“An Extraordinary Human Journey”: this is how Fiorello summarizes the first edition of Viva Rai2!, the program that perhaps represents him more than any other, being the distillation of all the previous experiences, with an added dose of rhythm and inspiration and with the new blood brought by a large group of young people in the team.
Same time, same location, same network. If Viva Rai2! will return to give the Italians a joyful wake-up call between satire and music (there will be a dispute with some tenants in via Asiago for the noises at dawn to be resolved), it will do so with the characteristics that have made it a cult programme: from Monday to Friday , from 7.15 to 8, live from via Asiago, on Rai2. Fiorello assures him who, interviewed by ANSA, explains: “We won’t switch to Rai1 because it’s good here on Rai2, a less formal network and more suitable for messing around”.
Fiorello: ‘Long live Rai2! it won’t go to Rai1
The timetable, tailored to his biorhythm (he wakes up before 5) as well as the setting, are part of the success. “If VivaRai2! leaves the street and the glass to move into a classic TV studio, it becomes something else”, he observes.
The uniqueness is in the guests who arrive aboard a tow truck or a tractor, but also in a group dance on the pedestrian crossing or an improvised lap dance on the pole of a no parking sign. Luca Tommassini embellished the show with spectacular choreographies never seen before on the street, let alone in the morning.
“I’m always looking for something new that doesn’t bore me. Variety – explains Fiorello – can be declined in many ways. Many think that to make it different it is enough to change the contents but this is not the case. The first change for me was to move it from Saturday to Monday evening. Then I tried an unthinkable time, at 7 in the morning”.
ANSA Agency
“If the problems are solved we will return, even in Sanremo nights” (ANSA)
Among the many excellent fans of the show is Mina, While Vincenzo Mollica talks about the “most Fellinian” program among those of Rosario. In the spotlight of Viva Rai2! many have paraded, famous and not, but someone, expected, has not arrived.
It is the case of Elly Schlein but also by Marco Mengoni. To make fun of the absence of the Sanremo winner, Fiorello asked Amadeus to dress like him, with a metal shirt (in this case with the white health shirt underneath) and exposed biceps. An exhilarating effect especially when, at the end of Two Lives in playback, Fiorello played the audio of what Amadeus had sung. The politicians interviewed in the parody of Belve (Serracchiani, Boccia, Renzi, Calenda) and the mayor of Rome Gualtieri were the only ones who spoke in person. All of the opposition? “It can be seen that the accident wakes up earlier in the morning” jokes Fiorello who had Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the phone, accomplice in a gag. “I saw people on the ground painting sheets on a garage ramp, costumes made in the middle of the street, sets put up in the rain”, says the showman, trying to make people understand the sacrifice of the 150 people who work for this TV production, “the hardest in history”.
Despite the early heels, the climate is the euphoric one of the last day of school with a few tears. Next to Fiorello there are the authors of all time, Francesco Bozzi, Pigi Montebelli and Federico Taddia, two more recent entries, Enrico Nocera and Edoardo Scognamiglio, as well as Fabrizio Biggio and Mauro Casciari who, together with the retired Ruggiero, have been valid comic shoulders, putting themselves on the line like never before.
In addition to the faithful maestro Enrico Cremonesi, the musical section was enriched by Danti and maestro Buffat, as well as by the freshness of Beatrice De Dominicis and Serena Ionta, while the eye of the director Piergiorgio Camilli thought of keeping everything together.
After shooting, hopefully “at the beginning of winter”, said the showman, Viva Rai2! could move to Sanremo to follow the Festival. What is certain is that Fiorello will be a guest on the final evening and with him Tofu, his trap alter ego. Long live Rai2! it had an average audience of 813 thousand spectators, with a share of 16.6% in a crescendo with peaks of 1 million, even touching 20%. “With all his team and with Rai, Fiorello accepted and won a challenge that has profoundly changed morning TV in Italy and even the habits of Italians”, said Rai CEO Roberto Sergio, confirming the “see you next season”. The success of Viva Rai2! it is confirmed by the numbers of RaiPlay and social networks, with 51 million impressions, 1.5 million interactions between comments, reactions and shares, 10 million hours viewed by users.