The first episode of the twelfth edition of ‘Stasera Tutto è Possibile’, the show hosted by Stefano De Martino on Rai 2, features Biagio Izzo, Francesco Panicolato, Herbert Ballerina, Brenda Lodigiani, newcomer Lorella Cuccarini, Maria Sole Pollio, Peppe Iodice and Giovanni Esposito. Let’s look at the passed and failed ones together.

Stefano De Martino doesn’t tell it correctly (he said farewell to the program, moved): 5

It must be admitted: there was a good authorial construction to patch things up. But the hole remained, barely hidden and in plain sight. It was 8 April 2025 when an emotional Stefano De Martino said goodbye to ‘Stasera Tutto è Possibile’ because he would soon embark on ‘other paths’. ‘Other paths’ which, however, evidently did not open up for him, given that the host of ‘Affari Tuoi’ returned to the helm of the show. What didn’t go well? Now we see him return almost as if nothing had happened: “The last episode of last year I cried because I thought I would never see some of you again – he winks slyly at the ‘Methuselah’ cast of friends – you have to enjoy them while they’re around, in short”.

Then he makes excuses as to why he is there again despite the au revoir that we have all witnessed: “I’m keeping the family and the mortgage too!”, he explains. Stefano De Martino one of us? He would (very much) like us to believe it, but with the millionaire contract that binds him to Mamma Rai and the coronation as the next presenter and artistic director of the 2027 Sanremo Festival, he can tell it right to his abs while cheerfully looking at himself in the mirror. From a guess, he could afford to pay off the ‘mortgage’ of the entire Milanese City Life. So the question remains: what program did the street urchin see blown up on his way? We will never know…

Francesco Paolantoni is Sandokan in the ‘Tilted Room’: rating 8

We didn’t know we needed to see it. The first ‘Slanted Room’ of the season is set in a jungle and the main faunal character to appear there is Francesco Paolantoni in the Sandokan version. We can feel Can Yaman breaking into a cold sweat from here. “I also brought my body!”, assures the comedian who immediately undresses showing his post-indigestion Malaysian tiger belly. “I’m Sandro Can, name and surname!”, scilindra. And you can’t resist him. To tangle the already complicated situation, Biagio Izzo-Yanez tries to steal Lady Marianna (Maria Sole Pollio) from him and ends up whipped (with pleasure, ed.) by Paolantoni-Sandokan.

What are we seeing? We have no idea. However, the two are on the trail of Don Matteo who apparently lost the handlebars of his bicycle and then disappeared into thin air. It will be Herbert Ballerina who provides the twist: he enters the vine in the role of Tarzan, but then confesses that he is Don Matteo, who has just glided down to take back the handlebars of the bike. Are we very confused? Yes. When will the vision of Paolantoni undressed by Sandokan stop making us laugh? Probably never. And happy nightmares everyone!

Claudio Lauretta is Gerry Scotti, but the gag with De Martino doesn’t work: vote 4

The voice is identical, nothing to say. However, it would be better to say nothing about the setting of the sketch featuring Claudio Lauretta in the role of Gerry Scotti. Stefano De Martino suddenly finds himself faced with his own television nemesis, the competitor Mediaset who is giving him a lot of trouble on the share side with ‘Wheel of Fortune’. Unfortunately, however, we are not at ‘GialappaShow’ here and the gag is never corrosive. Nor remotely funny. Lauretta-Scotti treats him with pompous condescension, while declaring that the two of them are not rivals (but only because De Martino is not at her level, ed.). He scrounges him for dinner, steals his dressing room, wants to take 100 euros from him. So what? Why would Uncle Gerry ever be a panhandler?

He enters the scene twice, equally distressing. He concludes that they are ‘two phenomena, together we make ten-eleven million viewers!’. And then they should think of a program to host in tandem: “The package of Fortune, where I bring the luck and you the package!”. Very meager laughter. Opaque parody of what could have been a good TV moment. Too bad. The day in which De Martino agrees to invite his own ‘lookalike’ Gigi of Gigi and Ross (‘GialappaShow’) it will never come. That would be a nice comparison, perhaps the street urchin with a thousand qualities is missing: (true) self-irony.

