2001 in Italian television

Events

RAI

• March 1: in the D+ package, debut of the channel RaiSat Fiction, dedicated to the best of European fiction.
• March 14: two months before the election the journalist Marco Travaglio, presenting his book L’odore dei soldi at the Daniele Luttazzi's show Satyricon, accuses Silvio Berlusconi and Marcello Dell’Utri of financial liaisons with Cosa Nostra, citing an almost inedited Paolo Borsellino's interview. The program causes very harsh reactions by the House of Freedom, which charges RAI of politic partiality and defamation; two RAI board members, near to the party, resign in protest. Luttazzi is criticized also by leftist politics, as Luciano Violante, but defended by the RAI president Roberto Zaccaria; its show goes on after a one-week suspension.
• March 16: two day after the "Travaglio affair", Michele Santoro too, in his program Il raggio verde, treats the presumed liaisons with Cosa Nostra of men near to Silvio Berlusconi; the political leader himself phone to the host and has, live, an harsh squabble with him, saying: "Congratulations for your process on air". Indro Montanelli too is attacked by the House of Freedom, for the severe judgments about his former editor Berlusconi given in TV interviews with Alain Elkann and Enzo Biagi.
• April 26: launch of RAI MED, satellite channel in Italian and Arabic.
• May 8: five day before the election, Silvio Berlusconi, guest of Porta a porta, signs live the Contract with the Italians; during the electoral campaign, he has obstinately avoided a face to face in television with the center-left leader Francesco Rutelli, preferring to appear in programs hosted by friendly journalists, as Maurizio Costanzo and Bruno Vespa. The Berlusconi's move, however demagogic, is revealed to be effective and May 13 House of Freedom wins the election.
• 20-l–21 July: RAI news and magazines follow, often live, the riots and the street clashes in Genoa for the 27th G8 summit. At 6 PM on the 20th, a special edition of TG1 announces the death of a young protester, whose name is made public in the evening, in a special edition of Porta a porta. The next day, TG3 airs an interview to Giuliani's father, who asks for the end of the violence.
• October 22: Roberto Benigni's Life is beautiful, broadcast by RAI Uno, is the most seen movie in the history of Italian Television, with more than 16 million viewiers.
• November 20: the First Lady Franca Ciampi, on the Grinzane Cavour Prize, says to a public of teen-agers: "Read, read, don’t waste time with that deficient television, Zaccaria pardon me"; the expression "deficient television" becomes soon customary. Already previously, Mrs. Ciampi had called the presenter Enrico Papi "a cretin" for his behaviour at the Sanremo festival.

Mediaset

• March 8: Mediaset launches TGCOM, very short news program diffused on-line, by mobile and on air, usually before the commercial breaks.
• May 22: on Canale 5, the first episode of The Sopranos is aired.
• September 11: at 3.12 pm the quiet TV schedule of a summer afternoon, with escapist or children's shows, is upset by the announce of the attacks in New York. As ten years before for the Gulf war, Emilio Fede is the first to break the news in Italy.
• September 22: debut of the talent show Saranno famosi.
• 20 December: the financial promoter Flavio Montrucchio wins the second season of Grande Fratello; he had entered in the reality show replacing another contender, who had renounced not suffering the restrictions about smoke. Also Montrucchio, as Pietro Taricone the year before, exploits its popularity to pursue a career as actor and showman.

Telecom

• May 1: TMC2, after having resumed for few days the name Videomusic, ceases broadcasting and is substituted by MTV Italia. Rete A, which had hosted until then MTV on its frequencies, broadcasts on its place the German music channel VIVA.
• June 24: TMC changes name in La7. The new channel and MTV Italia, both owned by Telecom, aspire to become the third pole of Italian television, able to compete with RAI and Mediaset and engaging TV stars as Fabio Fazio, Giuliano Ferrara and Gad Lerner. A show from Milan and Rome hosted by Fazio and Luciana Litizzetto, celebrates the new deal, besides the A. S. Roma's scudetto.
• July 18: Roberto Colanino, due to the growing debit, is forced to yield Telecom to Olimpia, a company controlled by Marco Tronchetti Provera and the Benetton family. With the new owners, the project of a third TV pole is greatly scaled down; La 7 becomes a niche channel, focused on information.

