Ay, dios mio: The Big Three are going loco for telenovelas.
During the past few weeks, ABC, CBS and NBC have all made plans to jump into the sudsers-on-steroids genre. Though there's been talk of telenovelas in past years, the webs now seem ready to roll the dice -- perhaps as soon as this summer.
Chalk it up to two factors: Dinero and "Desperate Housewives."
With their simplistic storylines, no-name actors and dirt-cheap production values, telenovelas cost a fraction of what it takes to make a top 10 drama like "CSI" or "House."
What's more, ABC's success with skeins such as "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" has proven there's a strong appetite for shows with continuing storylines.
Then there's the fact that broadcasters around the world -- not to mention U.S.-based Spanish-language nets Univision and Telemundo -- regularly snare huge ratings with telenovelas.
"They're a form that's worked time and time again," says NBC Entertainment prexy Kevin Reilly, who's working with sister net Telemundo to clone the latter's "Body of Desire" for Peacock viewers.
"We import shows like 'Big Brother' because clearly an audience likes that format," Reilly says. "Why not import something that's already worked in the U.S. with a Spanish-speaking audience?"
Reilly won't talk specifics, but industry sources say NBC is looking to produce a four- or five-night-a-week telenovela strip for as little as $100,000 per episode. That's less than half what it costs to make an episode of a traditional daytime sudser -- and not even one-tenth the pricetag of a scripted primetime drama.
CBS Entertainment prexy Nina Tassler says telenovelas offer networks a rare chance to blow up the cost structure that's locked in for most scripted primetime productions.
Reality skeins used to be the cheap programming that nets employed to plug holes and keep viewers watching during the summer months. But with unscripted shows now fetching as much as $1 million an hour, that option's just not as attractive.
"What's really appealing with telenovelas is that you design your production model and then back the creative into it," Tassler says.
That's evident in the different ways CBS and NBC are developing their projects.
Peacock is using existing scripts from the Telemundo skein. Its strategy is to come up with programming for a cost not much higher than running repeats of existing shows -- making a telenovela experiment virtually risk-free.
Over at the Eye, Tassler is thinking a bit more ambitiously. She's tasked CBS Daytime topper Barbara Bloom with developing four potential telenovelas from a range of sources -- everything from an adaptation of an existing FremantleMedia format to an original creation by scribe Nicholas Sparks ("The Notebook").
CBS appears to be aiming for a twice-a-week format, with per-episode costs of around $400,000 to $500,000. That's much more than what NBC's thinking, but still makes launching a telenovela not much more of a gamble than trying a reality show.
ABC, meanwhile, is also looking at a mix of existing formats and original productions. But Alphabet entertainment prexy Steve McPherson says he won't make a telenovela simply because it's cheap.
"We have to believe in the creative," he says. "We're not going to do something just because of cost. For me, what's intriguing is that it's a different way of doing dramatic television."
Indeed, the programming zeitgeist suggests that, costs aside, the time might be right for a telenovela to hit it big on one of the major nets.
"Audiences are embracing serialized storytelling," Tassler says. "That's had a huge impact on the viability of telenovelas."
CBS and NBC are expected to make the final call on whether to proceed with telenovelas by the end of the month. Whatever their decisions, they've already got competition.
Rather than focus its energies on yet another talkshow, syndie giant Twentieth TV this summer will launch what will likely be the first true English-language telenovela on stations across the country.
Studio is producing three limited-run skeins that will be sold to viewers under the banner "Desire." Studio topper Bob Cook says despite the low pricetag, the shows won't look cheap and will boast "a primetime feel" with location shooting, action scenes and special effects.
Cook's ultimate reason for greenlighting "Desire," though, is the same one motivating his network brethren.
"You've got 2 billion viewers in 100 countries watching telenovelas," he says. "Something's working."
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