Last summer, the new management of Mediaset España decided to change the presenters of one of its formats. The group demanded that María Patiño and Nuria Marín be removed from Socialité, the heartfelt show that Telecinco broadcasts on weekends and holidays. This was one of the key points of a long and complex divorce process. The person in charge of the space, La Factory de la Tele, felt that their television narrative no longer had a place in the communications group's new board. The official separation was announced together last Tuesday. Sources close to the company assure this newspaper that it will culminate in the gradual and orderly closure of the production company.
In the event that Adrián Madrid and Óscar Cornejo, the founders of Sálvame, start a project again, they will do so from a different company. The TV factory is dying along with what was its reason for 17 years: building Telecinco's DNA by designing much of its programming and feeding content to the rest of the network.
Patiño and Marín will soon no longer be presenters of Socialité, but last summer the production company's executives resisted removing them from the room. And they came to the conclusion that the previously successful connection between producer and broadcaster no longer made sense. At that time, Cornejo and Madrid's relations with the successors of Paolo Vasile, who had been away from Mediaset España since January 1, 2023, were not fluid. They never were. To the point that he never met Borja Prado in person in the year and a half he was president of Mediaset. Contact has also not been particularly close recently with CEO Alessandro Salem, the man who won the Game of Thrones at Mediaset.
Jorge Javier Vázquez hangs the “Transfer” sign at the entrance to the Sálvame set on May 9th.
Weeks before this request to change the presenters of “Socialité”, on May 5, 2023, the owners of the production company, on behalf of Telecinco, drafted an ambitious restructuring plan to relaunch Sálvame, their star franchise. But on that day, in the middle of the live broadcast, they found out from the press that the format had been canceled. Other production companies had been preparing ideas for weeks to suggest to the communications group an alternative to the tried and tested afternoon program.
Belén Esteban publicly and privately objected to the way her program was rejected in what she considered a political movement, those around the collaborator explained to this newspaper a few months ago. The ethical code that prohibited talking about certain characters and topics was only applied to The TV Factory's content.
The cancellation came along with the night version “Deluxe” and that of another program “Focus” produced by La Factory de la Tele and broadcast by Cuatro. With half of its catalog gone, the company was forced to launch an ERE at the end of May, which was completed on December 1st. A second labor regulation file has just begun after it was confirmed that on December 31st the contract that links the production company to the last three programs broadcast on Telecinco and Cuatro will end: Everything is a lie, Chester (both under the direction by Risto Mejide). ) and sociality. Its founders, Cornejo and Madrid, prefer to cede projects that they designed and built and that their workers inherit to other companies before risking that these programs will also be canceled if they remain under their control.
poisoned gift
His latest collaborative adventure with Telecinco, Cuentos Chinos, seemed like a poisoned gift even before its premiere. The broadcaster announced that Jorge Javier Vázquez will face the unbeatable Pablo Motos in the strategic primetime slot this season. It began in September with a stunning, gigantic set and a barely defined identity. Its red color and theme parodied the meme that compared the presenter to a communist dictator since he started the live joke “Sálvame es una program de reds y maricones”. His name recalled a controversial expression used by Ana Rosa Quintana when she presented the Madrid gold medal to Isabel Díaz Ayuso: “I grew up in Usera, in a working-class neighborhood before it became Chinatown.” In that first broadcast, Vázquez explained that he was returning from a medical leave that had caused a rise in tensions days after the end of Sálvame was announced. “During the sick leave I was able to understand the context and know exactly what happened and who was involved. “I don’t forget, but I return without any spirit of revenge,” he said live.
Presenting Chinese Tales to the media, the communications group assured that it would give enough time to adjust to such a complicated schedule. But the show started with low viewership and only lasted 10 broadcasts. Although Pasapalabra (Antena 3) doubles the dates of the new Telecinco competition Chain Reaction, Ion Aramendi's space has just completed a year of broadcasts and competes with that of Roberto Leal.
The end of the contractual relationship between La Factory de la Tele and Mediaset, owner of 33 percent of its shares, will not occur on the last day of 2023, as established in the contract that binds the company to these three programs Telecinco and Cuatro. But it won't be long either. The communications group is still in discussions with the production companies that would take over the formats. In the audiovisual sector, Fénix Media – owned by Christian Gálvez – and the journalist María Verdoy (Viva la vida) are considered the heirs of Socialité, since the two current presenters are certain to leave. And Mejide himself is responsible for the two rooms he presents.
Neither Patiño, nor Vázquez, nor Mejide, nor Marín appear in the latest Christmas campaign recorded by the faces of Mediaset. Despite the criticism that its way of making television has often attracted, the competition reinforces its program with many stars from La Factory de la Tele to consolidate the lead of Telecinco, which has since fallen to third place in the battle for viewership has fallen behind The sudden changes in the line-up began. Lydia Lozano, Terelu Campos and Rocío Carrasco already work for a public broadcaster, La 1. And Espejo Público on Antena 3 has improved its position in the ranking of the most followed morning programs, with Alberto Díaz in the direction and Gema López in the The broadcast included the presentation of his segment dedicated to the social chronicle.
At the beginning of 2024, Netflix will publish the remaining chapters of Sálvese Who Can, the reality show that it created together with La Factory de la Tele with Belén Esteban, Kiko Matamoros and María Patiño herself, among others, shortly after the cancellation of Telecinco was announced was given. Since we only know the data provided by the platform itself, the publication of the first three episodes led to the classification of the most viewed places in its catalog in Spain for several weeks. There is therefore a good chance that the space would be renewed for a second season, although it would not return as a product of The TV Factory.
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