Panicucci, 35 years of TV from Tortora to Mattino 5 – Entertainment

(by Angela Majoli) (ANSA) – ROME, 21 FEB – Thirty-five years of career, from the crowded squares of the Festivalbar to affairs of the heart, from catwalks to reality shows, to the infotainment with Mattino 5 of which she has been the host for thirteen editions: “The secret? You always have to work hard, study. I don’t like to improvise, I want to be prepared”, says Federica Panicucci. A lesson learned from the very beginning, which coincides with a page in the history of Italian television: the return to the air of Enzo Tortora, on February 20, 1987, with Portobello. “I carry everything of that day in my heart, the joy, the amazement, the awareness of being part of an unrepeatable moment”, says Panicucci, who made his debut as a switchboard operator of the most famous ‘market’ on the small screen. “Tortora started the live broadcast alone, with the monologue of ‘So, where were we left?’. Then, after a pause, it reopened with Renée Longarini and we from the ‘Centralone’ all lined up, as if to say ‘the team is all here, next to me. ‘We had to introduce ourselves briefly:’ I’m Federica, I’m 19, I study Languages ​​at the State University of Milan ‘… I must have repeated the sentence hundreds of times so as not to make mistakes. We had a marginal role, but we really picked up the phone calls of the public. Tortora was always very generous in speaking to us, in involving us “. She had arrived at the audition, in the Rai studios in Corso Sempione in Milan, through a casting agency: “Since childhood I have always wanted to work on TV”, confesses Panicucci, born in 1967, originally from Cecina (Livorno). “I was incredibly lucky, also because I then came to lead two programs of which I was a passionate spectator: The Look of the Year, with the great international models, and the Festivalbar” alongside characters like Amadeus, Fiorello, Gerry Scotti. Those arenas “were a crazy experience: it was a very popular show, the only one that gave the audience the possibility of direct contact with the singers. People stopped me on the street, even today the fans tell me about it”. In 1996 the arrival in Rai with Arrivano gli uomo with Adriano Celentano, then the Television Director Award, the backstage of Pavarotti & Friends, the connections with Telemania conducted by Mike Bongiorno, The debutante dance with Pippo Baudo, the stories of feelings with Affairs of the heart, heartbeat and jokes of love. In 2006 the return to Mediaset with La pupa e il secchione. “Mike? I was the correspondent on the American sets of his shows, like The Wheel of Fortune. I remember that I was very upset because everyone told me that he was very demanding, but with me he was always very kind, caring. An extraordinary teacher. Gerry. Scotti? I met him while he was conducting Candid Camera Show: I had very long blond hair, he made me sit in the audience and launched the advertisement wrapping his head with my hair. A great professional but also a fraternal person, one of the family “. The “most difficult leap” was the arrival at Morning 5: “I came from entertainment, I had never dealt with news, with social issues, I had to learn how to do it. It was not easy – she admits – but I must say that thirteen years of stories, of life experiences represent an enormous baggage for me. And then I learned to manage the live broadcast, with the help of the formidable team of Videonews “. Very popular on Instagram – she has over 1 million followers – Panicucci does not feel like a “social addict: I use Twitter to keep me informed, Instagram and Facebook as a ‘brain break’, as a pastime. Tools that have brought the public so close to those who do my job. . When a few days ago a tile hit the roof of my car, many people clung to me, this charge of affection is really beautiful “. On the web she always shows herself perfect, how important is appearance? “I believe that women today deserve to be free to choose what they want to be without conditioning. And of course it also applies to men.” On dreams in the drawer he does not unbalance: “I consider February 20 not as a point of arrival, but as a stage. Behind me I see the entire path I have taken, I peek ahead and I think it is a continuous journey. If I would like to lead Sanremo ? Nobody would refuse such a proposal. I don’t know what to expect, but that’s the beauty of my job. ” (HANDLE).