Fabio Fazio, his wife Gioia Selis, his children and the reason why the public has never betrayed him

It has been entering our homes for so long that it seems like one of the family by now, but what do we really know about it Fabio Fazio apart from his extraordinary power to bring the same number of viewers to Nove that followed him on Rai3? Even if he seems to be serious personified, capable of managing brilliantly in interviews on political and current affairs, Fabio Fazio was born a comedian, and in particular an imitator. His beginnings on television were marked by a lightness that, as his career progressed, Fazio decided to delegate to his adventure companions – Luciana Littizzetto first of all -, carving out the role of sidekick rather than showman at all costs. His public respectability undoubtedly benefited given that, from that moment on, Fabio Fazio became the face and symbol of a certain intellectual class that some members of the Right continue to imagine as a restricted circle of people who think they are superior to others. Leaving aside the fact that Fazio never took himself too seriously even though he could afford it – international guests in Italy go to him and almost nowhere else, not even to Sanremo anymore -, it is clear that in exactly forty years of his career he has managed to become what any host dreams of: a recognizable face capable of making a difference.

What helped him was above all never having said a word out of place and never having committed a scandal or anything reprehensible. This applies to private life – Fabio Fazio has been married to Gioia Selis for 33 years with whom he had Michele and Caterina, who at the time of writing are 19 and 14 years old respectively – but also for his professional life, given that he has never uttered a vulgarity and has never sullied his reputation with something small appropriate and not very convenient. Epeven his person was attacked by a certain political current as if Fazio was responsible for at least half of the world’s evils, but why? Could it have been the fault of the salary received at Rai, not so different from that of other historical faces of the company such as Amadeus, Carlo Conti and Antonella Clerici? Or it might have been his closeness to characters like Roberto Saviano, that certain politicians see as a more formidable enemy than certain criminals? On balance, it seems that Fabio Fazio’s main fault is only one: being successful thanks to the programs he leads and the elegance he transmits beyond the screen. Despite having changed several networks – let’s just think about the continuous relocation of What’s the weather like from Rai3, from Rai1, from Rai2 and finally again on Rai3 – and tried to follow new paths – like the famous move to the newborn La7 which resulted in great discontent due to a program nipped in the bud which led him, a few years later, to return to Rai and start from scratch – the public never abandoned him, and this was his true strength.

Now that it is a face from Discovery – with which it signed a four-year contract – and has demonstrated that it has created such a strong brand that it has managed to become the second national network, surpassing giants such as Canale 5 in terms of ratings. Fabio Fazio could also remove a few pebbles from his shoe, but he doesn’t. He has too much respect for Rai and the people who work with him to do so, and that is why, guest of Wild moss, does not give in to Fedez’s provocations, remaining faithful to his original line. During this guest lecture he says, however, that he had never smoked a joint in his life and that he seriously thought about trying it when he turned fifty, a thought that he put aside as soon as he realized that it would be a whim that wouldn’t give him anything new. Two things emerge from his interactions with Fedez: his all-round knowledge of him and, above all, his cunning when it comes to answering slippery and compromising questions. Thanks to experience and, above all, to a profession which, at almost 59 years of age, led him to get involved once again to the delight of the public who continue to follow him as if it were the first day.