Whoever wins the afternoon, wins the day… and also the month, according to a television slogan. The possible confrontation of the new programs of Jordi González on La 1 and Ana Rosa Quintana on Telecinco with those of Sonsoles Ónega on Antena 3 marks the television season after the Sálvame era, which led this slot for 13 years. It will be a crucial slot in the battle for audiences, which has turned around again this summer: while main channel Atresmedia consolidates its lead, RTVE’s La 1 takes second place to the detriment of main channel Mediaset.
Jordi González returned to TVE a few weeks ago to pilot the new season of Blood Ties and is already preparing a daily room, La plaza de La 1, which will be broadcast live from Monday to Friday afternoons from Studio 1 of Prado del King (Madrid). The self-produced format is inspired by the American The View: an hour-long debate in which a wide variety of women take part to chat about various current topics. The Catalan presenter will be surrounded by female faces.
The space will share its inspiration with another space that was already part of the offer of La 1, Amigas y conocidas, with Inés Ballester at the helm and aired for four seasons between 2014 and 2018. In the original ABC format, the network has included actresses Rosie O’Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg, journalist Barbara Walters and Meghan McCain, daughter of conservative US presidential candidate John McCain since it premiered in 1997.
The slot the chain is considering for González’s programming would be the one starting around 6:30 p.m., after his two daily Spanish series: the hit La promesa and the upcoming tea room La Moderna. That gap is currently being filled by La 1 competition El Comodín, so the channel will have to somehow rearrange its afternoons to accommodate this premiere, as another competition is also currently on the way, El Cazador, and Here the Earth magazine.
La Plaza’s premiere date is yet to be determined, but RTVE has marked Monday 25 September on its calendar, the date when Ana Rosa Quintana’s TardeAR is expected to be released on Telecinco, which would coincide with the broadcast in whole or in part . The same would happen with Ya ahora, Sonsoles on Antena 3. So it would be an hour of live broadcasts as Cuatro Cuatro al día would be broadcast and La Sexta would have its already classic Más vale tarde.
A moment from “And now Sonsoles” (Antena 3).
La 1’s rise to second place in July’s spectator battle appears to be consolidating in August. So far this month (between days 1 and 20) the public channel again achieved the silver medal thanks to successes such as the return of the Ramón García Grand Prix and the transmission of the Women’s World Cup, which achieved an average screen share in the final of 65.7%.
Some of La 1’s afternoon programs [la franja que ocupa de las 17.00 a las 20.30] You are a ratings hit. Especially “The Promise” which ends at 5:30 p.m., “The Hunter” and “Here the Earth”. From Barlovento Comunicación, they explain how important it is to win in the afternoons when it comes to becoming a monthly leader. “It is the second time slot with the highest statistical weight throughout the day, only after prime time[sogenannte Primetime, von 20:30 bis 00:00 Uhr]” explains the consultant of this newspaper, analyzing the data of the measurement company Kantar Media. In this way, Barlovento notes that this time slot in the current year (from January 1st to August 17th 2023) accounts for 23% of the audience weight of the day, with an average of 8.8 million people watching TV and 17 million unique viewers per day during this period .[conocidocomoelprime-timede2030a2400horas)”explicaaesteperiódicolaconsultoraqueanalizalosdatosfacilitadosporlaempresademediciónKantarMediaDeestamaneraapuntaBarloventoenelañoencurso(del1deeneroal17deagostode2023)estafranjahorariarepresentael23%delpesodelaaudienciadeldíaconunpromediode88millonesdepersonasviendolatelevisióny17millonesdeespectadoresúnicosdiariosalolargodeesabandahoraria[conocidocomoelprime-timede2030a2400horas)”explicaaesteperiódicolaconsultoraqueanalizalosdatosfacilitadosporlaempresademediciónKantarMediaDeestamaneraapuntaBarloventoenelañoencurso(del1deeneroal17deagostode2023)estafranjahorariarepresentael23%delpesodelaaudienciadeldíaconunpromediode88millonesdepersonasviendolatelevisióny17millonesdeespectadoresúnicosdiariosalolargodeesabandahoraria
In terms of viewership, Antena3 (12.7%) is the channel that leads in the afternoon and also leads in the daytime (13.5%). They are followed by Telecinco (11.0%) and La1 (8.9%) in the first three places in the ranking of the most-watched afternoon channels of the current year. “The fact that we’re having a good afternoon allows us to create an optimal viewership curve for the start of prime time, which is the star show of the day. “Antena3 has been the leading broadcaster this year for 187 days in the afternoon and all day for 199 days,” emphasizes the consultant.
Sálvame (Telecinco) also led a large part of his shows last season. The cancellation was not due to the number of viewers, but due to the editorial line of the new board of Mediaset España, they explained a few weeks ago from the communication group. Now that the TV factory is off the grid, it remains to be seen whether or not TardeAR will improve on this data, which averaged 13.7% between 17:00 and 19:00 in May 2023, now Sonsoles, on air between 6:48 p.m. and 8:06 p.m., topped the list with 12.5% in the same month, so anything can happen between the three main channels from next autumn, when Ana Rosa Quintana, Sonsoles Ónega and Jordi González coincide in the evening program.
This may not be the only show that González will present on the first channel of the public service body after the end of Lazos de sangre. RTVE suspects the possibility, not yet closed, of launching a weekend evening magazine with the Catalan at the helm and with similar characteristics to La Noria, which he himself presented on Telecinco on Saturday evenings for years.
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