Telenovela To Launch On Both Sides Of The Border

Tonight Azteca America will premiere "Amor en Custodia", which is the first telenovela to air simultaneously in both Mexico and the United States. To date, there has always been a lag time of a few to several months between when a telenovela first airs in Mexico and is then re-broadcast in the United States. Azteca America execs such as COO Jorge Jaidar and communications head Daniel McCosh have stressed the importance of this development but  Martin Luna, the head of production at Television Azteca, quite literally shrugged when I asked him about it. McCosh argues that airing the same chapters of the same novela on both sides of the border should create buzz and foster promotional opportunities.

Azteca America has had a string of ratings successes during the last few months with the final rounds of the Mexican soccer leauge and of its reality show La Academia. However, Univision remains the 800 pound ratings gorilla of Spanish-language television thanks to its delayed airing of Televisa telenovelas such as La Madrastra. 

Televisa has asked producer Salvador Mejía to extend the novela, which ended last Friday by another ten half-hour segments. The additional segments will depict the lives of the characters ten years hence and air immediately before Televisa's newest telenovela,  "La Esposa Virgen."

Both "Amor en Custodia" and "La Esposa Virgen" are being put together on a tight time schedule. At Televisa's launch of "La Esposa Virgen" Mejía said he was producing the new telenovela "a todo vapor" having been asked to put it together only a month ago. Sergio Basañez told a Mexican radio program that he had been called to take the lead role a little over two weeks ago.