Cross-posted at VivirLatino

Earlier this year we told you about how the major networks both here and in the UK were betting on telenovelas in English — either adapted from storylines from Spanish-language television or following the traditional finite end format — to be “the next big thing”. The New York Times tells us now that the love affair with novelas has faded fast as networks wake up hating themselves in the morning:

“It’s right to characterize what we were all caught up in last year as telenovela fever,” said Katherine Pope, the executive vice president of NBC Entertainment. The ardor has apparently cooled. In the 12 months since news reports revealed that CBS was working on as many as seven scripts for telenovelas, that ABC had invested in as many as 45 existing telenovela storylines, and NBC was jumping in to adapt telenovelas already produced by Telemundo, the Spanish-language network that NBC owns, not much more has been said — or done. Not a single telenovela project has been put into production by any of those networks.

According to the Times piece, the business model just doesn’t work here, as upon sacrificing quality to do the shows for cheap, the studios risk alienating viewers that are used to higher production value. Oops. And the ratings for the telenovela-style shows that have been produced and are running are nothing to write home about:

Not that many people have tuned in. MNT has so far tried four telenovelas, including one, “Fashion House,” starring the former sirens Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild (complete with catfight between them), and another, the current “Wicked Wicked Games,” starring Tatum O’Neal. Running two episodes at a time five nights a week, the network has thus far made little noise with any of its telenovelas. Ratings for MNT’s telenovelas in the 18- to 49-year-old audience, the primary market for most broadcasters, have been negligible. They have been scoring about half a national rating point — or less — which translates to about 650,000 viewers in that group (compared with 8 million to 10 million viewers for a hit show in the same period).

I don’t know much about the broadcast business, but that sounds pretty bad. Maybe this trend will end like a telenovela rags-to-riches story with the poor, lowly novela getting the viewers — and the dollars — in the end. In TV, it’s amazing how these things happen. I mean who ever thought LOST would such be a hit?

Via / The New York Times