Other channels

• August 26: D+ reorganizes its offer and becomes Tele+ Digitale; besides, the estate changes its conditional access system, to fight the growing diffusion of pirated smart-cards.
• December: in the Stream package, debut of the music channel Rock TV.

Debuts

Rai

Serial

• Casa famiglia – by Riccardo Donna, with Massimo Dapporto and Arnoldo Foà; 2 seasons. Don Marco, the prison chaplain of Un prete tra noi, becomes director of a group home.Cocco Bill – cartoon by Pierluigi de Mas, inspired by the Benito Jacovitti's character; 2 seasons.

Variety

Educational

Mediaset

Miniseries

Serial

• CentoVetrine – soap opera, set in a Turin shopping center, with Elisabetta Coraini and Sergio Troiano; 15 seasons. After the RAI production Un posto al sole, it's the longest running Italian soap-opera.

Variety

• Popstars – Italian version of the New Zealand talent show, hosted by Daniele Bossari; 2 seasons. The winners of the first edition reunite in a girl-band, getting a certain success.Bande sonore – musical show, hosted by Vanessa Incontrada.Genius – quiz for kids, Italian version of Who Is the Smartest Kid in America?, hosted by Alessandro Cecchi Paone; 3 seasons.Mosquito – magazine for the young people, hosted by Gaja Bermani Amaral and Silvia Toffanin; 2 seasonsSfilata d'amore e di moda – fashion show, aired annually in June, hosted by Emanuela Foliero and others; 12 seasons.

News and educational

Other private channels

• Ca' Volo – talk show hosted by Fabio Volo; 2 seasons.Database – music show hosted, in a very polemic way, by the singer-songwriter Pino Scotto; it lasts until 2016.Il grande talk – talk show about television, hosted by Massimo Bernardini; it lasts until 2011.

International

• 7 May – // The Rainbow Fish
• September – / Mona the Vampire Underdog Bob the Builder
• / Rotten Ralph
• ''Home and Away''

Television shows

RAI

Drama

• The Crusaders, by Dominique Othenin-Girard, with Alessandro Gasmann, Johannes Brandrup and Barbora Bobulova; 2 episodes.L'attentatuni – by Claudio Bonivento, with Veronica Pivetti, Claudio Amendola and Massimo Popolizio; 2 episodes. The true story of the special squad that identified and captured the authors of the Capaci bombing.La piovra 10 – by Luigi Perelli, with Patricia Millardet and Remo Girone; 2 episodes. After 17 years and 10 chapters, La piovra franchise ends with the spectacular suicide of the villain Tano Cariddi.
• Con gli occhi dell'assassino – thriller by Corrado Colombo, with Valentina Chico.
• Brancaccio by Gianfranco Albano, biopic with Ugo Dighero as don Pino Puglisi.
• Almost America by Andrea and Antonio Frazzi, with Sabrina Ferilli as Italian woman migrated to Canada in the Fifties.
• Donne di mafia by Giuseppe Ferrara, with Tosca D'Aquino and Mietta; 2 episodes. The wives of some mafia members rebel against the criminal code of their husbands.
• L'uomo che piaceva alle donne, Bel Ami – by Massimo Spano, with Hardy Kruger jr, from the Guy de Maupassant's novel, transposed in the modern high fashion; 2 episodes.
• Resurrection, by the Taviani brothers, with Stefania Rocca and Timothy Peach, from the Lev Tolstoj's novel; 2 episodes.
• La voce del sangue – by Alessandro Di Robilant, with Franco Nero and Giorgio Pasotti; 2 episodes. A lawyer, enquiring about his family of origin, discover the world of 'ndrangheta.
• La crociera – by Enrico Oldoini, romantic comedy with Anna Galliena and Vittoria Puccini; 2 episodes.

Serial

• Angelo il custode – by Gianfrancesco Lazotti, with Lino Banfi and Giovanna Ralli; 8 episodes. Compagni di scuola – with Massimo Lopez and Paolo Sassanelli, from the Spanish series Companeros. It is the story of a school year in a Roman high school, focused on the vicissitudes of two brothers, both teachers.

  Cartoons

  Sandokan – La tigre ruggisce ancora.Taco e Paco – series in stop-motion for the children in pre-scholar age.

