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I don’t know you, but every time I see the Fusion logo, I feel like running to my nearest bodega and grab a Fanta de tamarindo.
But I digress…
Fusion, the ABC News/Univision joint cable net, has confirmed it will launch on October 28 to champion a “smart, diverse and inclusive America.” And, I couldn’t be happier: As I said before: I can’t wait to watch English-language programming in an accent I can actually understand.
¡Ajúa!
UPDATE: The millennials over at Fusion (the Hispennials) are challenging this post, telling me that what Weiner said was: “Entre YO y mi esposa” and not “Entre New York y mi esposa.” On the other hand, my friend thinks he actually said: “Entre mi schlong y mi esposa.” SO PLEASE TAKE THE POLL. Help miblogestublog make some sense out of this very important matter.
So Anthony Weiner went to Despierta América this morning to set the record straight (and in Spanish, mind you) about the Anthony Weiner Penis-Gate (or as Univision’s Satcha Pretto elegantly put it: Su comportamiento erótico en la Internet.
Weiner was clearly annoyed by Pretto’s insistence in talking about his private parts (i.e. his Tweeter-famous penis.) But very quickly -and skillfully, may I add- the Mayoral candidate managed to get himself out of the entire mess by assuring her (and millions of Univision viewers) that the whole Anthony Weiner Penisgate was nothing but “an error between New York and my wife.” (JUMP TO MINUTE 1:16)
Way to get out of one big mess, Carlos Danger!
Click on the photo to watch the entire interview or click here:
Oh and don’t forget to take the poll:
As I reported a few days ago on Portada Online, Univision soon will debut Flama, a “digital destination that promises culturally relevant content targeting Hispanic millennials.”
So far so good. As most Spanish-speakers know, “flama” is Spanish for “flame,” which I think is a great name for a Hispanic media outlet. However, a simple Wikipedia search, informs us that FLAMA is also the acronym of:
The Frente de Libertação do Arquipélago da Madeira (English: Madeira Archipelago Liberation Front), a right-wing terrorist paramilitary organisation from Madeira, whose main goal was to achieve Madeira’s independence from mainland Portugal.
Wait. What?!
I’m sure Univision’s Flama has absolutely nothing to do with a paramilitary organization in Madeira, but just in case, it might be safer to be really “millennial” about it and just call it “Flame?”
Just sayin’
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.
* 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.”
* 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.]
* 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.
* 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 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.
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.
Univision’s upfront presentation Tuesday in New York City included some surprises and lots of more-of-the-same programming announcements.
There were some humorous moments, though, including a collective seizure (i.e. Harlem Shake) performed by Steve Mandala and his top sales team. However, this blogger’s favorite moment has got to be this AT&T spoof spot in which Univision CEO Randy Falco asks four adorable, non-Hispanic children what’s better, more or less?.
Watch it here:
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
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.
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.
Latino celebrities are a resourceful bunch. Not content with having the main role on a telenovela, host a network’s most successful TV show or sell out music venues worldwide, they can easily switch gears to sell bottled water, flavored chips and/or their own fragrances.
The turn is now for the sculptural Bárbara Bermudo, host of Univision’s Primer Impacto, who this week announced with great fanfare the launch of CAMI, a clothing, shoe and fashion line inspired on her two daughters (Camila and Mía.)
If you know Bárbara Bermudo you’d agree with me that she is known almost as much for her curves than for her intellectual stamina. So it is no surprise her clothing line will be sold at Puerto Rico’s famed Pompis Stores. [NOTE FOR THE MONOLINGUAL CROWD: I urge you to look up the word “pompis” so you can appreciate the true scope of this venture.]
With the launch at Pompis Store, Bermudo and her bundles of joy are joining yet another “pompous” Latina: Maripili, whose Maripili Jeans are a thing of beauty.
Behold…
Univision was so happy that its flagship Spanish-language network beat NBC in the February sweeps, it launched an English-language TV spot to spread the news. The ad features some of the network’s most popular shows; a mix of music, soccer and telenovelas and –of course– a few bikini-clad señoritas.
The folks over at ABC/Univision took advantage of the whole Let’s-Make-Fun-of-the-Pope thing to sneak in a late-afternoon press release announcing the name of their upcoming cable venture. The partners have settled on Fusion, which -in case you were wondering- is English for Fusión. (Sorry for the explanation, but you never know with the monolingual crowd.)
I think that if these guys were going to settle on a Ford model, they should have picked Fiesta instead (you know, in keeping with the Latino onda and all.) Still, considering they failed to consult with this blogger before making such a dramatic announcement, I think the name is OK.
Anything -ANYTHING- sounds better than Milán Piqué.
It’s only one day before inauguration, and if this pair is to meet again at such historical event, they’d better hurry and take a crash course of salsa dancing.
They can also go for a Groupon discout here.
[This blogger is even willing to foot part of the bill, so don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll be happy to arrange something for you guys]
Video: Blatantly stolen from ABC/Univision
The celebrations around the 50th anniversary of Sábado Gigante have included everything, from a one-on-one interview with this blogger in Queens, to an October 27th telecast that registered over 7 million total viewers.
But none of these festivities comes close to the homage paid by journalist Tony Dandrades, a Univision anchor and reporter for Primer Impacto. Watch. Cringe. Enjoy. Repeat if necessary.
Univision this week announced the upcoming launch of a new corporate logo and image, an announcement so huge, it made the company’s CEO Randy Falco join Twitter.
According to a Univision statement, the new logo:
“Signifies its growth and transformation, and celebrates the culture of innovation built over the company’s 50-year history.”
I have no idea what any of this means, but I am starting to suspect these people were so jealous of my new glass case (in full display during my Queens interview with Don Francisco,) they decided to go with it, and since they’re powerful and stuff, there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it.
Oh well… You, readers, be the judges.
Jorge Ramos this week was in New York City to receive an EMMY award alongside his long-time co-anchor María Elena Salinas. But he also took the time to visit the set of The Colbert Report, where he was hilariously hammered on the topic of immigration, deportation and Mitt Romney’s mexicanness.
Watch Colbert ask Jorge tons of questions (using upside-down question marks, naturally.)
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.]
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