Raffaella Griggi named new host of Rai3's Chi l'ha visto?, succeeding Federica Sciarelli after 22 years

The succession

Rai has chosen Raffaella Griggi to replace Federica Sciarelli at the helm of Chi l'ha visto?, the public-service programme that has been a fixture of Rai3 for decades. Sciarelli hosted the missing-persons and crime-investigation series for 22 years, with her final episode airing on 1 July. The announcement was made on 28 July by Paolo Corsini, director of Approfondimento Rai, who stressed that the appointment was rooted in continuity with the programme's history and values.

“Sono stata sempre inviata: lo studio lo sentivo in cuffia, quando mi dava la linea Federica, ma con i familiari degli scomparsi, forse per il mio senso del rispetto, del pudore, e un pizzico di intuito da buona genovese, in un modo o nell'altro sono quasi sempre riuscita a instaurare rapporti di fiducia.”

Griggi, born in Genoa in 1973, told ANSA she feels a great responsibility in taking the baton from someone who was not just the host but the soul of the programme and is deeply loved by its audience. She also revealed that Sciarelli herself sent her the news-agency dispatch by message and expressed happiness at an internal successor being chosen.

A reporter's path to the studio

Before television, Griggi played volleyball at Serie B level and started in print journalism at the Ligurian edition of La Repubblica, covering sport and crime. Her breakthrough came covering the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa for local broadcaster Telenord. She moved to national networks in 2008 with Sky Tg24, then to TgLa7 under Enrico Mentana in 2010, followed by a stint at Mediaset before arriving at Rai in 2011 on La Vita in Diretta and UnoMattina.

She joined the Chi l'ha visto? team in 2017 and spent roughly nine years filing investigations across Italy, often on complex criminal cases. Among the scoops credited to her are an interview with Salvatore Parolisi outside prison, coverage of the so-called diabolical lovers, the murder of Giulia Cecchettin, and the case of Tatiana Tramacere, the young woman presumed missing who was found alive in a friend's attic.

A collective format evolves

Corsini outlined a format designed to blend continuity with innovation. In addition to Griggi's central hosting role, three other veteran correspondents (Francesco Paolo Del Re, Chiara Cazzaniga and Veronica Briganti) will be given their own studio segments tied to their field reporting. "La conduzione sara il punto di sintesi di una squadra, sempre piu protagonista del racconto giornalistico sul territorio," Corsini said, describing the host as the synthesis point of a team increasingly driving the journalistic narrative on the ground. The editorial staff has also been strengthened with the addition of experienced new authors and correspondents.

“La scelta di Raffaella Griggi nasce nella piena continuita con la storia e i valori di Chi l'ha visto? La sua esperienza maturata all'interno della redazione e come inviata della trasmissione, unita alla sua riconosciuta professionalita di giornalista Rai, rappresentano la migliore garanzia per accompagnare il programma in una nuova fase.”

An emotional handover

Griggi told Il Messaggero that the news arrived during a period of personal grief. "Recentemente e venuto a mancare mio padre, quando ho saputo che avrei condotto Chi l'ha visto? ho pensato a lui e ho pianto," she said, adding that they were not tears of joy but of pain during difficult days. She described herself as someone without agents, outside any media inner circles, and expressed gratitude that Rai had chosen to promote from within. Her career path (print, local TV, national networks, then nine years embedded in the Chi l'ha visto? newsroom) made her the continuity candidate many viewers had requested through emails and social-media messages in the weeks after Sciarelli's departure.