various innovations of the audiovisual business, starting, for example, from the fact that there are always the same faces on TV…
Request. It is said that good presenters are no longer born. For years, however, The news spreads try to grow new conductors…
Answer. We at Strip let’s experiment. The others, however, are all on the safe side. We like to dare, give space to new faces, I’ve been doing it since the days of Drive In. Strip The good thing about it is that it doesn’t allow any presenter to live like a star thanks to the salaries of Strip: the management, in fact, does not last long, so it is a sort of supplementary salary. And when the hosts leave it’s not because we failed them, but because they have other jobs to do.
Q. And what can you tell me about Amadeus, to which all the broadcasters are now making golden bridges?
R. Objectively the songs chosen by Amadeus to the Sanremo Festival that led have a reason, they work. In others Festival they won songs that then disappeared. He has put together a valid proposal. He knows how to do it. And then he is a self-deprecating animal, he never gets annoyed, which instead would make us rejoice. Furthermore he can count on a parterre of journalists who a Sanremo it never bothers you, under penalty of exclusion from the magic circle.
Q. On presenters like Paolo Bonolis, like Gerry Scotti? They are giants of TV. But maybe they threw themselves away a bit on commercial TV?
R. Well, of Bonolis They still come to mind Bim Boom Bam and for sure Hi Darwin. Gerry ScottiOn the other hand, he is the presenter that all TV channels would like to have, he doesn’t deny himself, he does what you ask of him, and he always brings it home to you. Then it is clear that not all of them can be flagship programmes. But, I say it clearly, when I’m in difficulty I call him. And then I confess a secret: the voices of the videos of Very ducky they were not recorded when he was conducting many years ago Very ducky. No. He’s coming now to record, they’re current, it’s not repertoire.
D. Strip it is a modern, innovative, contemporary program: it creates a lot of digital literacy on the subject of fake news, deep fake, artificial intelligence. Public service things, in short…
R. We do a lot of public service, in general. With Marco Camisani Calzolari and all the deep fakeIt’s true, we’ve been promoting digital literacy for many years, and it’s incredible that others don’t. On the other hand, in 35 years of life of Strip, we have used all the technologies to receive reports from viewers. First the telephone number, then the fax, the email, the experimental website with the University of Genoa to have more documented reports. In this regard, do you know about suicides?
D. No, tell me…
R. Very often strange people called us on the phone, threatening suicide, perhaps they wanted the intervention of Gabibbo, of Captain Windy, of Staffelli. We have never broadcast anything, to avoid emulative effects. But we always went to check, together with the police. But then, at a certain point we were inundated with calls of this type…
Q. And how did you solve it?
R. A very efficient solution suggested by the Police: we eliminated the telephone number. If you have to write a suicide threat via email you have to think, then maybe no one will answer you. In short, it was enough to change the method of communication and the suicide threats dropped.
Q. The TV schedules, all of them, are in the hands of the French of Banijay and the English of Fremantle: they make entertainment and TV series. Is there a risk of flattening?
R. The flattening was already there. And in any case way back in 1998, in my book Strip the TV, I wrote that authors should never say that the idea for a program is their original idea. They always have to say that it is a Dutch format that they then copied. Only in this way do the officials feel reassured, they know that it has already been transmitted somewhere, and they are calmer.
Q. In your opinion, did it make sense to cancel the network directors in Rai? Is the identity of individual channels still something to pay attention to in the age of on demand?
R. Well, I think it’s like in a restaurant. I go to that restaurant because I know what I eat. If instead you always give me new things, I don’t understand them, I struggle, and then I change restaurants. I think a network is tidier with a director. Maybe he relies relatively on some strategic decisions, but he can bring order. In reality, the so-called trend prevails in most channels. If a program goes well, there are those who take the credit, but if it goes badly you never know who is to blame. The director, however, sets rules and allows you to work in peace. Without ever forgetting that, for programs of not excessive duration, such as 90 minutes, success or otherwise also always depends on driving and counter-programming.
Q. Having made the premise on the subject of contemporaneity, it is simply the context of Canale 5, between De Filippi, Big Brother and Turkish series, is now close to Strip?
R. We give stability to prime time and provide a crucial young audience base. It’s clear that we were expecting more exciting first evenings from Canale 5. But I know full well that it’s not easy. Self Pier Silvio Berlusconi if he dropped all three networks on me for six months, I would start a revolution, with completely different programmes. But I have one certainty…
Q. Which one?
R. That I would ruin it. In reality, I don’t feel like criticizing what we see on Canale 5, Rete 4 or Italia 1, because I know that he responds to a project with his feet on the ground. Maybe it’s not clear from the outside, but Mediaset doesn’t get upset, it all adds up. And that’s what matters in a private company. Although I am convinced that we can do better. And they are working to do better. But it is complicated to deal with Rai, which has a disproportionate wealth of offerings. And knowing that all this trouble is paid for with our public money should pose some problems.
D. Strip it is an island of autonomy that up to now has defended itself with ratings. Now, however, the audiences are no longer so exciting (15-16% share) and the profile of Canale 5’s prime time, 2023 average, is very strong in the South (20.7% share), less so in the North, with 13% in Lombardy or 10% in Friuli. Comments?
R. Six days a week we are the most watched program of the three networks. Strip continues to be very strong on the commercial target, it is an ideal program for investors. And there are queues of investors to plan inside Strip, a program already clipped, to be enjoyed on multiple platforms. Our rerun at night gets more listeners than many prime time broadcasts.
Q. But does Antonio Ricci see himself as far from Mediaset?
R. I don’t have an exclusive contract with Mediaset. Here, however, I must say that I received everything I wanted in terms of freedom. We have never had any kind of conditioning. I don’t know if this model could be replicated elsewhere.
Q. Barbara D’Urso was treated like an outcast. Did she deserve it?
R. I’ve known her since she was a girl Stryx in 1978 with Enzo Trapani. In my opinion she is an asset, she knows how to do everything, she touches all the registers. I do not know what happened. She promised me that in January she would come clean, but she didn’t. But something must have happened.
Q. Pier Silvio Berlusconi seems to want to free himself from his father since he passed away, and it is normal for this to happen. Do all the men born and raised on their father’s TV risk paying the price?
R. Well, let’s say it clearly: Pier Silvio has been doing his Mediaset for 20 years already. His choices have been his for a long time, and if we are here it is because he chose us. To be honest, we haven’t seen dad’s influences in the last 20 years.
Q. Bianca Berlinguer does poorly on Rete 4 in the daily program, in a space in which Barbara Palombelli did better than Nicola Porro who replaced her, who in turn did better than Berlinguer who replaced him. Myrta Merlino isn’t doing very well on Canale 5 a Afternoon 5 instead of D’Urso. What do you think of the news?
R. These are all experiments that can and must be done, no graft can be painless, you have to get used to it. But these are not innovations that change the meaning of networks.
Q. What genres would you like to explore on TV?
R. Mediaset once had great variety shows. Now Saturday evening is up to De Filippi. Well, I’d like to try with the big variety shows, and then I’d keep an eye on dramas, even if Mediaset prefers to have Turkish series, which are cheap and have good ratings. But I know, for variety shows and dramas you need a lot of money, and the Rai offer, thanks also to the rich resources that come from the license fee, crushes any opponent. We must always try to do better and obstacles are opportunities not to be missed.
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