Running Away Abroad
If it goes wrong again, what does he do? “I run away abroad. I already go regularly on horseback, so I can’t give myself to horse racing…”. Amadeus, the stage name of Amedeo Sebastiani, 44 years old, from Ravenna, with a wife (in the past), a 30-year-old companion (the valet Giovanna Civitillo) and a 9-year-old daughter (Alice, from the former spouse), last September he suffered a big blow. After only 21 episodes, Canale 5 canceled his Formula segreta, the pre-evening quiz that had convinced him to leave Rai (and the successful program L’Eredità ) to return after seven years to Mediaset. Having signed a three-year contract, on May 7 he tries again with 1 against 100, on air from Monday to Saturday, at 6:50 pm, always on Channel 5. Amadeus is loaded. He seems calm and confident.
Telling the Whole Truth
Abroad where? “In France. There is also 1 against 100 there and I recorded the pilot episode, obviously in Italian, of the new quiz in Paris. The French told me to start studying the language and to move there”.Did he start? “No, I think they were joking. And then, even if I like to travel, there won’t be any need. This time everything will go well: I made no mistakes“.What mistakes did he make in September? “You don’t end a program at the end of June, on Raiuno, to start a new one in September, on Canale 5. People no longer orient themselves, they don’t understand who you are, what you do and where. And then I didn’t tell the whole truth”.At Canale 5? “Yes. At the end of August I had already realized that that quiz was not working, and that I needed more time, but I didn’t tell the managers of the company. I thought I could make it anyway. I sinned presumptuously”.
The Responsibility is All Mine
When Pier Silvio Berlusconi closed Formula segreta, what was the first thing he thought of? “That I must have become stupid. I had underestimated everything. Anyway, it is a lesson that has served me, when things always go well you end up believing that you are a phenomenon and instead … the responsibility for that failure is all mine“.Had he accused the authors on the spot? “Yes, I had said that they were half-service because they were mainly committed to Paolo Bonolis and his Fattore C, which had been anticipated by a month overlapping with my show”.Did he change them? “Yes, because renewal is good, but I repeat: the fault was mostly mine”.Did your agent Lucio Presta bless you when Fattore C of Bonolis went wrong? “No … Immediately after the cancellation of Formula segreta, however, Lucio accompanied me around Europe to find the right format”.Can’t you have an original idea? “No, because new programs have to be tried and retried and in Italian TV there is neither money nor time to do so. That is why already tested formats are chosen, to be personalized according to the country in which they are broadcast”. How much did he lose with the flop of Formula segreta? “A lot, especially in terms of image. But it is not true that I retired to private life, as I read in the newspapers. I worked even if it was not seen. I shot two films, one of animation and one of fiction, for Rai”.
