Category: Telemundo

The Parties and the Fun Behind the 2013 Hispanic TV Upfronts

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Myself... and a bunch of blurry people who insisted on taking a picture with me.
Miblogestublog CEO and a bunch of blurry people who insisted on taking a picture with her.

This is exhausting! In addition to covering this week’s Hispanic TV Upfronts for these guys and these guys, I had to save some juicy details for the not-so-serious side of the 3-day-marathon of parties, parties and parties, programming presentations, interviews and business meetings.

* Hispanic TV Upfront week started May 13 with two networks, Azteca America and Estrella TV, holding “intimate dinners” at the exact same time in two very distant places, presumably to keep me from attending either. But, as you all know by now, I’m a sneaky Mexican and managed to attend both.

* Estrella TV brought to dinner at Tao Restaurant its most recent acquisition, Myrka Dellanos, who looked amazing and who is now going to be news anchoring instead of selling toothpaste.

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* As it has been the case before, I crashed the People en Español party at Marquee, which was OK, but not nearly as as glamorous and/or fun as previous years. However, beggars can’t be chosers, so I shut up now. Besides, I must continue to be nice to them, especially to Elvis Lizardo, who famously calls me “The Mexican glue that keep us all together.”

Marlon Moreno and Hernán Lopez
Marlon Moreno and Hernán Lopez, uno más guapo que el otro

* After surveilling the venue for some famous bellos, I realized celebrities are not the only beautiful bunch, so I proceded to propose People en Español Editor ArmandoCorrea a co-production of “Los 50 ejecutivos más bellos del mercado latino,” a list that would be curated by @miblogestublog -of course, and published and promoted by Time Inc. or someone with that kind of money. I’m thinking MundoFox’ Hernán López should go on the cover, while Telemundo’s Peter Blacker will take the back cover, though I’m still not sure. Other execs being considered: Mundo Fox’ Oswald Mendez, Telemundo’s Emilio Romano and Fusion’s Miguel Ferrer. [This blog is accepting submissions now.]

nametag* Tuesday events kicked off at 11:00 am at The New Amsterdam Theatre, where Univision held a lavish presentation for over 1,600 guests.

* Pretty much all those 1,600 guests then walked or took buses to Univision’s after party, which took place at ESPACE, where there was not a lot of “espace” nor food to feed all those hungry mouths. At some point, many attendees grew restless and angry as waiter after waiter kept passing in front of us with trays full of food, but destined to “VIP’s only.” That didn’t stop me, however, so I quickly managed to get a hold of a VERY VIP name tag (above) in order to secure some mini-burgers.

* The stunt didn’t work and I had to settle for a peanut butter cookie that surely contained about 5,325 calories.

* Since it secured me no food whatsoever, my Randy Falco name tag made a second appearance later that night at the Telemundo upfront in Lincoln Center, where it was not as well received as I had imagined. I still wore it to go say ‘hi’ to NBCU’s Chairman of Hispanic Ventures Joe Uva, who requested my immediate removal from the premises. [I stayed.]

 * The marathon continued Wednesday with a noon presentation by Fox Hispanic Media at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. The presentation included FHM’s four networks: Fox Deportes, Fox Life, Nat Geo Mundo and Mundo Fox. It attracted some big talent, including Bárbara Mori, Marlon Moreno, Mario Lopez and Oscar de la Hoya, who came onstage not wearing fishnet stockings but a pair of cowboy boots.

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* After a presentation that seemed to last hours, most of us headed East towards Vme’s upfront at the Instituto Cervantes. Under new management, Vme hosted a small, intimate, sit-down presentation in a dark basement with no cellular signal whatsoever, making it the perfect setting for a much needed afternoon nap. (I caught several executives and members of the media happily snoring away, but I decided not to publish their names, mostly because it wouldn’t be fair and because I was also fast asleep.)

The Elevator's Daniel Salcedo and me, before my Vme nap
The Elevator’s Daniel Salcedo and me, before my Vme nap

* The marathon ended Wednesday night with a much-needed, circus-themed party hosted by Viacom’s Tr3s and headlined by Daddy Yankee, who made even the most stiff media executive shake his/her hips. EXTRA BONUS POINT for Tr3s, which spared us the power points and the data on Hispanic TV audience growth, etc. etc. etc.

This is Daddy Yankee in a very bad photo taken by @bathtubmedia
This is Daddy Yankee in a very bad photo taken by @bathtubmedia

Yet, my favorite moment this week came at the Tr3s party when I was able to capture the following shot, featuring the great Eduardo Caballero, the father, grandfather, godfather of Hispanic media, and Ari Madrid, probably the craziest -and smartest- millennial I’ve ever met and one of the youngest entrants to this business.

Caballero changed the media world once. Ari will change it forever.

