The wigs and stilettos are back in the closet: Italy is resolutely putting an end to the local version of Carlo Boszhard’s drag show Make Up Your Mind. “A right wind is blowing now.”
Right versus rainbow? The drag show Make Up Your Mind by our own Carlo Boszhard is going off the air in Italy and that is extremely remarkable, because it was a great viewing success there. The presenter is extremely disappointed and he makes no secret of this latest column for Television.
Chopped into cubes
Carlo has created something to be proud of with Make Up Your Mind. He achieved success with the TV show not only in the Netherlands, but also abroad. In the summer, for example, a season was shown on the Italian public TV channel RAI2. “After the series was recorded, a right-wing cabinet was established,” says the presenter.
The director of RAI2 who ordered the program was fired. “And dark clouds hung over the Italian Make Up Your Mind. There were whispers that it would never air. We then learned that the program would be broadcast in small blocks, spread over the late evening.”
Summer concession
What?! Carlo’s TV child chopped into pieces? “In the end, the program was too expensive to pass up and several people in the media rebelled. The concession: it aired in the middle of summer. The reactions beforehand were not good and it had no choice but to fail. But the opposite happened.”
Make Up Your Mind was a big hit among the target group, the presenter knows. “It was one of RAI2’s most successful programs of 2023. Add to that the incredibly positive social media response. The Italian media praised the program as the cult hit of the summer. But despite that, there will not be a second series.”
Right wind
The reason is the right-wing wind that has started blowing in Italy, according to Carlo. With Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni they have made a big move to the right. “The channel will take a different course in terms of content, RAI2 responds. That choice – driven by politics – will not fall on a program that scores and proclaims a message of freedom of expression.”
Carlo, who finally writes a newsworthy column, finds it horrible. His partner Herald Adolfs and he get a big kick in the face from the Italian boot. All that remains of their colorful program is political confetti. “We feel taken for a ride.”
Elections
A rainbow eclipse in Italy, but Carlo remains positive. “Hopefully this will be corrected after the next elections. For the many enthusiastic viewers, the drag community and the great team in Italy, and my Herald. They have a right to that!”