Variety

• 125 milioni di caz..te – hosted by Adriano Celentano and Asia Argento, musical show with ambitions of social satire.
• Dopo il festival tutti da me – talk show following the Sanremo festival, hosted by Raffella Carrà and Enrico Papi
• Il gladiatore – game show, hosted by Carlo Conti, suspended after three episodes for low ratings.
• Nientepopodimenoche – talent show, hosted by Michele Guardì.
• Passo doppio – hosted by Pippo Baudo, cycle of tribute shows in honor of 14 personalities of Italian television.
• Satyricon – hosted by Daniele Luttazzi. The show aspires to be the Italian version of the David Letterman show, mixing serious information and virulent satire. The provocative and willingly coarse gags of Luttazzi arouse from the beginning controversies and charges of bad taste but it's moreover the interview by the actor to Marco Travaglio to become a political case.
• SMS amiche per caso – reality show, similar to Grande fratello, but without the absolute seclusion and with an all-female cast.
• Tanti auguri Italia – show for the New Year 2002, hosted by Milly Carlucci and Massimo Lopez.

News and educational

Mediaset

Drama

• Judas, with Enrico Lo Verso in the title role, and Thomas, with Ricky Tognazzi in the title role; tv-movies of the series Jesus' friends, both directed by Raffaele Mertes.Il morso del serpente and Occhi verde veleno – crime dramas by Luigi Parisi that contribute to launch the actor Gabriel Garko.Non ho l'età – by Giulio Base, with Marco Columbro and Raffaele Pisu; the comic adventures of a bus driver carrying to Rome a group of sprightly old men.Per amore per vendetta – by Marco Caiano, with Massimo Dapporto, pilot of the serial Il commissario; 2 episodes.Piccolo mondo antico – by Cinzia Th Torrini, from Antonio Fogazzaro's novel, with Alessandro Gassmann, Claudia Pandolfi and Virna Lisi.Il testimone –with Raoul Bova and Uno bianca with Kim Rossi Stuart and Dino Abbrescia; both by Michele Soavi, 2 episodes. The two movies, also if very fictionalized, are inspired by true stories of civil courage.

Miniseries

Serial

Variety

• Grande Fratello
• Cari amici miei – reality show, ideated by Paolo Bonolis; four VIPs are shot by the TV cameras while they have dinner.
• Al Bano, una voce nel sole – music show.
• La notte vola – show about the music of the Eighties, hosted by Lorella Cuccarini.
• Ciao belli – TV version of the successful satirical show by Digei Angelo and Roberto Ferrari, aired by Radio Deejay since 1997; here, the two conductors and the actors are impersonated by puppets.
• Piccole canaglie – candid camera with children playing pranks on adults, hosted by Paola Perego and Pino Insegno.
• Tacchi a spillo – talent show hosted by Claudio Lippi and Michelle Hunziker, with eight drag queens as contenders.

  Game shows

• 2008 – quiz with Andrea Pezzi; the home public participates sending an SMS to the phone number of the title.
• Facce da quiz – hosted by Gigi Sabani.
• Salto nel buio – hosted by Paola Perego.
• Italiani – variety and game show, hosted by Paolo Bonolis and Luca Laurenti; it is one of the few clamorous flops in the Roman presenter's career.

  Talk shows

  I sette vizi capitali – hosted by Paola Perego.L"assemblea – aimed to the young ones and hosted by Ambra Angiolini.Jet Set – hosted by Emanuela Foliero.Sembra ieri – talk show about the last fifty years of history, hosted by Iva Zanicchi.

News and educational

La 7 and MTV

Variety

News and educational

Serial

Ending this year

• ''Turbo''

Awards

• Show of the year: Striscia la notizia.
• Man and woman of the year: Fiorello and Simona Ventura.
• Best TV movie: Padre Pio, tra cielo e terra.
• Best serial: Il bello delle donne.
• Best soap opera: "Vivere".
• Best quiz: Chi vuol essere miliardario?.
• Best variety: Stasera pago io.
• Best talk show: C'è posta per te.
• Best music show: Festivalbar 2000.
• Best magazine: Verissimo.
• Best customs and culture show: Grande fratello.
• Best sport magazine: Novantesimo minuto.
• Best show for children: Disney club.
• Special prize: Novecento and Miss Italia.
• Special awards: Trenta ore per la vita, Mrs. Paola Tiziani, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Wagner, Gigi Proietti and Sophia Loren.