Let me tell you, the best telenovelas come from Colombia and Brazil. Those two countries know how to produce telenovelas, and good quality ones. Mexican telenovelas are just like Filipino telenovelas, probably because of the shared culture between the two countries, and they get too ma-arte sometimes and over dramatic, but wow, those telenovelas from Colombia and Brazil, I’ve had the best TV-watching moments of my life with telenovelas from those two countries.
It’s obvious the pull that the two networks TELEMUNDO and UNIVISION have in Latin America in that they work in collaboration with other TV networks to produce telenovelas, or borrow their partner network's actors to fill up their shows. TELEMUNDO worked with Brazilian TV network Globo to produce El Clon, and with Colombian TV network RCI to produce Pasion de Gavilanes, and Univision regularly works with Venezuelan company Venevision to produce telenovelas and various comedy and talk shows.
There are TV networks that only pertain to certain countries: TV Azteca is the smaller Mexican network that brought you Paloma (Cuando Seas Mia), RCI is a Colombian network, Venevision is Venezuelan. And it’s high profile for a celebrity to be on one of the smaller networks, but for an actor to sign a contract with either Telemundo or Televisa means that THEY’VE MADE IT, and they’re on their way to worldwide superstardom.
Telemundo is based in Miami, Florida and Televisa is based in Mexico City. Many Latin American actors, for them to get good work, have to move to either the US or Mexico to grow as actors.
Paola Rey and Danna Garcia were HUGE stars in their native Colombia, but it wasn’t until they moved to the United States and landed their contracts with Telemundo that they became WORLDWIDE CELEBRITIES. And with the success of Pasion de Gavilanes (Pasion de Amor), Paola Rey landed the hugely prestigious endorsement deals for Neutrogena and Revlon, while Danna Garcia landed an endorsement deal for Garnier. This is a big deal, because very few Latin celebrities get those deals, in fact, not more than a handful of Latin celebs have received endorsement deals in the United States . And these two girls can’t walk down the street in any country of the Americas, the US, or Spain without being mobbed by huge crowds.
Without a doubt, Telemundo’s hottest property right now is Gabriela Spanic. As far as a male leading actor, it's Saul Lisazo. Also hot properties are: PAOLA REY, MICHEL BROWN, DANNA GARCIA, MARIO CIMARRO, AND JUAN ALFONSO BAPTISTA. Even just a telenovela starring ONE of these actors is a surefire hit, so imagine the teaming up of two of them in various telenovelas.
It’s also important to understand that not all actors in Latin America are Mexican, nor are all telenovelas from Mexico. PASION DE GAVILANES (Amor) is from COLOMBIA.
GABRIELA SPANIC is CROATION/VENEZUELAN.
BARBARA MORI is JAPANESE/URUGUAYAN.
MICHEL BROWN is ARGENTINEAN.
JUAN ALFONSO BAPTISTA is VENEZUELAN.
MARIO CIMARRO (Pasion de Amor, Gata Salvaje) is CUBAN. Isn't it neat to see how actors look like in real life? We're so used to seeing him in vaquero outfits and with cowboy hats, and here he is dressed all cool and casual, the real Mario Cimarro.
PAOLA REY and DANNA GARCIA are COLOMBIAN.
SEBASTIAN RULLI and SAUL LISAZO are ARGENTINEAN.
After Pasion de Gavilanes, Telemundo teamed up MICHEL BROWN and DANNA GARCIA in TE VOY A ENSEÑAR A QUERER (I’m Going to Teach You How to Love). Then they teamed up PAOLA REY and JUAN ALFONSO BAPTISTA in the worldwide hit LA MUJER EN EL ESPEJO (THE WOMAN IN THE MIRROR). Then MARIO CIMARRO was the protagonista (Spanish for actor with top billing) in the phenomenal EL CUERPO DEL DESEO (Body of Desire). CORAZON PARTIDO, with protagonista DANNA GARCIA just ended, and taking it’s place in the 9pm timeslot, surely another hit, and another team up from the Pasion cast, PAOLA REY and MICHEL BROWN in Amores de Mercado.
