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Curious anthropological phenomenon: at each change of director, in Rai, the drumming of gossip slips into the management of the schedule and political talks. It is a pagan rite. Take Agora, for example. Mario Orfeo did not have time to take office as head of the information analysis (honors and duties, especially in dealing with the bulky presences of Vespa and Berlinguer …) of the whole Rai, which already on its broad shoulders falls the first rumor relaunched by Dagospia and the Tv Blog site.
According to which the new director Orfeo, having expired Luisella Costamagna’s contract to run Agorà, would like to alternate it with an “internal resource”, in this case his colleague Monica Giandotti. Or with the other share of Giusi Sansone. Or – if we go back to the classic anchorman – with Senio Bonini or Roberto Vicaretti. All talented journalists, each with his specificity: Monica’s pulse, Giusi’s empathy, Senio’s speed, Roberto’s ability to analyze.
GRAND NURSERY
It is necessary to recognize that Rai boasts, in recent years, a formidable nursery. Therefore, it is a little strident to read on Tv Blog that Costamagna would be replaced despite “the positive ratings but there are those who have always considered his style and approach unsuitable for the format”. The site continues: “There are also those who mention a political revenge against the 5 Star Movement, to which the journalist has been associated several times”.
So not only would it be a question of political persecution, but the first candidate to take his place, Giandotti, would be -always according to gossip- «romantically linked to Stefano Cappellini, journalist currently head of the political editorial staff of Repubblica. A wedding with an exceptional witness: Mario Orfeo, director of the Rai in-depth analysis ». The subtext, not very elegant, would be: they make out a professional flower to make room for the new director’s favorite. Now, I will not fall into the trap of taking a position, also because, speaking of Rai, politics almost always surrounds talks with its zephyr zephyr. But, come on, the Agorà case is not a coincidence at all. Luisella – tough, very well prepared to the limits of nerdiness – is a high-cost external for the network, and has not reached the objectives of 8% share required (the average is poor 7.7% with the zenith of 9.6 % with the vote of the Quirinale and the nadir of 5.30% at the beginning of the season). And, of course, she is credited as being close to 5 Stars, when Giuseppe Conte was there. Which is gone now.
INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR
But it’s not that Giandotti is a passer-by of the schedules. On the contrary. It managed Agorà Estate well in 2018 and 2019, reaching 8-9%, albeit aided by the favorable political conditions of the establishment of the yellow-green government and the Papeete crisis; and it did well in Unomattina too (up to 18% in the second part). To conjure up the story of Orpheus as a wedding witness here is hogwash. Then there is Bonini the hyperkinetic, who already leads Agorà Extra – a migrant from RaiNews24 after having passed an audition – and makes 6.4% where the target was 6%.
And again: Sansone even invented a new version of Agorà of 6% from the desert of listeners of the weekend, in the wake of the intimate approach to the news of Serena Bortone (who now makes havoc in the afternoon of Raiuno with Today is another day). Vicaretti, also a former Agorà, has been a security for years. The difference between Giandotti, Bonini, Sansone, Vicaretti and Costamagna is that the former are all Rai interiors which objectively render more than the exteriors. It is in the prerogative of the director to make his choices, as in his time, rightly, Di Mare did with Costamagna. But from here to say – at least on paper – that in advance they are bad choices, well, there is a lot …
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