Caray, Caray!

I'm with UA. MPV doesn't seem like 7PM fare to me.
 

PS: But it's not past my bedtime, so maybe I won't be a day behind anymore!
 

Jardinera:

Well, the part about Lo que la vida me robo being in a teo hour timeslot is dreadful news. Our recapping team were so burned out doing double/triple-time on La Tempestad I cannot believe we are in the same situation again!

Yikes!

Thanks for the low-down.

EJ
 

EJ- the two hours can't last for long. We aren't that behind Mexico.
 

My dear Sara:

Of course, you are right.

Thanks for talking me off the ledge. I wonder if we will catch up completely with the air dates in Mexico. I have never recapped for a show that was being aired in MX/US simultaneously.

EJ

 

It's silly to move MPV to 7pm. It is not a 7pm show-- not the right audience.
 

EJ- I understand your pain, though. There is no news so horrible to a recapper as two hour episodes. At least there is some warning. I don't remember getting any for TdA.

I am completely mystified by the decision to move MPV to 7 PM. And will Que Ricos take the 10 slot?
 

Thank you Jardinera.

If La que la vida me robo is going to 2 hours (my heart goes out to all of the recappers) and Mentir Para Vivir moves to 7:00 what happens to Por Siempre Mi Amor?

Diana
 

I think Por Siempre stays the same. The last hour of Lo Que will go into MPVs time.
 

It won't be a two-hour thing for long, just enough to take us to a premiere on either the 6th or the 13th of January.

I doubt there is any intent at catching up with Mexico's schedule.

MPV does not belong in the 7PM slot. This idea is lame-brained.
 

Sara:

We had no warning for La Tempestad either. We knew we were had when, one day, the editing of the show became nonsensical. Hmmm, we thought, could it be that we are seeing two or three episodes pressed into one hour?

Quelle horreur!

You have my sincere condolences on your experience on TdA.

UA: ITA, this is not a 7 PM show. I thought Uni was going for the family audience in the 7 PM time-slot. Am I mistaken?

EJ
EJ
 

I started investigating this time change for "Mentir" and the two hours of "Robo" when a commenter mentioned it over the weekend. I checked Zap2it's schedule but my cable grid hadn't updated yet, so I waited until it was on my cable grid before emailing.

Uni has never shown a TN that was in line with what is airing in Mexico. I am hoping this only lasts a week, cause EJ is right, we did double and triple duty with LT and it just so happens it is during Christmas week. Sigh!
 

OMG ! I had no idea y'all had no warning! Oh that's terrible. Univision hates their viewers.
 

Sara:

No, we had no warning at all, dear Sara. Plus we had to try to find full episodes elsewhere so that we could make some sense of the story.

Yikes! It was tricky and time consuming.

End of rant.

EJ
 

It's interesting that on the English language channels, NBC for example, if a show were about to change timeslots, there would be multiple clever ads about the time change. They'd beat us over the head with it for weeks, making sure the audience knew where to find it. Even then, studies show people still get confused, and often drop off after a time change. It's bizarre how casual Uni, Telemundo, and UniMas are about these unannounced changes to their primetime programming.
 

Vivi:

I am so with you there about the time changes. They still are showing "Pobres/Ricos" as Muy Pronto! For heaven's sake just tell us when it's starting already! They should have announced this way before now about the time slot change and "Robo" going to two hours. I wonder if they will be showing "Pobres/Ricos" at 10:00pm due to Jaime Camil's successful movie, he's done two of them I think. There is a rumor going around about that, but we will have to see what Uni does at the last minute. I think they are also showing previews of "Pobres/Ricos" on UVideos. I have seen some of it and it actually is funny, way better than his last TN and more like Dinero in fun.
 

Oh, about Mentir being on at 7:00pm, wasn't CME on at 7:00pm with the psycho doc?
 

I guess that I am the only one thrilled about the time change. I love it!

