Telemundo is adding four telenovelas to its 2016-17 programming slate that break the mold for Spanish-language television in the U.S. Following the success it has had for the past two years in the 10 p.m. timeslot, it has developed what it calls “Super Series,” which are hybrid telenovelas that have shorter episode runs than traditional novelas: 60 to 80 episodes rather than 120-plus, and are designed to return for multiple seasons.
“This is a further step away from traditional melodramas,” Luis Silberwasser, President of Telemundo said. “These are dramatic and suspenseful. These characters are more challenged, morally.”
The storytelling in these series is grittier and earthier than the fantastical tone of traditional telenovelas, plus Telemundo is spending more money on production with an emphasis on location shoots.
The super series include the drug lord drama El Senor de los Cielos (Lord of the Skies) returning for its fifth season, and its spinoff El Chema, starring Mauricio Ochmann as the flawed anti-hero, is also a new addition to the Telemundo lineup.
Following are descriptions of Telemundo’s new Super Series, set to air weekdays during primetime:
El Chema, a spin-off of the wildly popular series El Señor de los Cielo, is the story of Chema Venegas’ first years working in Mexico’s world of organized crime and his ascension until becoming the renowned cartel leader seen in El Señor de los Cielos. Chema began committing crimes as a child, transporting marijuana in his backpack from one side of the border to the other. He worked his way up to being a hit man and then a skillful boss who left a trail of blood everywhere he went, and he eventually became one of the most wanted drug lords, always outsmarting authorities. The story also narrates the various romantic relationships that forever marked Chema and turned him into the despicable human being he became, from his first failed relationship as a young man to his obsessive relationship with Rutila Casillas, daughter of his nemesis, Aurelio Casillas.
Hugo Chavez, El Comandante (Hugo Chavez, The Commander), starring Andres Parra, is a fictional story inspired by the life of Venezuelan politician Hugo Chavez, a man of humble origins, who at 44 — and against all odds, became the most powerful and controversial Latin American leader of his time. During his leadership, Hugo managed to challenge the world and control its largest oil reserves.
El Señor de los Cielos (Season 5), starring Rafael Amaya, Fernanda Castillo and Carmen Aub, will follow Aurelio Casillas as he unleashes a war in Mexico, but this time not against the government, the DEA or other cartels, but against his own family.
Señora Acero 3, La Coyote, the third season of the successful Señora Acero super series franchise, starring Sergio Goyri, Carolina Miranda and Luis Ernesto Franco, narrates the story of Vicenta Rigores, a courageous and rebellious woman, who stands out in the male-dominated world of smuggling as the most feared and notorious coyote on the U.S. Mexican border. Because Vicenta understands that the only crime most immigrants commit is having been born on the wrong side of the line dividing the two countries, she is willing to risk her own life to protect them. Vicenta hates the drug traffickers that infest the border region, never suspecting that she is directly related to one of Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficking families — she is the illegitimate daughter of Vicente Acero, the father of Salvador Acero, the sole heir, until now, to the Acero dynasty.
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