This formula soon proved to be a fiasco, recording low television ratings, so the authors, after just one month of transmission, decided to implement a drastic change in the format, while maintaining the same title, which referred to the variety of shows offered in a chaotic way and noisy from the cast of the broadcast in its first version.
The competitor who answered the question correctly, after discovering the letter (on the model of the famous game Wheel of Fortune), then, had five seconds to give the verse of the Pentagram or could continue to choose the remaining notes.
During the seventh edition, between November and December 2003, for a short period, following the suppression of the Sessanta secondi, in the version with four, two competitors were eliminated, those with the lowest score, qualifying the final two.
The jackpot took shape during the episode based on the progress of the following games: Il gioco delle notine (The game of notines) The competitors, one by one, had to choose a Notina (which through gestures could give indications or mislead), which extracted from a pocket of the miniskirt a CD on which was depicted a figure which was associated with a question of a musical nature; a song fragment, who was the first to be booked and answered correctly, passed the turn and helped to increase the prize money of the number corresponding to the one shown on the CD.
Among the seven CDs to choose from there was a special, called "jolly" on which there was the logo of the program instead of the figure: whoever found it automatically passed the turn and increased the jackpot of 3,000 euros.
Nota stonata (Note out of tune) A series of individual questions of musical culture were asked by the host, to which the five remaining competitors had to answer "yes" or "no", where the two mistakes were eliminated.
Among the games there were the returns of the Spaccasecondo, the Pentagramma (with the rules used until the fourth edition) and the Sessanta secondi (used only in the final episode to decree the two finalists) while they were confirmed both the Asta musicale that the 7 × 30.
In May 1997, when Giorgio Gori, after abandoning the role of director of Canale 5 and taking over the reins of Italia 1, decided to renew the program schedules for the 1997-1998 television season with the aim of strengthening the youth target to which he addressed and at the same time give her a new identity, proposing new formats to be entrusted to familiar faces of the Mediaset group.
One of these was Sarabanda, who had the intention to repeat the successes obtained by Karaoke, conducted by Fiorello, a program broadcast up to two years earlier on the same network and in the same time slot, taking advantage of the musical tradition.
The first version of the program, whose first episode ever aired on September 8, 1997, at 7:45 pm, was based on the performance of musical pieces at the request of viewers, comedy moments and games.
Due to the failure of the variety version that preceded it, the program started quietly and then underwent a gradual increase in audience ratings over time and a greater interest of viewers.
Given the good results obtained with this format, the program also continued during the months of June, July and partly in August and September with a short dedicated edition.
Thanks to excellent listening, with a significant increase especially during the period of presence of the champion Antonietta Palladino, from April 2, 2000, the airing of the episodes covered the entire week, including Sunday.
On May 15, 2000, as part of the ceremony of the Gran Premio internazionale dello Spettacolo (broadcast the following day on Canale 5), Sarabanda was awarded the Telegatto as the best musical transmission, a prize that marks the consecration of the program.
For the seventh edition he changed the direction passing from Giuliana Baroncelli to Maurizio Spagliardi, while the transmission moved to Cinecittà, leaving the Elios studios from where it had always been recorded.
This season saw dizzying figures drop dramatically, due to the resounding success of Affari tuoi, broadcast on Rai 1 and conducted by Paolo Bonolis, in constant struggle with Striscia la notizia.
There was no longer the trio Mapo, Letizia and Loredana, replaced by four girls called Bollicine: Simona Buccheri, Valentina Cesetti, Anna Montieri and Mariangela Argentino (with the last three, who only a few months before had participated in the second edition of the talent Popstars), while the body of dance had been replaced by seven girls (the Notines), who animated some of the new games, the boys of the choir went to form the audience of spectators and finally the authors were renamed "garanti" (guarantors).
Of the old version only the director Massimo Idà, the chorister Letizia Liberati, the ballerina Valentina Simeone, the costume designer Maria Sabato, the author Alfredo Morabito and the executive producer Lino Tatalo remained.
In addition, viewers from home are involved through a musical question that could be answered by text message or phone call and win a small amount of money in the form of a shopping card.
The current champion of the last episode conducted by Papi was not called (although he had repeatedly stated in 2004 in case of return of the transmission), so he left completely with new competitors.
As for the cast, the presences of Saraband (whose only return is that of the drummer Liano Chiappa), of the ballet and the audience, have been confirmed while about twenty people have been added on the model of the old choir.
There were the returns of the two historical authors Nicola De Feo and Pietro Gorini, to which were added Massimiliano Novaresi, Marco Pantaleo, Gian Luca Belardi and Alessandro Santucci, while the direction was entrusted to Sergio Colabona.
The acronym was Mooseca, the first single by Papi, which takes its name from the famous distortion of the word musica (music) used by the conductor in the first editions of the program to kick off the Saraband to the performance of a song.
It was then learned, through some reports of the public in Striscia la notizia, that he made an accurate service and unmasked it, that he had taken part from 17 to 19 November 1997, that is a little less than four months before, to Ciao Mara, Canale 5 program conducted by Mara Venier, (also winning on that occasion, 20 million lire) and in contravention of the Mediaset business rule that prevented a competitor from a quiz from returning to compete in another by 12 o'clock months.
On 17 April 2001, the judge Antonio Macrì of the Court of Rome condemned Mediaset to the return to De Ponte of the sum won plus the legal interest following his appeal, confirming the sentence issued on June 27, 2000.
The choice of the three viewers who participated on January 4 was criticized: they were not selected on the basis of phone calls made in drafting and the correct answers provided regarding the preliminary game, but were chosen at random by telephone directories.
The allegations were related to the fact that the transmission would never have asked for or obtained the authorization of the Ministry of Finance to exercise the role of quiz with prizes and also that the telephone numbers that the aspiring competitors composed to support the auditions were not regulations, i.e. that the cost of charging was too high and was going to contribute significantly to the growth of the jackpots at stake during the episodes.
Also Enrico Papi was entered in the register of suspects because of the accusations due to the management of his personal internet site, through which, with a booking number, one could try to participate in the transmission.
In the 2009 edition the program was criticized by the Moige due to the filming related to the body of Belén Rodríguez, judged too explicit and considered mortifying for the female figure.
The same edition, probably due to the fact of being broadcast live, has been affected by various technical problems: faulty buttons, missed starting of the musical bases to guess, incorrect graphics, not updated or not synchronized with the progress of the game, difficulty from the director to show replays and screens turned off.