The Unbearable Lightness of Temptation Island
The 2001 Telegatti are remembered for an episode that has remained in the annals of television history. For those too young to remember, the Telegatti were awards that were given every year by the magazine Tv Sorrisi & Canzoni to faces and programs of the small screen; the award ceremony was just a pretext to bring world-class stars to Milan (the 1997 edition is now legendary, ranging from Michael Jackson to Corrado, from Katia Ricciarelli to the Countess of York) on the occasion of the ceremony broadcast live on Canale 5, which for many years had record ratings.
In 2001, the first edition of Big Brother won in the category of best cultural program at the expense of Super Quark and La Macchina del Tempo hosted by Alessandro Cecchi Paone. And it was the latter who went up on stage, took the microphone and shouted his disappointment in front of an audience enraged by the choice to award the program then hosted by Daria Bignardi. “We have a huge difficulty bringing culture to prime time” said Cecchi Paone with a twist that anticipated by eight years that of Kanye West to the detriment of Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs (in case there were still any doubts about the fact that Italy is the political laboratory of the West).
Memory could not help but go to that episode after the news that Rai had decided to suspend Alberto Angela’s Noos broadcast due to low ratings; Angela’s program in recent weeks had clashed with the most followed edition of Temptation Island ever, losing every week not only in terms of share, but also visibility; Angela’s broadcasts are in fact a success also on social media, too bad that even there there was really no match. Many people saw in this episode the umpteenth proof of the moral decline of a country that prefers to tune in en masse to stories of cuckoldry rather than choose a culture program. Either tempora or mores, in short.
One might wonder if those who are tearing their clothes have ever seen an episode of the program and wondered why it has such a transversal success. Yes, because like other programs by Maria De Filippi, Temptation Island has a very heterogeneous audience that includes housewives, graduates, young people and older people.
Reality meets a demand for entertainment and lightheartedness that in dark and dramatic times like the ones we are experiencing, become fundamental for everyone.
Ultimately, Temptation Island satisfies this need and does so, in its own way, in a clever and intelligent way. This year, for example, both the girlfriends and boyfriends have teamed up to support each other. There has been a lot of talk about anxiety, trauma, mental health and a climate of authentic sisterhood seemed to have been created among the girls. We don’t know how much all this was encouraged by the authors or if, during the casting phase, couples were chosen in which certain topics were already being discussed; presumably, the final result is a combination of both with the result that even an audience like the young one, more educated and attentive to social issues and mental health, can become passionate about the stories told in the program.
In his invective against Telegatti in 2001, Cecchi Paone spoke of the great teamwork behind his show; with due differences, the same can be said of Temptation Island in which the casting, writing and editing work is much more sophisticated than it might seem at a superficial glance.
Keeping the audience’s attention high – especially in a program that lasts three hours – trying to keep the pace high, engaging the audience and repeating a success that has been repeated over the years is not an easy job. It takes a lot of attention to build something that the audience can identify with and that can generate online discussions, a factor that has become indispensable in determining the success of a program.
Although for many people the lightness of Temptation Island is unbearable, it is not clear why even when it comes to programming, public opinion must be divided between good and bad, where of course reason is always and only on our side. A varied television offer that responds to the tastes of the public must include programs with different genres, languages and objectives and I believe that the Noos affair has taught us that the opposition is harmful first of all to the public, but secondly also to those who sell advertising space, and therefore to the network.
It is sloppiness, not frivolity, that we should be concerned about. And unfortunately our cultural landscape also abounds with that.