Media revolucionarios
Media revolucionarios. Eduardo Caballero & Ariadna Madrid

NBCU Hijacked Univision’s Upfront with a Van Full of Data

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NBCUvan

This blogger is so tired from all this partying busy this week, that a proper upfront round-up will not come until the weekend (sit tight.) However, I thought you’d like to know that barely minutes after Univision wrapped its upfront presentation under the theme “One for all,” NBCU found it amusing to park a van right outside Univision’s party venue using the exact same tagline but touting NBCU, not Univision, as the company that reaches 90% of all Hispanics.

NBCU does indeed reach a large percentage of Hispanics as it owns not only a bunch of English-language networks that are popular among Latinos, but also mun2 and Telemundo.

The stunt was the most talked about subject during both, Univision’s and Telemundo’s parties, during which this blogger drank only cranberry juice and an occasional glass of water.

Photo: Mediamoves

Three Years Later, Hispanic TV Still Reluctant to Say ‘Tetas’

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A few years ago, I wrote a story about how Telemundo decided to do away with the word ‘tetas’ in the promos around Sin tetas no hay paraíso, a popular Colombian telenovela about young girls and their obsession with getting breast implants. Instead of using the word tetas, (tits) Telemundo opted to use an image of a hanging red brassiere, apparently because it’s always better to look weird than inappropriate.

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Then came Telemundo’s own remake of the series, which was slightly changed to Sin senos no hay paraíso (substituting the word ‘tetas’ with the boring, yet anatomically correct senos (breasts.)

But that was then.

Last week UniMás proudly announced the upcoming premiere of Sin ellas no hay paraíso…  and yes, it is the exact same telenovela, except this time the offending moniker (tetas) has being awkwardly substituted by the word ellas (them.)

I said it then, and I repeat it today: When it comes to Hispanic television, one thing is to show tetas feminine attributes all day long, and another one is to call those attributes by their rightful name.

See? You can’t have your tits and name them too.

mun2 Really Knows How to Get me Out of Bed at 8:00 am

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tacombi_mun2mun2 on Tuesday unveiled its 2013-2014 programming line up at a morning press conference in Manhattan. And just to make sure this blogger would get out of bed so early in the morning, it brought in tacos and the taqueros who make them.

The event, which featured appearances by Larry Hernández and the Horóscopos de Durango, included an early morning pachanga that included tacos, champagne and coffee inexplicably served in a burro-themed cup.

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The real party is tonight, so I will let you know if they ended up bringing out the strongest beverages and if they were still served on burro-themed cups.

¡Ajúa!

So… Romney Got a Fake Tan to Look Like These People?

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Unless you live under a tanning bed rock, you’ve surely read by now all about the alleged fake tan sported by Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney at this week’s Meet the Candidate forum on Univision. [Or, as Wonkette put it so appropriately: How Romney donned a brown face “to appear on forum with Mexicans.”

The potential of a ‘spraytanned Romney’ was so hilarious, that many failed to see the irony behind the effort. I think it doesn’t matter if Mr. Romney’s tan was fake or actually real as Univision/ABC later reported. The funniest thing to this blogger is how -with or without a tan- Mr. Romney would have been the darkest of the three people onstage.

Mr. Romney’s advisers would be well advised to watch more Spanish-language TV to see what television Latinos actually look like.

[Watching a telenovela like this one wouldn’t hurt either.]

Which TV Network is the ‘Hispanic Hollywood’? Executives Managed to Confuse this Blogger

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Hispanic TV upfront week is a wonderful thing, especially when you get the chance to hear all kinds of wonderful pitches by competing networks.

Tuesday morning, for example, I learned from Univision’s President César Conde that Televisa is actually the Hollywood of Hispanics, which was, like, ‘oh, how cool,’ or whatever … Yet, barely five hours later, in another theatre not far from there, Telemundo’s COO Jacqueline Hernández came onstage to give us this…

WTH? I mean, it’s OK to treat journalists with bellinis for breakfast and non-stop bashes for four days straight, but please don’t confuse us even more with these stunts. I yet have to figure out which the real “Hispanic Hollywood” really is, but I have a very stubborn resaca to take care of first.

So please bear with me, and I promise to find an answer for you real soon… or not.

OMG, You Guys! The Strauss-Kahn-Diallo Saga Comes to Telemundo… Well, Not Really

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I though this was going to be yet another bleak week, but then I remembered Telemundo’s Una Maid en Manhattan premieres tonight (8:00 PM/ET) on the Telemundo channel.

In a nutshell, this is the story of a terribly-good-looking hotel maid (Litzy) who moves to the U.S. with her little son, gets a job at a swanky hotel and meets a dashing hunk (Eugenio Siller) which confuses her for one of the rich hotel guests… because, as we all know not all maids look like Nafissatou Diallo, nor all hotel guests are as disgusting and horny as Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

This is a maid-to-order feel good story and very likely great fodder for Mi blog es tu blog.

So stay tuned. I will keep you people posted on this impossibly-realistic love story.

Hispanic marketing according to Jencarlos Canela

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There is nothing more refreshing than spending some time with a 23-year-old U.S.-born Latino and hear his take on Hispanic media and marketing… Oh, and if such a 23-year-old is terribly good looking, well, all the better.