Televisa’s hottest property right now: SEBASTIAN RULLI (from Rubi) and GALILEA MONTIJO.
GLOBO is a the network that dominates Brazil, and considering the population of Brazil and the fact that the rest of Latin America loves and eats up Brazilian telenovelas, it’s easy to say that the top 3 networks in the Americas are: TELEMUNDO, UNIVISION, and GLOBO.
I’m really happy that I live here in the US. I own a home-business, so while I’m working and when I'm not going out to dinner with friends and living my life of course, I’m at home doing my internet-based business while watching TV, which is a luxury in itself to be able to do so, to be able to schedule your own breaks, so I can only be grateful to God for that, but what adds to the luxury is the choices you have and the variety of shows you can watch.
If you feel like watching American TV, there’s Desperate Housewives, Smallville, Simple Life, MTV, all there. But I usually watch Spanish shows all day, as in ALL DAY. But if you feel like watching Filipino shows, there’s GMA Pinoy TV or TFC for me. If you feel like watching Asianovelas, there’s the Asian channel featuring the hottest shows from all over Asia, and with English subtitles. For Spanish shows, I don’t need English subtitles because I’m fluent in Spanish, but for Filipinos who don’t speak Spanish, Telemundo offers that option. Univision/Televisa doesn’t. And there’s Pasion de Gavilanes (Amor) in it’s full 1-hour original-ness. If you want to know what’s happening to your celebs from Latin America, it’s all there in the Spanish networks’ daily gossip shows.
So if you want to go the U.S., not only will you have a better life, but your nightly television entertainment also receives a boost. Pretty funny, right.
When I visited the Philippines, I was dying because I could not watch my telenovelas. The thing about telenovelas here is that they’re shown every day all day along in one channel or another, which is fantastic for Filipinos because just like the South Americans that in reality, we sort of are, we eat that stuff up like candy just like they do. They show new ones at night and in the afternoon, and in the mornings they show classic telenovelas from years past.
I’ll share with you my TV watching schedule just for fun. In the morning, Telefutura begins showing telenovelas from 6am to 11:30. They show successful telenovelas from years past, so if you’re nostalgic, here’s your chance to revisit telenovelas from years past. Before they showed Rosalinda with Thalia, and a whole bunch of other good ones, too many to name. Right now 6am is El Precio de tu Amor starring Rubi star Eduardo Santamarina, 7am is my FAVORITE Mi Destino Eres Tu starring the beautiful Lucero and Jorge Salinas. 8 is Entre El Amor y El Odio, 9 is the FANTASTIC Colombian telenovela LUCIANA, which is my current favorite. 10am is a Venezuelan telenovela Destinos, during which I change the station to Telemundo, because they’re showing POR QUE DIABLOS? starring my favorite actress Paola Rey and Manolo Cardonas. Telemundo is great, because they show their morning telenovela for an hour and a half! The 10am slot before showed previous Brazilian hits El Clon, Siete Mujeres, and this FUNNY FUNNY telenovela that I forgot the name of. And now they put a telenovela from their Colombian partner RCI, which stars two of their hottest contract stars Paola Rey and Manolo Cardonas.
At 11 while I’m working, I then watch the Spanish morning shows, which feature celebrities from the networks as guests. From 11am - 1pm, the Spanish networks then show their morning gossip shows kind of like Kris Aquino’s show which reports on the celebrities and what’s up in their lives, etc. you know all that chismis, which is also entertaining in itself to see who’s Barbara Mori dating, or who’s Sebastian Rulli’s new girlfriend.
Then at 1pm, Univision starts up the telenovela rounds again and starts with the daily Mujer…Historias de La Vida Real, which is a daily show that features stories based on true stories. 2pm is another telenovela that we don’t watch, 3pm is Rebelde, and 4pm they have another gossip show, then from 5-7 they have the news, so we're not watching Univision during those times because it’s boring, and we usually go out to dinner anyway, so we're usually not home.
I watch Rebelde, then I change it to Telefutura because at 4pm is MARIA LA DEL BARRIO, which I LOVE!!!!! No wonder Filipinos were glued to this show while it was on and love Thalia with a passion. 5pm they have Amor de Palos from Venezuela, then 6pm they always have the current children’s telenovela, which I never watch.
