‘Designing your love’, the return of the Latin soap opera to TVE afternoons

A love story of the usual. With this idea, TVE intends to recover a traditional audience that was faithful to it for more than two decades at siesta time. Because there was a time when siesta time was synonymous with a Latin American soap opera and the country was paralyzed. It was a very profitable product then, which seemed inexhaustible. However, consumption habits changed and the average for the chain fell.

In 2013, La 1 aired its last telenovela of these characteristics. It was called ‘Las Bandidas’ and it did not have the support of the audience, which emigrated at that time to the Spanish serial ‘El secreto de Puente Viejo’ (Antena 3). The genre suffered a certain wear and tear and disappeared from general television, its content being reduced to DTT channels such as Nova and Divinity, but now it intends to be reborn in a big way in 2022.

The first were, in the 80s, ‘The rich also cry’ and ‘Cristal’, a social phenomenon at the time. Released in 1986, the love story between the humble Mariana, played by Verónica Castro, and the wealthy Luis Alberto conquered the entire country. But nothing compared to ‘Crystal’. Barely three years later, this love story starring Jeannette Rodríguez and Carlos Mata was released. A production that to this day continues to be the most watched in the history of Spain, with nine million followers.

“We are excited to return to La 1. TVE has been our home for a long time, where soap operas landed for the first time”, celebrates the director in Europe of Televisa Internacional, Claudia Sahab.

‘Designing your love’ (Monday to Friday, 4:05 p.m.) is the series for which the public channel is committed to revitalize its battered after-dinner. After years of failed attempts, the corporation wants to recover the viewer who did not get up from the sofa to follow his soap opera.

For this, TVE has chosen a story, backed by its success in Mexico and the United States, with all the classic ingredients of the telenovela: with very bad bad guys; rich and poor; secret children; vendettas; and two protagonists who live an impossible love, destined to go through the altar despite the difficulties of life.

However, the project also shows a reality that has evolved in society: the empowerment of women or the fight against sexist violence, reflected in the role of Claudio, played by actor Juan Diego Covarrubias, who is a lawyer and helps battered women in fiction

The main character is Valentina (Gala Montes), a dreamy and determined young woman, who has an innate business sense and wants to succeed in the world of fashion. She lives with her sister Nora (Ale Muller), an envious young woman who uses her beauty to get everything she wants.

The protagonist is in love with the ranch owner’s son, Ricardo (Chris Pazcal), but apparently ends up dying in a plane crash. The sisters, totally devastated, move to the city, where they meet Claudio, with whom Valentina has a crush. Both will have to fight for their love and overcome all the tests that will be imposed on them, including Ricardo’s unexpected return to recover the young woman.

a strong bet

‘Designing your love’ is one of the highlights of RTVE’s winter programming. The public channel is taking advantage of the Soccer World Cup to promote its fiction programs, even bringing the actors to Spain to invite them to their daily programs.

All this is included in a powerful campaign to recover an audience that left the after-dinner on La 1 in search of similar products on other channels, such as ‘Tierra amarga’ or ‘Amar es para siempre’, both from Antena 3 and which register some good ratings.

In its first week of broadcast, ‘Designing your love’ is currently obtaining the data of its predecessor products (a share of around 6% and just over half a million viewers), but on TVE they are confident that these numbers will increase over time of the weeks.

Because patience and confidence in the product are key for a soap opera to end up becoming a television success. In the summer of 2020, Atresmedia opted for the Turkish series ‘Mujer’, which debuted on Antena 3 with a 12.7% ‘share’ and ended up skyrocketing with shares that exceeded 20%.

Later came others: ‘Unfaithful’, ‘Brothers’, ‘Family Secrets’… The Ottoman vein monopolized the channel’s ‘prime time’ with audiences that exceed other national content.