Of late I’ve found myself drawn to the concept of the telenova. The telenova is a form of television show originating in Latin American countries; the form usually revolves around a romantic story line told within a finite number of episodes.
The stories tend toward predictable melodrama, but I’m drawn to them because they focus on a limited number of characters, thus lending greater development to the ones on the screen; the limited number of episodes means I don’t have to worry about the show continuing despite losing its steam after a few seasons.
While I wouldn’t want all of my television to come in telenova format, part of me wishes that we had more shows on TV now like that, something I could get addicted to briefly but that would release me at the end of 20 or so episodes.
In recent years, countries in which the telenova enjoys popularity also began producing ones for the tween set, and those really took off. Now the Hollywood Reporter has the story that Disney CEO Robert Iger began to take notice when smash teen telenova “Patito Feo” repeatedly beat out Disney franchises like “Hannah Montana” in both television ratings and soundtrack sales in southern Europe.
Iger responded by having president of Disney’s Latin America base Diego Lerner scoop up the rights to the show, which now airs on all the Latin American incarnations of the Disney Channel. Disney next tested out the teen telenova format with “Jake & Blake,” an English-language show that played in Central and South America to huge ratings, landing the number one or two spots in many of the countries in which it aired.
Bolstered by that success, Disney’s now gearing up to bring the format to America. Not only do execs think that the teen telenova will do well in this country, they believe they can get away with producing the same content, but dropping the “teen.”
“I see a real appetite for this genre, not only because the properties offer daily broadcast but because rather than tween, it is actually a family series in Europe,” said Ricardo Ehrsman, Europe and Asia general manager for the production company Televisia. “From the very start, that’s been the way to go with this product. If you angle it only for kids, you’re missing the point.”
Disney’s taking that idea to heart as it prepares to broadcast “Jake and Blake” in the United States. It hasn’t set a specific release date yet, but plans are underway to air the show on the Disney Channel sometime in the future.
The format seems perfect for Disney, as teen telenovas have a franchise-building merchandise-selling track record in parts of Europe and Central and South America, but is cheaper to produce than traditional television series because it has a set ending.
I’m curious to see what Disney does with the format, whether they make their own brand new telenova for Disney Channel in the States, or if they really will release “Jake and Blake” here. I made my curiosity/enthusiasm about telenovas clear earlier, and there are few companies I trust more to make an engaging story than Disney.
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