Herbert Ballerina now feels too famous for Rai 2: rating 7

“I’m not moving for less than four million viewers”. It is a Herbet Ballerina intoxicated by the success of ‘Affari Tuoi’ on the ‘first channel’ that we find on ‘Stasera Tutto è Possibile’, a program that has always been his home but which he now pretends not to even know. Indeed, initially there was a rumor among the cast members that he himself, Ballerina, would have convinced De Martino to never return to hosting the program so as not to ‘lower himself’. “How many spectators does this thing have?”, he asks in an aristocratic tone, with poorly concealed disgust and several times. “Are we on two? No, then I can’t, sorry!”, he reiterates from time to time.

Then he dresses up as Tarzan, steals chickens and maintains the regular tendency to ‘go crazy’ in that studio, as per tradition. In the game ‘Mime Noises’, he gives a handjob. Highest point of the episode for ours. But this new snobbish air of grandeur was a very nice idea. Will it keep her going for a while? Let’s hope so. Peppe Iodice will always pay the price the most because he even comes from ‘channel 21’ (the Campania regional network where he hosts his ‘Peppy Night’, ed.). How horrible, eh! Ballerina spends the evening looking at him as if he were a cockroach. And we, from home, have fun. A lot. Meanwhile, for the sake of retaliation, here is the CV of the very proud Herbert.

Maria Sole Pollio is the transparent share of the episode: rating 4

As per tradition, the cast of each episode of ‘Stasera Tutto è Possibile’ includes seasoned comedians, special guests and a transparent quota, that is, a character placed there for no one knows what reason and who, for the purposes of the show, has the same specific weight as a fish in Fazio’s aquarium on ‘Che Tempo Che Fa’. Or Fazio’s questions to ‘Che Tempo Che Fa’. This time Maria Sole Pollio plays the role, practically impalpable from start to finish. The highest moment of which he is the protagonist is the attempt to sell two provola cheeses to Lorella Cuccarini, regally sitting on a throne. Pollio has to try to convince her by singing and, unfortunately, he does. To the tune of ‘Add a place at the table’, he marvels at these provola cheeses which, he assures, would be a panacea ‘to halve carbohydrates’.

Once the complaint is over, Iodice nails her: “Look, you sing well, I think someone is calling you… from the hospital!”. Instead, De Martino will end up calling her at the next Sanremo. Write it down. Pollio, who has already been in several subordinate roles at the Festival, could actually find herself on the Ariston stage in the next edition: she has always been so transparent, a sort of female Gianluca Gazzoli, who could really make it. And no one will notice. As already happened in one of the most followed reality shows of last TV season, ‘The Traitors’ (Prime Video). Yes, in fact: she was also in the cast. Surprise?

Lorella Cuccarini ‘tronista’ in a madhouse, always elegant: rating 8

Those who follow ‘Amici’ know it well, Lorella Cuccarini is not (never been) a fan of caciara. So what is he doing at ‘Tonight Everything is Possible’? He debuts as a member of the cast, maintaining his natural and supreme elegance. It is no coincidence that at a certain point she is made to sit on a throne in the study centre, while the animators of that specific madhouse quack around her to sell her something, singing: Giovanni Esposito del tea (‘What is it? There is that I fell in love with a tea’, ed.) while Brenda Lodigiani of the gas cylinders to the tune of ‘La Bambola’, Patty Pravo.

Everything revolves around Cuccarini in the most chaotic way possible and she gracefully slips away singing ‘La Notte Vola’ (which, for fun, she says she is ready to assign as an advertising jingle to a nocturnal airline). Radiant in the stands, her listening plans are always the best: she is having fun like never before and it shows. This detox from the cries of colleagues Professors Anna Pettinelli and Rudy Zerbi who in ‘Friends’ spend their time slaughtering each other, neighing tirelessly, deserved precisely this. Happy to see her breathing (as far as escaping from other people’s noise pollution is concerned, however, we would like to recommend other places: there are more restful ones! Maybe you could try Marzullo?).