Te Amaré en Silencio - "An Expensive Lesson"

Miami Ad Guy's mention reminded me of "Te Amaré en Silencio", which was a failed attempt by Univision at producing telenovelas in-house. I wrote about the novela in the May, 2005 cover story of Marketing y Medios.

Below is an excerpt:

"In an apparent attempt to regain control and following an earlier spat with Televisa, Univision experimented with in-house production.

Te Amaré en Silencio was a telenovela that premiered on Univision in December 2003. It was shot in Los Angeles and produced by Paloma Productions, which is owned by a Perenchio holding company. It reportedly cost $6 million and lasted all of two months in prime time before being bumped to a daytime slot. According to a Univision SEC filing, in 2003 Paloma Productions received $1 million upfront to produce the novela and expected to receive an additional $4 million based on ratings performance. But the 2004 SEC 10-K filing revealed Univision's actual payout to Paloma Productions for the novela totaled $2.6 million (including the $1 million from the prior year), far less than initially projected because ratings were weaker than expected.

None of those familiar with the unsuccessful venture who were contacted for this article would comment on the record. A source tried to explain why Te Amaré en Silencio failed, at least, compared to the Televisa-produced telenovelas. "My wife said, 'This is a man's idea of a novela because of the fact this guy gets to run around sleeping with anybody he wants. He's an adulterer. Even though the wife was a psychotic bitch, they were married,' " he recalls, his wife saying. "You laugh, but Televisa would never make that kind of mistake. [Perenchio] just missed that core cultural cue. Everybody learned their lesson, an expensive lesson."