amanda@tvmasmagazine.com

The Telenovela Empire
It is no longer exclusively Latin American

The melodrama is a way of narrating, of telling stories, which is recognized as popular and originating in Latin America. This genre deals with those imaginaries of everyday life related to important subjects such as affection, the good and evil and excess, opposite to the ideas of those who think that melodrama was born in France other than Cuba.
Rating and research have shown that melodrama is a cultural space that deals with identities, representations and considerations close to the necessities and expectations of the audiences.
Maybe that is the reason why the global markets have finally opened the doors to telenovela and the result is that it is no longer a privilege of Latin America, who was attributed the ability of creating heartrending melodramas and stories, in which local music, landscapes and culture were present as well.
Currently the United States, India, Russia, Italy and Spain are making telenovelas. Some European countries, including Croatia will soon start showing their first telenovelas in September. Germany has just made its debut in this genre and several Asian countries such as Korea and The Philippines have really improved their telenovelas.
The United States has manifested its interest to keep the genre on and have strengthened its prime times by creating its own drama industry through Telemundo and Univision. I think that the only key countries that are still missing the advantages and wonders of this genre are France and England, but they are facing that way now.
This tendency and growth of telenovelas is worth celebrating, as it creates more interest in going more deeply into the genre and makes producers and writers work harder on its quality. Is there an over-supply of telenovelas already? I think there are offers but not all of them are sound. It is not easy to do better than the traditional telenovela set by Mexico that developed in all of Latin America. The great factories of stars, perfect stage designs and wonderful settings; stories handled with techniques and skill and the exotic natural scenarios, on which Latin America prides itself, have prestige and recognition in the whole world.
Just to give an idea, Televisa arranges around 4 thousand contracts in acting, followed by the big factories which spare no expense on investing between 20 and 66 thousand dollars an episode.
The so many sagas that have made history in all continents have turned telenovela into a juicy and delicious product. And although some critics or “quasi-gurus” state that today the telenovela boom is fading away and that there is an over-supply for the needs of the global market, the truth is that reality shows that this business is growing and far from dying.