A place in the sun and the absurd hypothesis of the time change

Information will bury us. We noticed it during the lockdown, when the upper floors preferred to turn off the entertainment to bombard the viewer with the same interventions and the same guests who peeped out on all the networks, and we are realizing now that, in the same band, we are thinking of adding an identical program to the other three already on air to standardize a program that is increasingly lacking in flashes and novelties. The news, launched by Dagospia, it’s the following: it seems that the director of Rai3 Franco Di Mare is thinking of moving A Place in the Sun, the longest-running Italian soap ever that on October 21 celebrates its 25th anniversary, from 8.45pm to 6.30pm, that is the time that housed it in the early years.

The idea would be to replace the soap with a new daily strip entrusted to Lucia Annunziata who would thus clash with Lilli Gruber on La7, Barbara Palombelli on Rete4 and the Tg2 Post on Rai2. Beyond the fact that the need for a new information program in that range is not clearly felt, the fact that we are thinking of bordering on one of the few national-popular products of a network that has always marked its programming is a bit reflective. on what the ill-thinkers define “radical-chicchismo”. A Place in the Sun, that Rai3 itself has never undertaken to promote – the protagonists, for example, have never been guests of What’s the weather like while broadcasting on the same network -, it is a product that enjoys excellent health, both in terms of ratings and in terms of public appreciation of the stories and dynamics it tells every day. Move it at such an inconvenient time – it would go on air before Tg3 at 19, taking half an hour away from Geo & Geo – it would mean making it wither, forcing the millions of aficionados to retrieve it on RaiPlay, giving up linear use, not to mention that at that time it is very unlikely that working people stay at home watching TV.

After so many years of loyalty and live-tweeting live, take a historic product like A Place in the Sun and moving it to such an unusual time takes on the contours of injustice. Above all because we are talking about a product that, in addition to having beaten several records, has always managed to tackle particularly delicate issues such as adolescent anorexia, coming out, assisted fertilization, violence against women and welcoming foreigners in unpredictable times. suspicious, long before the advent of hearts on Instagram. The first episode was broadcast on 21 October 1996: since then 5,799 episodes have been broadcast for a total of 104,382 scenes shot; 17,000 auditioned actors and over 100,000 extras employed. This is why it would be nice to have respect for tradition and, above all, for the affection of about 1.6 million spectators who every day try to understand if Marina will crack a smile and if Raffaele will be able to clean the courtyard of Palazzo Palladini without get lost in chat with Renato. We reward a story that has been keeping us company for 25 years and that, with a change of schedule, could lose petals and become aware of itself. A Place in the Sun is produced by Rai Fiction and Fremantle in collaboration with the Rai TV Production Center in Naples.