Flavio Insinna

He subsequently starred in two other RAI fictions, Don Bosco and Don Pappagallo (one of the 335 victims of the massacre at the Fosse Ardeatine in March 1944).

Flavio Insinna (born 3 July 1965) is an Italian actor and television presenter.

He is a former host of L'eredità.

In 1986, after trying unsuccessfully to join the Carabinieri (the Italian gendarmerie), he enrolled in Alessandro Fersen's drama school.

In 1990, he graduated from the "Laboratorio di esercitazioni sceniche" (Italian for "Laboratory of scenic exercises"), run by Gigi Proietti in Rome.

One of his most popular roles was Flavio Anceschi, a captain in the Carabinieri, which he played for five seasons in the hit television series Don Matteo on RAI with Terence Hill and Nino Frassica.

He is also known for having hosted Affari Tuoi, the Italian version of Deal or No Deal between 2006 and 2008 and then again between 2013 and 2017.

In the summer of 2006, Insinna worked in the sitcom Cotti e mangiati (Italian for "Cooked and eaten").

In September of the same year, he made his debut as the host of the prime-time game show Affari Tuoi (Italian version of the American Deal or No Deal) on RaiUno.

The broadcast was highly rated and managed to top the competitor in its time slot Striscia la notizia.

This gave a rebirth to the popularity of the show, which had had some audience share issues before Insinna.

As a result of this success, he received critical acclaim, thanks to which he was awarded a Telegatto on 27 January 2007 for "Best New Personality" of 2006.

Again in 2007, Insinna took part as a guest on the final evening of the Sanremo music festival.

After two successful seasons, he left Affari Tuoi in June 2008 to devote himself to the theatre.

In 2008, Insinna started playing the title role in the shoes of Commissioner Santamaria Diego in the TV series RAI Ho sposato uno sbirro, a role he kept for two seasons.

In 2009, he starred in Many Kisses Later, directed by Fausto Brizzi.

In the same year, he also participated as a dancer for a night in the second episode of the fifth edition of the Rai Uno broadcast Ballando con le Stelle.

He also read the lyrics of Mango's song Gli amori son finestre for the realisation of the homonymous CD.

In 2011, Insinna hosted the historic broadcast La Corrida (Italian for "The Bullfighting") on Canale 5, personal debut on Mediaset.

In May of that year, after the death of his father, he temporarily retired from the scene because he was not up for making people laugh.

Insinna wrote a book, Neanche con un morso all'orecchio (Italian for "Not even with an ear bite"), released on 21 February 2012, which was reprinted four times in a few weeks.

In the same year, he hosted Canale 5's Il braccio e la mente (Italian for "The brains and the brawn").

Since 15 September 2012, he hosted the radio broadcast Per favore parlate al conducente (Italian for "Please talk with the driver"), written by Marco Presta and Franco Bertini, aired on Radiodue on Saturdays and Sundays.

On 15 December of that year, he returned to host a RAI broadcast on RAI 1, the charity "marathon" Telethon.

In his book Neanche con un morso all'orecchio (Italian for "Not even with an ear bite"), released on 21 February 2012, Insinna blamed the nurse that had prevented him from visiting his dying father during the latter's hospitalisation.

Actually, the access had been denied as the hospital regulations require a maximum of two people per ICU room, being Insinna's mother and sister were already in the room.

In particular, the author included a chapter entitled "L'infermiera stronza" (Italian for "The bitch nurse"), where he wrote:

Besides, Insinna inserted an unfortunate story about what he would have done to that nurse in the following chapter "Vedrai che andrà tutto bene" (Italian for "It'll be fine"): Similar words caused huge controversy.

During an interview to the weekly magazine Oggi, Insinna fought back stating "I meant every word".

On 8 September 2013, Insinna was back to host Affari Tuoi.

The broadcast was able to prevail on Striscia la notizia on a daily basis.

On 22 November of the same year, he participated as a juror in the TV broadcast Tale e quale show (Italian for "Spitting images show").

On 30 November 2013, Insinna was again a dancer for one night in Ballando con le Stelle, paired with Elena Coniglio: the duo danced a tango that got huge success, leading the jury to award Insinna and Coniglio with the maximum marks (50 points).

In a leaked tape of 25 September 2014, a fuming Insinna scurrilously complained about the "box X", a special option of the game, which he considered completely useless.

In a leaked tape of 7 February 2015, Insinna complained about the fact that he had no possibility of choosing the contestants of the episodes.

In particular, he was furious at the contestant representing Aosta Valley, Maria Rosaria Seracusa.

Later in 2017, Striscia la notizia broadcast a TV report about this topic, underlining the violent and misogynistic tone Insinna used in his book, worsened by the fact that the author had certainly pondered those words, talking about "bullying, a violence against women that goes so far as to femicide".

In 2017 Striscia la notizia broadcast a TV report aimed at exposing Insinna's duplicity, showing the host talking off the air while recording some episodes of Affari tuoi.

Insinna was caught blaming, insulting and offending, directly or indirectly, some of his collaborators and some of the contestants.

From 2018 to 2023, Insinna hosted L'eredità on Rai Uno.