“With ‘Save me’, television as we know it dies.” Epitaph of a program that made history
“Honestly, we’ve been screwed for the past few weeks.” Terelu Campos, an associate of the now-defunct Sálvame, opened EL PAÍS this Thursday, a day before it closed. “On the one hand, we had a job prospect of a month and a half, on the other hand, it was a very long agony. With that touch of sadness, but also pride at having made a show that made television history,” he adds. David Valldeperas, one of the leaders of the room, also admitted how complicated these last few days had been. “We tried to take advantage of the situation, which we always did. But this week and the previous one was more complicated because the team was dismembered, they beheaded us for an hour… you can tell they’re drowning you,” he said Wednesday. Another director of the show, Alberto Díaz, recalls the shock of hearing about the end of the show through the press and how they decided not to turn the remaining time into a funeral: “We wanted to keep being villains, Hooligans and disrespectful to the end. That’s what people expected from us. But the process took a long time,” he said sincerely.
Save me left when it was still a leader in many of its shows. His data was already far from the maximum he had reached years ago. Sálvame Naranja (the dichotomy introduced in 2015 to adapt content to special protection periods) peaked in the 2015-2016 season with a 19% share, while Sálvame Limón did so in 2014-2015 and 2020-2021 with 14, reached 3%. , according to a report by consulting firm GECA, based on data from Kantar Media. Last season ended with 13.5% for the Orange Edition and 11.5% for the Limón, data that still allowed it to lead its place on many days in a more fragmented television and with much more competition. Mediaset’s new board of directors felt it was time to end a program that had been on the air for 14 years and had become the backbone of the Telecinco network.
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“It was an episode of subterfuge for society. “There was a kit kat in your life,” defends Valldeperas. “I think we still lack the perspective to be able to say what it meant and how we broke with what has been done and what will be done,” reflects Alberto Díaz. “We created our own world, a showcase where people felt very reflected, with everyone’s tears, joys and sorrows,” he says of a format that has been defined as neo-reality. “Television is increasingly controlled, everything is measured, and the legacy we are leaving is that we radiate a certain mischievousness and a desire to laugh about it, but above all about ourselves,” concludes Valldeperas.
“In the Spanish entertainment industry there are two programs that mark an era: one, two, three and then save me. It will go down in television history,” defends Víctor Sandoval, another collaborator in the room. “Before there were writing programs, Hermida’s, Campos’s… But now those programs don’t exist anymore, there’s nobody who has that much weight. Even putting your name to a program doesn’t mean you’re leaving a legacy, and Sálvame leaves a legacy. “For part of the television industry, Sálvame was terrible because it revealed his lack of talent,” he told EL PAÍS the day before the show’s departure. Terelu Campos highlights the best and the worst of participating in a place where everything is lived with such intensity: “The best thing was doing something completely different. And learn because I’ve learned to be a collaborator, although I think I’m a better presenter than a collaborator. If we have a good time in Sálvame, there is no program in the world that has a better time than us. But when we’re doing badly, there isn’t a program in the world or an employee who’s doing worse. We don’t know the middle way.”
For part of the television industry, “Save Me” was awful because it revealed his lack of talent
Victor Sandoval
For Diana Aller, television analyst and screenwriter for entertainment programs, Sálvame managed to find “a language of complete and absolute freedom on television”. “Before the public asked for content, Sálvame was already offering it. His great contribution is an intelligent look at the viewer. It was almost the only show that didn’t treat viewers like idiots,” says Aller, who worked as a writer on the show for a year. “When I said I work there, I almost bordered on an outlaw. It was a very frowned upon site that had a very bad reputation, was very misunderstood and continues to be misperceived. There’s a vile classism that’s presumed to have an uneducated, feminized audience… and misogyny and the usual classism take hold. It’s cognitive bias and bias because he had a surprisingly diverse audience.” Aller doesn’t think the Save Me example will continue. “Television is in the hands of older gentlemen. An era comes to an end. Now television is reserved for more limited consumption.”
