TELEMUNDO

'Telemundo' is an American television network based in Hialeah, Florida. Launched in San Juan, Puerto Rico by Angel Ramos in 1954, it is the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world.[1] It is also the second-largest Spanish language network in the US, behind Univision.
Telemundo is also the only Spanish-language network currently producing telenovelas in the United States.[2] Many programs air with closed captions in both Spanish and English. The network reaches 93 percent of U.S. Hispanic households in 142 markets via over-the-air, cable and satellite TV.[3]
Telemundo Communications Group, its parent company, is part of the NBC Universal division of General Electric, which paid $2.7 billion for the operation in 2002. Don Browne is the Telemundo's president. Jeff Gaspin, who is president and COO of Universal Television Group, oversees the network. Telemundo has 1,800 employees.[4]

Contents

History

1954-1987

1985-1987

Expansion

1992-1998

1998-2001

2001-present

Logos

Primetime Schedule

Upcoming Telenovelas

Late Night

Upcoming Shows/Series

Stations

See also

External links

History

1954-1987

WKAQ-TV launched the Telemundo brand on March 28, 1954. The station was founded by Angel Ramos, owner of Puerto Rico's main newspaper at the time, "El Mundo" and Puerto Rico's first radio station, WKAQ-AM, or "Radio El Mundo". Ramos wanted to maintain a consistent branding between its properties using the "mundo" theme ("mundo" is the Spanish word for "world"), and thus named WKAQ-TV Telemundo. He had tried to obtain a TV license as early as the mid 1940s, but due to an FCC licensing freeze for all new American TV stations, Ramos had to wait until 1954 to obtain the license.
During the 1970s and 1980s, WKAQ-TV (then branded as Telemundo Canal 2), was a major producer of Puerto Rican Spanish soap operas. The channel was also known by its "fingers" logo (a bold number 2 with the silhouette of two upright fingers inside the number), calling itself "El canal de los dedos" (The channel of the fingers).
WKAQ-TV has produced and broadcasted recognized local shows such as "El Show de las Doce", "La Gente Joven de Menudo", "En Casa de Juanma y Wiwi", "Los Kakucomicos", Noche de Gala, "Teatrimundo", "Estudio Alegre", "La Pension de Dona Tere", "El Show de Chucho", "No te Duermas", "Al Grano con Zervigón", "Marcano el Show", "Con lo que Cuenta este País", "Super Sábados", "Fantástico", "Musicomedia", "El Tío Nobel", "Telecómicas", and "Dame un Break", among others. It also produced famous telenovelas such as "El Hijo de Angela Maria", "Tomiko", Cristina Bazan, "El Idolo", "Viernes Social", "La Verdadera Eva", Coralito, "Tanairi" and others. One of the most important producers at WKAQ-TV is Paquito Cordero, who has been at the station since 1954 both as an actor as well as producer, mostly for "El Show de las Doce", and Noche de Gala.

1985-1987

In 1985, Estrella Communications, owned by Joe Wallach and Paul Niedermeyer of Reliance Group Holding, purchased KVEA in Los Angeles. It became the first full-time independent Spanish language station in Los Angeles. The next year, Reliance acquired the Telemundo brand when it purchased Blair Broadcasting. The purchase included WSCV in Ft. Lauderdale/Miami, Puerto Rico's WKAQ-TV (known for decades as "Telemundo Canal 2"), and WNJU in New York.
In 1987, Reliance merged all these stations into the Telemundo Group. The new corporation quickly went public and launched the Telemundo network. Later that year, it purchased additional stations in San Francisco, Houston and San Antonio.

Expansion

Between 1988 and 1991, Telemundo acquired stations in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Washington. The network decided to outsource their news division in 1988; CNN to produced two newscasts, branded ''"Noticiero Telemundo CNN"''. Produced in Atlanta, "Noticiero Telemundo CNN" was anchored by Jorge Gestoso and Maria Elvira Salazar.
Lana Montalban who anchored the show knon then as Telemundo HBC, returned to her native Argentina. When Salazar decided to take a reporter's position at Noticiero Univision in Miami, in her place, former Miss Universe Cecilia Bolocco joined Gestoso. The final incarnation produced in Atlanta was co-anchored by Patricia Janiot.
In 1994, Telemundo caught on the fever of producing 24 hour news. The network launched "Telenoticias" partnering with Argentina's Artear Network, Antena 3 from Spain, and Reuters. The venture was not successful and the service was sold to CBS. Rebranded as "CBS Telenoticias", the network did air all over the Americas.
CBS Telenoticias was sold back to Telemundo and the network branded it "Telemundo International"

1992-1998

In 1992, Telemundo went through another management change under former Univision president Joaquin Blaya. Several major programs were canceled and longtime Telemundo executives were released. The next year, Telemundo branded themselves with the campaign, ''Arriba, Telemundo, Arriba''.
In 1993, Telemundo began the ongoing practice of producing original telenovelas. The first soaps were "''Angelica, mi vida''", "''Marielena''", "''Guadalupe''", "''Señora Tentación''", and "''Tres Destinos''". International markets and syndicators soon courted these shows. Telemundo's effort face an initial set effort was setback, when Mexico's industry leader, Televisa, bought Capitalvision, the production house that had been making the new soap operas.
In 1995, under the direction of Harry Abraham, the network's Executive Vice-President of Programming, Telemundo attempted to "cater" to the Mexicans living in the West Coast. 3 shows were produced out of Hollywood, California. ''La Hora Lunática'' hosted by LA radio personality Humberto Luna. ''El y Ella'' hosted by Gigi Graciette and Antonio Farre, and ''Dando y Dando'' hosted by Rafael Sigler and produced by Gaspar Diaz who is very well known in his house. The latter show was short lived, while the other two lasted until 1998, when they relocated to Mexico City. After Graciette "left" Telemundo to work at Mexico's Televisa. She was quickly replaced by Sophia Webber These Mexican oriented show's quality left a lot to be desired and were not accepted by the overwhelming majority of viewers and both all of them were cancelled. Telemundo's management chose to produce shows in Miami.