On Tuesday, I was lucky to moderate a panel featuring Mr. Canela and Post Foods senior director of marketing Tony Shurman.

The session focused on a Post Foods’ Hispanic marketing promotion featuring Mr. Canela as the spokesperson of Honey Bunches of Oats cereal.

When I asked Canela (a star of Telemundo telenovela Más sabe el diablo) about the content on Hispanic television, he simply said it isn’t “quite there yet.”

“Why do telenovelas have to be so… so… so… dramatic?” he asked.

And that was not all. While Shurman informed us the Jencarlos Canela campaign far exceeded the company expectations; the young kid said that was at least half the sales boost was owed to his mother.

“I got home and I was like, ‘Mom, what is this?’ There were cereal boxes all over the place…I asked her, ‘What are you going to do with all these cereal boxes?’

Click here to read a complete write up of my panel.

Cristina Saralegui Thanks Don Johnson for the Opportunity to Work at Telemundo: LOL

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OK this is one of those situations in which you had to be there to enjoy the moment… Fortunately for you, readers, I was there, when Cristina Saralegui took to the state at the Telemundo upfront this week in Manhattan to bitch about Univision for quite some time and then profusely thank Don Johnson for giving her the opportunity to host a new show on Telemundo.

“The tiny terror is back,” Cristina told a crowd of 1,200 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City Tuesday night. “Thank you, Don Johnson, for the opportunity.”

I want to believe Mrs. Saralegui meant to say Don Browne, as in the president of Telemundo… but who knows?

I’ll never be able to fully understand these Miami people.

What Nobody Has Told You About Don Browne’s Leaving Telemundo

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Barely one minute after NBC Universal broke the news online about Don Browne’s retirement as head of Telemundo, hundreds of Tweets and Facebook messages (mostly by myself) propagated the news throughout the Web… So I’m not going to bother you with what you already know, but with what you don’t know. For instance: Did you know Mr. Brown will be riding into the sunset with La Reina del Sur?

Aha! Bet you didn’t know that. So you stay tuned and read the entire chisme in my upcoming articles for both Portada and Multichannel News.

Hugo Chávez Thinks ’12 Corazones’ Reduces Relationships to Genitals. I Beg to Differ

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know by now Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez has banned a bunch of television shows, including two of Telemundo’s blockbusters, Caso Cerrado and 12 Corazones, denouncing them as “degrading” and even claiming the latter “reduces relationships to genitals.”

Ay, señor Chávez, usted siempre tan exagerado… I’ve seen dozens of clips like the one posted above and to this day, I have seen no genitals. Yet.

National Latino Media Coalition Thinks ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX Not Diverse. Thank God for Hispanic TV

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This week the National Latino Media Coalition (NLMC) scolded the nation’s top broadcast networks for not embracing diversity (i.e. mostly for failing to employ more Latinos in front of and behind the camera.) In a press conference on Tuesday in Los Angeles, Alex Nogales, president & CEO of the NLMC said that:

“This was a terrible year for Latinos at the networks. African Americans and Asian Pacific Americans posted impressive gains in most categories, but when it came to Latinos, the networks failed us. Don’t misunderstand, we don’t want what African Americans and Asian Pacific Americans received, the pie is much larger than that, we only want what we deserve as the largest minority consumer population in the nation.”

Well said, Mr. Nogales! But I wouldn’t hold my breath too long if I were you… Last time I checked, even the main Hispanic networks insisted on drawing their top talent from some sort of Swedish incubator.

Mexican Wins Miss Universe Title. Americans Fret Over How Many Babies She’ll be Dropping

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Despite the above costume (or perhaps because of it) a young Mexican holds the title of this year’s Miss Universe. A native of Guadalajara, Jimena Navarrete is only 22 and expected to move to New York City some time soon… So, we can only guess she’ll have plenty of time to start dropping a lot of little brown creatures around.

Take that, Brewer, Arpaio & Co.!

I Might Not Be Beautiful, But I Crashed People en Español’s Bellos Party

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You might have guessed this, but yesterday was not a good day for this blogger. It was the morning after People en Español’s Bellos Party, an annual ritual for me and 50 other beautiful Hispanics.

This year, the party took place at Guastavino’s and -unlike previous years- it was much, much smaller, and the room looked kind of empty at times. Also missing was some form of entertainment, which last year was delivered by the awesome Cucu Diamantes and her troop.

Still, some celebrities were lucky enough to get themselves photographed with this blogger, something that -I can assure you- will do plenty to boost their careers.

Some highlights:

Sofía Vergara trashed everyone’s high hopes simply by not showing up…

Lili Estefan “limped” the purple carpet…

Sammy Sosa still looks like he will not be detained in Arizona any time soon…

Univision’s news anchor María Elena Salinas reminded this blogger -again- that no matter how smart you are, you can still look very hot…

Saúl Lisazo reminded this blogger that, no matter how old you are, you can still be one hot papacito…

With the one and only: Sammy Sosa