Sanremo 2021, Amadeus: «The ratings are decreasing? People are angry, I expected less “

“People are angry, it is a situation that cannot be compared to any other that reflects on the audience. This is precisely why I find it sensational: if 10 million spectators watch Sanremo, for me it is a public service ». To say it is Amadeus who, during the fourth press conference of the Sanremo 2021 Festival, the one that precedes the airing of the third evening dedicated to duets and covers, finds himself answering dozens of questions that question him about the evident decline ratings suffered by the event compared to a year ago.

“I still think that the Festival is not a television program, but an event: if we had 400 doctors in the audience it would have been a wonderful gesture towards the category, but if this serves not to create problems, to make happy the people who asked for the theater to be closed, that’s fine »insists Amadeus commenting on the famous empty seats that were filled with colored balloons on the evening of Wednesday 3 March.

“I am very proud of this # Sanremo2021 and I say it with feeling and conviction: the data I read surprise me positively.
Amidst enormous difficulties, we are carrying out a great television event ”.
Amadeus
⚡️@SanremoRai come on @RaiUno, @RaiRadio2 e #RaiPlay. pic.twitter.com/P5JuBGmttP

– Rai Press Office (@Raiofficialnews) March 4, 2021

«I am very proud of this Festival. What we are all doing is unique and extraordinary and I hope it won’t happen again. It would have been easier to give up. When I said it needed the public I passed for capricious, but that’s not the case. The difference between Sanremo and a television program is that the Festival is the largest Italian event; this year is not the Sanremo we have always experienced. We try to do our best, which is why the data I read surprises me positively. Because we are a month later, because Juve was playing, which is very popular in Italy and Inter is here tonight. And there are people who don’t know if they can put the plate on the table in the evening, there are desperate people. It is an anomalous situation, we must not forget it ”is the response of the artistic director, defended by the sword drawn by the director of Raiuno Stefano Coletta. «Amadeus has accomplished a heroic deed, he gave birth to a flower in the desert. I think that yesterday was a story to be appreciated for what we are experiencing ».

“This edition of @SanremoRai it is incomparable to the others, it is the final result of a heroic work of the team #Rai to give birth to a flower in the middle of the desert, so that it could reach everyone’s homes ”.@StefanoColetta2, Director @RaiUno # Sanremo2021 pic.twitter.com/USZGV1Tlun

– Rai Press Office (@Raiofficialnews) March 4, 2021

«They said: people will look at Sanremo. But it is not obvious, because so many are angry right now. This is the strongest TV Sanremo there can be, because the rest has been taken away from us. It is a joy to have a 42% share today because last year’s 52% was a beautiful thing, but at a different time »continues Amadeus, who adds that he does not regret anything. «I thought that the ratings could have been even more penalized. I said from the beginning that we shouldn’t think about listening: we are all in emergency mode. Someone can say that I am a privileged person who makes a show, but it is not a competition to see who is better off. I am truly sorry for what is happening, but this sector is as important as any other ». We do not know if in a normal context the listening would have been in line, but it remains that, as regards the competition and the choice of artists which, for some, represented a further point against this Sanremo, Amadeus would do the same identical choices: «We are only sorry that some guests, for Covid reasons, from abroad, it was not possible to bring them. We are all victims of this Covid ». At the end of the Festival there are still three evenings left and anything can happen.