Then boom, the networks start their ratings war. 7pm starts the daily night time ratings competition between the two networks. TV Azteca has had moderate success with Paloma (Cuando Seas Mia), the other one, and the new one (see, they’re not really that good which is why not too many people watch it, and I don’t even remember their names, the only good one was Paloma and Amor en Custodia, and a few other ones), but the biggest and most expensive shows are on Telemundo and Univision, and 7pm starts the war to who can rake in the most viewers with their shows. Kind of like Philippine television, right?
Right now, it’s like this. On Telemundo, 7pm is La Tormenta which is like a western suspenseful love story, which I might add won an award, and also features a lesbian couple and a gay couple, 8pm is Tierra de Pasiones, the novela that takes place in the wine grape fields, starring GABY SPANIC and SAUL, 9pm is the new hit Amores de Mercado starring your favorite Pasion stars MICHEL BROWN and PAOLA REY. Then 10 pm is Decisiones, the fantastic daily novela “donde usted es el verdadero protagonista” “where you are the main star”, and they did that because when it first started, for every story they filmed two separate endings, the character would come to a turning point, and the audience is given two options, like a) should she do this? Or b) should she do that?, and the audience would text their choice, and then the votes are tallied, and the ending that the audience chose is the ending for the telenovela. Genius, no?
On Univision, which owns Televisa and therefore shows telenovelas directly from Televisa, at 7 is Peregrina about a circus, 9 is Barrera de Amor, and the 10 slot is the Spanish talk show, Cristina, where they feature celeb interviews usually or interesting stuff. For Univision, whenever a telenovela ends, the day it ends, the cast usually goes on Cristina and they talk about the telenovela and stuff. When Rubi ended, Barbara Mori and Sebastian Rulli went on Cristina, same as Alborada, then Fernando Colunga and Lucero went on Cristina, then Sebastian came again after Contra Viento y El Marea ended, then Barbara Mori came again when her movie La Mujer de Mi Hermano was released in the United States. Cristina is based in Miami, where Univision and Telemundo is based. Miami, Florida for Latin America is like the center of everything, it’s Latin America’s Hollywood, just because all of the biggest stars live there, and if you’re an actor and want to get into telenovelas, well Miami, Florida is where you wanna go just because two of the biggest Spanish TV networks are based there, and hold their auditions there, their awards shows there, their talent competitions whenever they have those talent/dance/singing shows where ordinary people can become stars.
You know what? I like Spanish TV because in it’s base form, not only is it the same culture as a Filipino culture, it’s like the same thing as Filipino TV: telenovelas, chismis talk shows, dance and singing competition shows, it’s like Filipino TV but in Spanish and on a grander scale. And that works for me, and keeps me entertained everyday. I would much rather be watching Filipino TV with all my cousins and family in Pilipinas, but obviously I'm in the US, so I can't, so the closet thing to home is Spanish television, and that keeps me happy. It also makes me happy when my family and I watch the same show, because it's imported over there as well.
Stay tuned for next month’s Telenovela Update where we‘ll talk about the hottest Brazilian telenovelas. The reason why we like Brazilian telenovelas is that they’re more realistic and yet more dream like at the same time, I know that doesn’t sound like it makes sense, but if you ever watched a telenovela from Brazil, you’ll understand why it does and why they’re so popular.
In telenovelas, from Latin America and Asia, there is usually a character that we all root for, and then there is that evil character that ruins things for him/her. The difference in Brazilian telenovelas is that it really reflects everyday life in that there isn’t always a heroine/villain aspect, in fact, in Brazilian telenovelas, many times there are no villains at all. They have a different format for the way they make their telenovelas than the way Spanish-speakers and Asians do it. There are no villains in Brazilian telenovelas, there are just conflicting desires among the characters, which is exactly what makes it more human.
This message has been edited by gergoz143 from IP address 124.6.174.115 on Mar 28, 2007 8:27 PM
Posted on Feb 3, 2007, 9:59 PM from IP address 222.127.52.106
