Top Italian TV presenter Amadeus is
set to leave State broadcaster Rai, sources said after he had a
meeting on Monday with Director General Giampaolo Rossi in
Rome.
The 61-year-old has hosted a range of popular programmes on Rai
and had been the presenter and artistic director of the iconic
Sanremo Music Festival, which is also screened by the network,
for the last five years.
He becomes the latest in a string of top TV stars to have left
the broadcaster over the last few years.
Last summer journalist Bianca Berlinguer, the daughter of late
Italian Communist Party leader Enrico Berlinguer who presented
the Cartabianca political talk show on the Rai3 channel, quit
Rai after 34 years and joined Mediaset.
Rai3 also recently lost two other popular left-leaning chat show
hosts, Fabio Fazio and Lucia Annunziata, a former Rai chair.
Fazio, whose show was not renewed and moved to the Warner Bros
Discovery Nove channel, said he was a victim of an alleged purge
by the government.
Former Rai president and veteran journalist Annunziata also quit
complaining about government meddling.
Amadeus is tipped to move to Nove too.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
