“Humanly speaking, I can’t help but feel sorry for her. I know Barbara D’Urso, she is super vital and nice and competent. It was a corporate decision to change direction and I am only the interpreter of that change. I am not an antagonist or even a better or worse choice.” This is what the journalist and presenter Myrta Merlino told Corriere della Sera on the eve of her debut as presenter of the program Pomeriggio 5, which will air again on Canale 5 from Monday September 4th starts. Merlino takes on the role of the historical presenter of the show Who Yesterday he wrote in a post published on his social media channels: “Now the keys to this house have been handed over to Myrta, to whom I wish the best of luck.” Pomeriggio5 will finally be back on a have a large studio with a live audience that can also interact live. The duration is extended, half an hour longer, starting well ahead of the competitor, and a more favorable position in the schedule is guaranteed, with an excellent driving force, as befits a program that is now historic, established and successful It is like this, how it should be and how it would have been right in previous seasons.”
D’Urso continued, explaining: “All this can only be good for the ratings and for Pomeriggio5, one of the television creatures I am most proud of.” The only thing I regret, as you know, is that I can’t say goodbye to my audience after 15 years together. But I know you understood that it wasn’t my fault. The presenter emphasizes that despite a “very small budget” she managed to achieve important viewership: “I stood at attention when I was given a much smaller studio, which was shared with the news, and not just me “forced to record the last two blocks.” to finish as quickly as possible in the short time before the live broadcast in order to be able to leave the studio at Studio Aperto at 6:25 p.m. on time. Another refinement of the duration, which was reduced to the essentials in the last two seasons (for reasons that are still unclear to me today). In the last two years we have been forced to start half an hour later than previous seasons and after a soap that gave us a resistance of 9/10%. Nevertheless, together with the wonderful team that accompanied me until June 2nd, I was able to guarantee a very high viewership (seasonal average 16%, with peaks over 20%) and, as expected, we were ready to get started again with the new season. was urgently requested.”
For her part, Merlino explains to Corriere that she never imagined ending up in this program.
“It wasn’t my life plan, after many years of working in the daily newspaper at La7, with ‘L’aria che tira’. I had received an offer from Rai and one from Mediaset, who convinced me: I should have moderated a Prime time show on Rete4. Then this proposal came as a surprise at the end of June.
The new presenter of the Mediaset show admits that she is “excited after overcoming some purely existential moments of panic”. It still is:
“They offered me a demanding and exciting challenge: to revolutionize a piece of general television that appeals to many Italians. Those who do this job have the ambition to reach as wide an audience as possible and I want to try to achieve this by telling Italy as it is, starting from people’s lives.”
Barbara D’Urso’s outburst: “For Myrta Merlino a bigger studio, longer duration and better location”
from Huffpost Italy