Telenovelas Invade the U.S.

I just read this interesting article in the New York Times. It sounds like telenovelas are making a comeback. Enjoy.

January 5, 2006
Advertising
Networks See Telenovelas as Maybe the Next Salsa
By STUART ELLIOTT
SALSA crossed over from the Latino market to the mainstream. So, too, did the music of Ricky Martin. Can telenovelas do the same?

Telenovelas are melodramatic, episodic TV programs, broadcast in Spanish, with sex-drenched stories centered on impossible love affairs, implacable enemies and insoluble family problems. They are hugely popular in Latin America as well as among viewers of United States networks that cater to Hispanic viewers like Telemundo and Univision, which run telenovelas previously seen in countries like Colombia and Mexico.

Telenovelas combine elements of soap operas, mini-series and serialized shows like "Dynasty" and "Desperate Housewives." They appear in prime time, as often as five days a week for four to six months, concluding with an episode tying up loose plot lines. When one telenovela ends, another usually begins, offering viewers a different set of cast members to adore or despise.

"You find yourself cheering for one character over another," said Graham Hall, chief insights officer at the Bravo Group in New York, an agency specializing in Hispanic advertising that is part of the Young & Rubicam Brands division of the WPP Group.

"These shows have a social function," Mr. Hall said. "They're like the village square where people meet virtually, gossiping over the fence."

In recent weeks, two broadcast networks, ABC and CBS, said they were exploring the creation of English-language versions of telenovelas that could appear as replacement programs this summer.

And Twentieth Television, part of the News Corporation, plans to remake telenovelas in English to run on stations owned by a sibling, Fox Broadcasting. They would also be offered for syndication to local stations owned by other companies.

The interest in adapting telenovelas for mainstream viewers is indicative of the growing influence of multicultural consumers. Telenovelas broadcast in English could appeal to millions of younger second- and third-generation Latinos who speak English more frequently than Spanish.

The move is also emblematic of changes in programming as networks try to find the next genre to capture the attention of jaded, restless viewers.

"The broadcast market is the realm of 'anything is worth a shot,' " said Steven J. Farella, president and chief at TargetCast TCM in New York, a media services agency.

Offering telenovelas in English "is a risk," Mr. Farella said, "but continuing story lines are always appealing to American audiences, from daytime soap operas to 'Dallas.' "

Viewers with long memories will recall that ABC presented episodes of a nighttime soap opera, "Peyton Place," two or three nights a week from September 1964 through January 1969.

Mainstream versions of telenovelas, Mr. Farella said, would be a way for broadcasters to attract an important audience, which he referred to as "four-out-of-four viewers" - that is, "people who will come back to watch a series four out of four weeks" rather than dip in and out, missing most episodes. Advertisers like such faithful viewing because it demonstrates loyalty and increases the frequency of their commercials being seen.

"It seems to make sense to try out a new format that has connected with Hispanic viewers," said Shari Ann Brill, vice president and programming director at the media agency Carat USA in New York, part of the Carat division of the Aegis Group.

Several telenovelas recently broadcast by Univision, part of Univision Communications, have been drawing larger audiences than programs on English-language networks like UPN and WB. "Clearly there's something in the programming that's drawing those viewers," Ms. Brill said.

"The key thing will be to have characters who matter, who viewers care about," she added, "and the shows will need to establish that very quickly."

Marc Berman, senior television editor at the trade publication Mediaweek, said he believed that English-language telenovelas would be "a good idea, but you can't guarantee they will have crossover appeal."

"The risk of course is that viewers tune in and don't like what they see," Mr. Berman said, leaving a network with weeks of programs to run that will generate low ratings and possibly require giving advertisers compensatory commercial time to make up for viewership shortfalls.

"On the flip side, there is another risk," Mr. Berman said. "What if a telenovela is very popular and suddenly it goes away? Do you end it after the 13 weeks or keep it going?"

Gail Ettinger, executive vice president and director for national broadcast at KSL Media in New York, agreed.

"If a general-market audience embraces the characters in a telenovela, are they going to want to see it end?" Ms. Ettinger asked. Ms. Ettinger also questioned the value of running more than one episode a week of a prime-time series. "In Anglo-speak, it's an incredibly long mini-series," she said of the telenovela format, adding, "I'm reserving judgment."

As for a TV show with a defined beginning, middle and end, Ms. Ettinger said, "Thank you very much, I can read a book."

Ms. Ettinger's skepticism was echoed by an entry last month on a popular blog, TV Squad (tvsquad.com), which carried the headline "Things I Hate About TV: Telenovelas." The blogger, Jonathan Toomey, described them as cheesy and corny and quoted an observation by Seth Cohen, a character on the Fox series "The O.C.," that telenovelas "always seem to be about some guy named Victor and his handlebar mustache."

Opponents of English-language telenovelas ought to embrace that playful spirit, said Dolores Kunda, president and chief executive at Lápiz in Chicago, the Hispanic division of the Leo Burnett unit of the Publicis Groupe.

"This is entertainment, fun, a diversion, in much the same way that 'Desperate Housewives' is," Ms. Kunda said.

"There's a lot of drama, a lot of excitement, a lot of sexual tension, a lot of va-va-voom," she added, laughing. "And that va-va-voom element is quite attractive."