Telecinco has canceled Chinese Tales, the show that Jorge Javier Vázquez has presented on nights since September 11th. The chain made it official on Thursday afternoon with a short statement in which it assured that the decision was made because “the expected results were not achieved”. The show, which aired at the same time as El Hormiguero, failed to launch in the three weeks it was broadcast. This Wednesday, in its last broadcast, it only achieved a screen share of 6.2% and had to make do with 800,000 viewers, compared to 2,042,000 and 16% for El Hormiguero on Antena 3. The channel did not have enough data for patience in one important slot that starts at night and during prime time.
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“Chinese Tales” marked the return of Jorge Javier Vázquez to television after he left television due to a doctor’s prescription in May. He returned with the help of La Fábrica de la Tele, the production company responsible for Sálvame on Telecinco afternoons during its 14 years of life. The presenter’s loss meant he was unable to attend the farewell of the show he ran for almost three decades. Contrary to expectations, the first episode of Chinese Tales attracted 1,240,000 viewers and achieved a market share of 9.4%, half that of Pablo Motos’ broadcast, which were not encouraging results. Since then, the data has deteriorated as the format tried to cope with constant staff dancing, section changes and even the tone of the show in the ten shows it had. On the other hand, in September El Hormiguero reached an average of 2,170,000 viewers and a market share of 17.2%, its best start to the season and with the largest historical lead over Telecinco.
Before this latest decision was made, the station had already reduced the format’s broadcast presence. Although it was originally scheduled to air Monday through Thursday, in its second week it lost the Thursday show, the broadcast day of Big Brother VIP, the network’s big bet for prime time this fall. Chinese Tales bowed out with an average market share of 7% and 912,000 viewers.
Jorge Javier Vázquez himself was aware that things were not going well. “This is who I am now. I try not to get carried away by the tide. Survive. I protect myself so that reality doesn’t crush me. I imagine that better times will come than the current ones, where too much uncertainty and even boredom coexist. The return to school is proving complicated, to say the least,” he confessed this Wednesday in his blog in Lecturas.
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