‘Telenovelas’ make the leap into English

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Others have been doing some pushing of their own.

ABC’s highly anticipated “Ugly Betty,” inspired by the Columbian hit “Yo Soy Betty La Fea” (“I Am Betty the Ugly”), will air as a weekly, one-hour comedy beginning Thursday, Sept. 28.

CBS reportedly has at least four telenovelas in development from various producers.

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And Galan Entertainment has inked deals with NBC and USA to create English-language versions of novelas produced by NBC’s Spanish-language network, Telemundo.

Galan has also filmed the first mini-telenovela for cell-phone users. The “noveletta” will be available through Cingular beginning next month.

If English-language novelas are successful, they could be in a position to take on the original Spanish-language market, which generates an estimated $2 billion a year worldwide, according to the trade publication Daily Variety.

“Hollywood executives are starting to pay attention to the ratings from Univision,” says Buccieri about the leading Spanish-language network.

Last year, Univision beat every other network during prime time in the Spanish-language market’s 18-39 demographic and “this summer, if you look at the top shows (on Univision), eight out of the 10 are novelas,” Buccieri says.

“It’s sort of like comfort food,” says Silvio Horta, executive producer of “Ugly Betty,” which will go toe-to-toe with Univision’s formidable Mexican version of “Betty,” “La Fea Mas Bella,” currently running Thursdays at 8 p.m. EDT.

“My intention on this show,” Horta says, “is to really give it a lot of heart and give it a lot of humor and people will hopefully hook into that.” And the occasional cameo from executive producer Selma Hayek, a former novela star.

Making a commitment
Although ABC’s “Betty” was conceived as a weekly series, the network is exploring the traditional daily format in partnership with Mexico’s Televisa.

“If telenovelas actually end up working for the Anglo market, it will open up the television industry to a tremendous area for growth,” says Marcos Santana, who oversees program development for Telemundo.

Although there’s a lot of corporate excitement about telenovelas, are American viewers ready for them?

“They will find a specific niche audience,” says Julio Martinez, features editor and columnist for Latin Heat Magazine. “That is, if they like the story.”

But, he adds, “the commitment from the studio has to be different. You can create five episodes of ‘Ugly Betty,’ throw it on the air and you’re gambling on that amount of time for it to prove itself a hit or not worthy.

“When you commit to a telenovela, you’re committed to 65 episodes (or more) upfront. There’s no such thing as let’s do the first five chapters of the book and see how it does.”

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