Gerry Scotti is ready to celebrate his upcoming 70th birthday on Friday. A milestone he will share with the Canale 5 audience thanks to the special episode of La Ruota della Fortuna entirely dedicated to the game show host. On this occasion, the phrases to guess on the boards will retrace his history and the most significant moments of his extraordinary television career. And competing behind the legendary Wheel will be three champions who made history in as many memorable quizzes hosted by Gerry Scotti over the years: Ferdinando Sallustio from Passaparola, Enrico Remigio from Chi vuol essere milionario, and Nicolò Scalfi from Caduta Libera.
In view of the important appointment (but woe to talk about milestones and assessments), Gerry met the press to talk about his 43 years of television. From the corsair beginnings at the dawn of Milan’s free radios, half a century ago, with Claudio Cecchetto who also had the intuition to make him debut on television and Fatma Ruffini who handed him the keys to the early evening slot. “It was 1989, Raimondo Vianello left the Gioco dei Nove and recommended me as his successor. I was tempted not to accept. I was working with music, already doing cool programs. Mrs. Ruffini begged me to hold on for at least a few months… I’ve been in that slot for over 40 years!” And then the happiness of being a three-time grandfather, thanks to his son Edoardo who has also become the social man of the Scotti family. Director of memes and Artificial Intelligence that Gerry experimented with early and with a lot of self-irony. “It may seem strange but just when I dedicate myself to social media and AI I feel the same thrill of freedom I experienced at the beginning of my career, back in the days of Radio Milano International.”
The secret wedding of Gerry Scotti: finally a star who gets married without a show
Can we say it? Well done, Gerry. About time. Finally someone who looks at the substance of things and, above all, who does not…
Gerry, let’s start with the present: the return of La Ruota della Fortuna almost thirteen months continuously on air. Did you expect it?
“Exercising false modesty a year later would be boastful. We knew there were the contents and signs to do something good, starting from a great title and the company that had made the best forces available, also from a technical point of view. The goal set by the publisher ranged from the presumed and hoped 16% to an 18-20% that in the summer season would have been, let’s all say it clearly, pure gold. We went beyond, collecting over 25% in the four seasons of the year, keeping about 5 million people of all ages glued to the screen, a sign that generalist TV is in very good health.”
Is it possible that a soft counterprogramming by Rai favored you, at least at the start?
“I never said this but certainly we expected to have Affari tuoi against us. Rai, instead, last summer chose to focus on Techetecheté, a program that, as a viewer before being a professional, I have always greatly appreciated and certainly we did not take it lightly at all. However, it is undeniable that it gave us a push forward…”.
In fact, the return of La Ruota della Fortuna has unseated Antonio Ricci and Striscia La Notizia from their comfort zone… How did you experience all this?
“I experienced it together with Antonio Ricci. When it was talked about and proposals came to me, I was still behind the Striscia counter so he was aware of everything. At first, we imagined it would be the summer program, ready to give way to Striscia in October as always. Then the numbers that went beyond every expectation decided for us.”
Another topic is the access prime time which, in fact, has become the new real prime time. Will a solution be found?
“De Martino and I together launched a cry for peace, inviting companies to agree on 9:30 p.m. as the cutoff time for access prime time. Our publisher, for his part, responded logically. We are a commercial TV, Rai is public service. They have to make the first move and we will adapt accordingly. I would see it as a victory even if, it is good to remind the public, neither I nor De Martino decide.”
At almost 70, what is your typical day like?
“For years now, I am in the studios at ten in the morning and before lunch I must have already made two episodes because right after lunch I do the third and then at four I have to pick up my granddaughter from kindergarten. My father used to say: better than working. He was right. Just think that many people see ugly people at the office, I instead have to see Samira every day. Many would like to be in my shoes! (Smiles).”
What does reaching a… round age add and take away?
“The best thing is the certainty of being recognized and appreciated as ‘that Gerry Scotti.’ As for the rest, from 60 years old I stopped playing football, then in the following years I had to do the first replacement of a whole piece: applying a complete knee prosthesis. And let’s not forget the great fear six years ago with Covid that brought me to the brink of intensive care. There the problem was not reaching 70 but the next morning with a saturation level above 90 and it did not always happen. When you live those moments all the rest is really trifles.”
A bit like politics which you almost accidentally crossed but also reached very high levels there…
“I was a socialist, like my grandfather the baker. In 1987 I was convinced by the young socialists of Bocconi for whom I hosted some charity street evenings. They talked to me about youth representation, saying they would introduce me to Bobo Craxi, Bettino’s son, so I agreed to be a candidate as an independent, that is without a party card. Usually independents get few votes and go home immediately, instead I got about 10,000 and quite incidentally I was elected. The news was given to me by my mother on the phone, when I was in Riccione to host Deejay on the beach. She was worried because the carabinieri arrived to deliver me the notification of election to the Chamber of Deputies. So I had to run to buy a dark suit on Viale Ceccarini to present myself in parliament. Everyone was curious about my arrival but beyond the formal appearance of initial curiosity I never had great relationships with anyone. There I realized what it meant to be simply a number who has to press a button. Moreover, they had promised me the presidency of the inquiry commission on youth conditions. A colleague, however, later told me that a big shot in my party pronounced a phrase that I have not tattooed on me only because it is too long: ‘Someone who has been a disc jockey cannot be president of a parliamentary inquiry commission’.”
And now what is your relationship with politics?
“I have a lot of difficulty choosing who to vote for. The last convinced vote I gave was to Silvio Berlusconi but out of gratitude, nothing else… In fact, when thirty years ago he asked me for advice about entering the political arena, I told him: no, Silvio, don’t do it. The next day there was the announcement. A sign that my political advice was not much listened to (smiles).”
Have you talked with Pier Silvio about his possible political commitment?
“I gave him the same advice I gave his father but honestly, unlike what some newspapers write, he doesn’t seem so passionate about politics.”
A phase of your life you would like to relive?
“Certainly the radio years, with that freedom and irreverence that is impossible to practice on television. I refer in particular to the years of Radio Milano International in which we organized incredible pranks. Like playing with the volume of porn movies that TeleMilano, with which we shared the studios, broadcast after midnight. The victims were the husbands of all Milan who, when we suddenly raised the volume after having lowered it a lot, embarrassedly woke up their wives and the whole family… We saw the lights turn on in the houses in Piazza della Repubblica. With Cecchetto at Deejay it was instead the real start of the career but the pranks were not missing there either. We emptied the cigarette butts and filled them with firecrackers to the detriment of a colleague. It happened that George Michael, who had arrived at the radio, mistakenly smoked one. The cigarette exploded like to Wile E. Coyote. I also noticed a bit of black on his nose but his reaction was totally British.”
Gerry Scotti, phone call to Stefano De Martino: the agreement that changes TV
“Stefano De Martino and I agree that our programs must end at 9:30 p.m.” From …
