|
| |
Latin America Realities
and formats
|
Reality shows and formats
in Latin America
A lot of millions and huge technical
equipment
|
With a USD 2,000,000
investment in production, twelve cameras,
conventional and water-proof, helicopters,
boats, 109 people moved to the Caribbean
island, the Dominican Republic. Among
them ninety Colombians, ten Argentinians,
eight Dominicans and one Ecuatorian.
Constant conflicts among the participants
arise clearly expressing the class
struggle; territory fights and highly
dramatic moments achieve the audience
tension that marks a 48,3 share. That
is the case of Desafío 2004-
La Aventura.
|
| |
In
Colombia:
Reality Shows War for the Prime
Time
|
|
|
Big
investments in order to move numerous
reporters of news programs and show
business programs to the place to
keep the audience updated about what
is going on in the reality show even
behind the scenes.
|
|
Report:
Mónica Moreno Mora, in Colombia
Editor: Isabel Cuervo, in Miami
|
| |
 |
 |
|
| |
José
Antonio de Brigard, business
man and producer of Teleset
Colombia. |
|
|
wo big private
channels are competing for the most important
Colombian television prime time with the same
proposal: a reality show. At the beginning
they are very close, channel R.C.N
La Isla de los Famosos reaches
a rating of 30 points in homes; while Caracol
and its Desafío 2004 -
La Aventura reaches the same figure.
The training to attract a higher audience
is such that the timetable for other programs
are modified, almost every day, to face, minute
by minute, the live broadcast of both of them.
Besides, both channels have moved to a third
country, the Dominican Republic, taking with
them a whole infrastructure in production,
edition and broadcasting to bring to the screen
very similar realities without saving expenses.
On the one hand, R.C.N. with La
Isla de los Famosos exceeds the USD 2,000,000
investment in production as TELESET
manager José Antonio de Brigard
stated, from the production company that makes
the reality show. “Until now twelve cameras
-conventional and water-proof- helicopters,
boats and ships have been used. A hundred
and nine people moved to the Caribbean island,
the Dominican Republic. They were ninety Colombians,
ten Argentinians, eight Dominicans and one
Ecuatorian. Moreover, seven video post-production
rooms and two sound post-production rooms
have been installed on the island”, he
explains.
An
independent producer company experience
The fact is that the independent producer
company TELESET is an expert in developing
this kind of formats and knows how to elaborate
a successful product for the primetime. “Today
La Isla de los Famosos is the top program
in R.C.N. channel. Four years ago Expedición
Robinson rights were bought from Castaway
in England for Colombia, Ecuador and Peru
and during the first two years we did it for
Caracol channel, also for a year to
Teleamazonas in Ecuador and this year
it is being produced for the Colombian private
channel R.C.N”, the entertainment
businessman and well-known producer explains.
La Isla de los famosos is exactly the
same as Expedición Robinson,
the difference is that the participants are
famous people or well-known people for the
audience. The format is widely known in over
forty countries like Survirvor Celebrities,
and TELESET adopted this name (as the Spanish
television took it for its version) to carry
it out under Castaway format and parameters.
The reality is about surviving, living together
and competing among the public well-known
characters. In an interview with this magazine, Javier
Alvarado from R.C.N. channel expresses:
“The channel main strategy is that our
product remains in the audience memory showing
that celebrities are also ordinary people,
humans, that have necessities, flaws
and virtues”, the executive said. The
eighteen participants have to look for their
own food, because the only thing provided
by the production is water, all the other
elements they need have to be found
throughout the three months of the program.
During their residence inside the reality
show, celebrities receive a salary of about
USD 9,000 and the winner takes about USD 108,000.
| |
 |
|
|
| |
Javier
Alvarado, from RCN. |
|
|
Caracol
Channel goes ahead in ratings and share
Caracol channel, pioneer in broadcasting this
kind of format, has not saved efforts for
its product to be as successful as or more
successful than it was in the previous years.
“With only three weeks on air Desafío
2004 – La Aventura exceeds the share
of both Expedición Robinson
versions. All this, taking into account
that this genre gets a higher response as
time goes by. The average share of “Expedición
Robinson in 2001 was 43.2, while Expedición
Robinson- El Desafío 2002 had an
average performance of 43.4 of share. Nowadays
Desafío 2004 – La Aventura
reaches until now an average share of 48.3
points,” says Camilo Acuña,
Caracol Channel programming director.
This format is an original idea of the Colombians
Raúl Garcia, Juliana Barrera and
Sebastian Martino in coordination with
Cristina Palacios, channel production
manager and it has well-known characters to
the Colombian audience among its participants.
These six celebrities, as the group is called,
fight against two other groups with the same
number of participants: the survivors (called
after their appearance in previous emissions
of Expedición Robinson) and
the challengers ( people selected all over
the country) With this structure, El Desafío
2004 - La Aventura deals with a wide range
of conflicts and situations that get a higher
attention from the public because there is
a constant conflict among the participants
expressing clearly the class fight, and a
wide range of challenges that includes new
ones as the one for territory, the salvation
and the end.
Caracol’s
own format
The new format was created by the channel
team as a strategy used to attract a higher
audience. According to Jorge Roa, Caracol
Marketing Manager, “at the beginning
we posed the core conflict of the reality
show, strengthening the idea that it had the
participation of the audience. Besides, every
person was given the chance to participate.
We also constantly remembered the possibility
of challenging popular people and survivors
from previous adventures”.
With a team of a hundred and twenty people
among technical and production staff: twenty
cameras -three water-proof ones, three infrared
and fourteen handheld ones- eight boats, three
helicopters, six net edition rooms (connected
among them in the Dominican Republic), a satellite
antenna (fly) and a sum of USD 108,000 as
the prize for the winner, the fight for the
prime time is undoubtfully on the boil.
The audience is so big that Omar Rincón,
an important television researcher and critic
in Colombia has also referred to these
two realities: “Desafio 2004 –
La Aventura, from Caracol has melodramatic
strength, image, vitality and unfairness emotion.
| |
 |
|
|
| |
“With
only three weeks on air, Desafío
2004 - La Aventura exceeds the
share of both Expedición
Robinson versions”, says
Camilo Acuña. |
|
|
This reality starts with
the idea that in life we all want to get to
the beach and that suffering is part of the
game. La Isla de los Famosos from R.C.N.,
has an enormous attraction because, for the
first time, we can be witnesses of the
suffering of entities created by the screen.
For the first time, the exuberant bodies quit
the gym and dare to live life. In La Isla
the attraction lies in the pleasure of seeing
celebrities suffering”, the critic states.
However, these realities’ popularity
has just begun, since there are broadcasting
weeks left and only at the end we can say
which channel is number one in the prime time
on Colombian television, which is so popular
with these formats.
|
|
|
|