Cynderella
 

I'm with Cynderella re: the early time change!! I am so done with that 10PM time slot. ARGHHHHH! Only thing is that I am not a fan of the Mexican comedies at all and hope I don't have to deal with those for a while.
 

I'm not a comedy fan either. Por favor, Televisa; give us a good mystery or something supernatural!
 

I would be able to watch on TV instead of computer, which sometimes I don't get around to, so I'm pleased about it.
 

Just cked my TV guide & it also said 7PM EST
 

I mentioned the time change for Mentir and it will happen. Cuando me enamoro was shown at 7pm before, so this isn't really new IMO. MPV, while an excellent novela, has the worst ratings at 10pm, more worse than QBA. This is Uni saying "'Que pobres' is our only hope to raise the ratings at 10pm". They believed that LQLVMR would be a success and it isn't.

Source: weekly ratings at Media Life Magazine and top 10 ratings at Top Tens & Trends.
 

Telemundo has the 2 best shows in a long time, La reina del sur & Santa Diabla. That is Mentir's problem, it is quite good considering the recent crap they have given us. CI takes over Fels place as the WORST novela unless some miracle happened after I quit watching. Por que el amor manda was just so, so.Thankfully they ceased Tempistad before we suffered.

Televisa sure needs Carla Estrada & the one that did Amor bravío.
 

Maybe Mentir's ratings have to do with the total lack of chemistry between the leads. David Zepeda as a galan ... I don't think so! And there is just no spark between him and Mayrin. The story may be good, but this is the reason I'm not watching.

DZ is great as a villain. He should stick to those roles.
 

Anonymous (25. comment)

Your reasoning is obviously false, because LFDD had very good numbers and huge ending rating. Abismo started to weakly, but the numbers grew and grew, and to the second half of the TN it had enogh good numbers, what the slot needs. We couldn't see a lot of chemistry.

Or the counterexample, look at Robo. There is a very good chemistry, but the ratings are not too high, like LT had.
I think the last succesful TN was Amores Verdaderos in Uni, since then the ratings are weak or medium, but not good.
 

I've never seen David Zepeda in anything before but I'm glad he's getting a chance to break out of typecast roles. I like most of all how smart and quick-thinking he is as a galan. I'm glad when TN actors get the chance to break out of typecasted roles. I for one cannot stand Fernando Colunga. I think he's overrated and he has soulless eyes and have never understood his appeal, but wouldn't mind seeing him as a villano. I'm sure he'd appreciate the challenge as well.

I think the chemistry issue is more how Mayrin is playing the role more Mommy like and less sensual prota. She doesn't have chemistry with Diego olivero either and he's playing her hubby and the first scene of the TN was her waiting for him at home for adult quality time. David has been very much playing the role as madly in love galan while Mayrin has been playing the role as asexual mom. Just my two pesos.
 

I don't think Santa Diabla is doing that well either, at least in comparison to the two last hits Telemundo had: La Patrona and Cielos. I checked the SD ratings on Wiki and in comparison to the previous venganza tn it replaced, la patrona, it's greatly underperforming. LP had consistent near 1.5 - 2 million viewers per cap while Santa is barely over one million most nights. And as a someone who prefers TM tns, the Santa leads have less chemistry than DZ and Mv. Reina, of course is a classic for TM so it will do well and may be cutting into MPV's viewership but I don't watch narcos no matter how good they are and I'm thinking a lot people may not watch reina because its a narco.
 

I'm hooked on Lo que la vida me robo, so if you need me to help lighten the load with recapping, just let me know!
 

J desde NYC, I like your two pesos, amiga re David/Mayrin. ITA.

I just can't watch narco TN and I don't enjoy the comedies, either.

Guess I am not a very good TN fan!

As for the time change, well, it means that me zonking out halfway through the story won't be happening anymore. I'll take it. :))

Fatima
 

I like your two cents, too! Very well said. I'm in the same boat about narcos. I will not watch them.

I like the time change. I miss the days when there were only three novelas.
 