When she said she worked there, she was nothing short of an outlaw. I was very frowned upon
Diana Aller, screenwriter and television analyst
Ignasi Gozalo Salellas, professor of communication at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and essayist, asserts that Sálvame has changed the rules of television in terms of production costs “for better or for worse”. “It has shown that for very little cost you can chat and argue like you’re in a bar on TV and provide many hours of live entertainment. It doesn’t seem to me that different from the show model that Ferreras suggested in La Sexta. It also gave free rein to the unexpected that fiction can’t offer: few screenwriters could have imagined storylines as they played out on this set, with the articulation of bizarre but genuinely popular characters who elude the imagination, like Belén Esteban and other characters. fewer copies. And I would say even more, he unconsciously created an impure and inverted genre: reality became fiction, exactly the opposite of what many genres pretend.” Ana María González Neira, a professor specializing in audiences at the University of A Coruña , highlights how the program deals with narratives. “I compare it to soap operas: they don’t tell me anything new, but they keep me in front of the screen. You create needs. And they did the whole part of the program very well, recreating the atmosphere of the popular stretcher table. They broke with the times and the way of making a program and they handled the show very well to give it a popular touch and encourage identification.”
Jorge Javier Vázquez, in the first Save me daily in 2009.
Audiovisual industry professionals unrelated to Sálvame and his production company La Fábrica de la Tele also highlight their contributions. “The best example of what live television was has been lost. With Sálvame, television as we know it is dying a little,” says Sergio Sarria, creator of series like Nasdrovia and Two Years and One Day. “We’re moving towards a very ready-made and programmed television, and Sálvame has the magic of television, the concept of surprise.” Here a connection can be made with María Patiño in her house, with a chinchilla in her hair. From a script point of view, it pioneered a lot of things that we’ve all copied, especially the video editing, the lures, the labels…” says who also wrote the screenplay for El intermedio. According to Silvia Martínez Alcaide, screenwriter for the Telemadrid program 120 Minutos and contributor to Salsa Rosa, one of the social chronicle rooms before Sálvame, “a phrase was uploaded that was widely heard in the industry, that ‘not me’.” I don’t know,” my grandmother understands. The show broke with the stereotype of what is expected of the audience or what they can or cannot be told. And at the same time, if not quite, it took some of the reactionary and rancid tone from the heart.”
We’re moving towards a very prepackaged and programmed TV, and “Sálvame” has the magic of TV, the concept of surprise
Sergio Sarria, screenwriter
“He’s taken a stand against the far right, against homophobia and against sexist violence… He’s spoken openly about it and has been more on the front lines than other places where positions are being taken that we may regret in the future.” I can’t remember that someone like Jorge Javier Vázquez made his position so clear when he said: “This is a program for reds and fags,” adds Sarria. Nia Sanjuán, director of programs like “OT” or “Traitors España”, highlights their self-confidence and the nature of sheer bypassing the format: “We all want to be transcendent and relevant and to have a discourse, and sometimes we forget to entertain.” Save Me accomplished all of this by being easygoing, laughing at himself, and not getting too intense. That seems very generous to the viewer. I admire her ability to move from tragedy to comedy and go from heartbreaking crying to chuminero dancing naturally.”
Belén Esteban and Jorge Javier Vázquez in Save Me.
Cristóbal Garrido, creator of series like Días mejor or Reyes de la noche, comments on the freshness and the comic and unpredictable tone. “I remember Sálvame’s first summer, when you felt like anything could happen. Suddenly Sonia Monroy got up and started walking and the camera follows her and follows her and follows her, it’s something you’ve never seen before.” One of the arguments commonly used in defense of Sálvame is his function, to accompany the spectators. “I don’t believe that speech very much,” Garrido replies. “Everything keeps people company and better companies can be found. It was a lot of fun, but there were a lot of questionable and toxic things in it,” he says.
Which television comes after Save me? And which Telecinco will stay now? “I see a journey through the desert. You can’t suddenly switch from Sálvame to another extremely successful format,” reflects Cristóbal Garrido. “I think what’s coming will be cheap. I don’t think we’ll see anything spectacular,” he adds. For González Neira, the summer will not make the results meaningful immediately after the end. “It will be a big hit until they manage to structure the chain. I also don’t see that Mediaset has a clear line where the shots will go, I see that they are vacillating. And tastes are now very volatile, audience retention is extremely complicated,” adds the professor. Diana Aller believes the channel wants to maintain a line similar to the ones it’s already followed with reality shows and Herz. “They stick to an aging formula. It’s a facelift, but a turn to the right and even less thought.”
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