I don't mind comedies if done well. The first TN I watched actively was 'La Fea Mas Bella' and it was funny because Jaime Camil and Angelica Vale were funny and had great chemistry. I didn't attempt to watch PEAM because Colunga was in it and I think it's time for him to play villanos and I don't think he's compelling as a galan.
 

I don't like narco stories either. I don't understand their appeal. The violence is more than I can take.

Comedy is a hit-and-miss proposition because it mostly doesn't translate to other cultures. I want to like them, but most of the ones so far are dumb and sexist. We should be over that by now.
 

I won't watch the narcos but absolutely love the comedies. We have 4 dramas on now. We need a comedy soon if nothing else for variety and to make me happy! :)

Jarifa
 

J desde NYC, I would definitely agree that "Fea" was very good. I saw it when it aired the second time. Camil and Vale were very good together.

I guess I just missed the boat on "Dinero" and "Familia".

Fatima
 

Most Common Telenovela Genres:
1) Romance- The most common. Man/Boy and Woman/Girl fall in love, and enemies and circumstances that they have to fight, try to keep them apart.
2) Narco- The eventful, crazy and violent life and times of drug and human traffickers, usually centered around one character caught up in that life (the drug boss, or someone who loves or hates him/her).
3) Venganza (Revenge)- The protagonist has a great wrong done to him/her, and comes back (usually with a secret identity) to right the wrong, and to sink their enemies.
4) Comedy- A HUGE cast of characters, who are the friends and family of a central character, have a series of adventures and misadventures. Meanwhile, the central character has to overcome obstacles to be with his/her true love.

Less Common tn Genres:
1) Mystery- The protagonists and their friends work together to find out the secrets of their enemies, usually long ago hidden. To do so, they use intrigue, intelligence, trickery and teamwork. (e.g. La Verdad Oculta)
2) Supernatural- Ghosts, witches, werewolves, etc.
3) Science-fiction- Some scientific leap (usually unethical) complicates the lives of the protagonists and their families and friends, and is an obstacle to their love. (e.g. El Clon, Aurora)

 

I like all the genres, but I can’t watch narco-novelas back to back. I get burned out on the violence and the casual abuse of women very quickly. But I do think many narco-novelas are well done.

I like when tns mix genres. For example, I like that Amor Bravio was a romance, but included elements of a mystery with the good guys working together to try to stay a step ahead of the bad guys. It also had a touch of venganza, as the hero came on the scene with a secret identity to avenge his wife’s death and his wrongful imprisonment. It was a good blend of genres.

Comedies tend to have too many characters and stories, but within all of that, you can get some really funny moments, scenes, characters, and actors with amazing comedic timing. The more of these a comedy has, the better. But they all tend to be too long, and the writers can’t resist throwing in some really heavy drama that seems out of place, especially at the end.

 

Why do the comedies tend to be so long?
 

I'm not sure why the comedies are always so long. But, they tend to be successful. They tend to be in primetime, family hour slots. They tend to mainly be set indoors (fewer costly outdoor and location shots). They also tend to have a LOT of sponsors that shamelessly flog their wares during the shows. All of this might make comedies easy moneymakers for the network, so they are the first to be extended. Plus, when you have so many extraneous characters, it's easy to create new stories and elongate the tn.
 

I want another novela like Amor Bravio, excellent combination of genres, great characterization, compelling characters (and actors), great villains (both main and supporting) and one who's "extension" didn't seem out of place.

Even when I found myself bored with some episodes, the whole production team had made me care about the characters during the exciting parts that a little filler was fine because I cared about what happened to these people.

Maybe that's what extensions are missing. The same thing is happening with me with La Mujer del Vendaval. I'll weather all the extensions because I care what happens to these characters.

For me, that's a win in any novela.

 

P.S.: TV Guide finally has printed the grid with the time change for Mentir.

 

Well,carp. I am not happy about this. I don't even get home from work by seven a lot of nights. The ten o'clock time is ideal for me because it's the only time other things don't normally interfere. Plus I am missing a whole month while travelling. Carp, carp, carp.

Carolina