1998-2001

In 1998, Telemundo was bought by a partnership between cable's Liberty Media and entertainment conglomerate Sony Pictures Entertainment Helmed by yet another management team under the leadership of former CBS executive Peter Tortoricci, hopes of attracting the bilingual market were explored. ''Lo mejor de los dos Mundos'' ("The best of both worlds") campaign was launched. Several billboards went up in cities such as Miami and San Francisco heralding a "new era" for Telemundo.

2001-present

In 2001, Telemundo was purchased by NBC and is now a part of NBC Universal. Jim MacNamara remained at the helm of the network during and after the sale. Their main competitor, Univision, continues to have an upper hand in the ratings wars, though not in all time slots. Local stations began producing early morning news to be more competitive in their respective markets. Telemundo produces far more programming than Univision and does not rely strictly on Mexican and Venezuelan shows. In contrast, Univision's schedule is heavy on Mexican and Venezuelan shows due to long-term exclusive deals with media giants Televisa and Venevisión. After three years, NBC officials asked MacNamara to resign, and replaced him with Don Browne, who had been head of NBC affiliate WTVJ in Miami.
News programs were created in the wake of September 11. "Hoy en el Mundo", anchored by Marian de la Fuente and Jose Diaz Balart went on the air informing viewers of national and international events. This program was yet cancelled by the much heralded arrival of Maria Antonieta Collins from Univision. "Cada Dia con Maria Antonieta" went on the air in 2005. The show never caught on and changes were made. The program now airing is "Cada Dia". Maria Antonieta stayed on and the much recycled Jose Diaz Balart returned yet again to mornings on Telemundo. (Previous attempts anchored by JDB were "Esta Manana", the beforementioned "Hoy en el Mundo" and "Cada Dia".
In 2004, Telemundo created Telemundo Television Studios in Miami, Florida. The network also began subtitling many of their telenovelas into English via closed captioning. Under NBC, Telemundo gave greater emphasis to original programming and product placement. The network currently spends $100 million a year producing its own shows.[5]
In March, 2007, NBC Universal announced it restructured Telemundo's entertainment division in an effort to narrow Univision's ratings dominance.[6] Starting this fall, the network will cut the first commercial break in every prime-time show to only 60 seconds in length.[7] It also plans to air the 2008 series Idolos de Juventud uninterrupted, using pervasive product placement instead of traditional ad spots.[8]

Logos

Primetime Schedule

Telemundo airs its 8-11 pm (ET/PT) weekday programs (usually telenovelas) using a form of the Turner Time scheduling strategy used by TBS from 1981 until 1997. Each program starts a few minutes after its officially scheduled time, typically three or four minutes after the hour. Shows also bleed over into the next time slot. This encourages viewers to stay tuned to Telemundo instead of joining another channel's program in progress. The 11 pm news broadcasts start at the conventional time, however.
Movies are in 'red';Reality/Game Shows are in 'green'; Primetime Talk Shows are in 'blue'; Telenovelas are in 'purple'.

	7:00 PM	7:30 PM	8:00 PM	8:30 PM	9:00 PM	9:30 PM	10:00 PM	10:30 PM
Sunday	''El Maravilloso Mundo de Disney'' (''The Wonderful World of Disney'') or ''Cine en Familia'' (''Family Cinema'')				''Cine Millonario'' (''Millionaire Movie'')
Monday	''Dame Chocolate'' (''Give Me Chocolate'')		''Madre Luna'' (''Mother Moon'')		'' La Esclava Isaura'' (''Isaura The Slave'')		''Amor Mio'' (''my Love'')
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday	''Cine Nuestro'' (''Our Movie'') or specials				''Cine de Impacto'' (''Movie Impact'') or specials

★ The movie blocks typically show dubbed Hollywood films, except for ''Cine Nuestro'', which runs Mexican encores.

★ The Disney anthology, ''El Maravilloso Mundo de Disney'', airs monthly.

★ '' La Esclava Isaura'' is a dubbed version of a Brazilian serial, '' A Escrava Isaura''.

★ ''Sin Vergüenza'' moved off the prime time lineup and airs weekdays at 1 p.m. ET/PT until August 21.

★ ''Amor Mio'' ("My Love"), a co-production between Argentina's Telefe and Mexico's Televisa, returns on Monday August 6, 2007 at 10 p.m. ET/PT .[9]

Upcoming Telenovelas

'Title (English Translation)'	'Distributor(s) (Country, Year)'	'Cast'	'Projected / Scheduled Debut'	'To Replace (Broadcast Time Slot)'
Pecados Ajenos	Telemundo (USA, 2007)	Lorena Rojas Mauricio Islas Catherine Siachoque Sonya Smith	October 2007 (P)	Dame Chocolate
La Traición	Telemundo (Mexico, 2007)	Mario Cimarro Danna Garcia Francisco Gattorno Diana Quijano	December 2007 (P)	La Esclava Isaura
Señora Isabel	Telemundo (Colombia, 2007)	Victoria Ruffo Arturo Peniche	January 2008 (P)	Madre Luna
Doña Barbara	Telemundo (Colombia, 2007)	Christian Meier Gaby Espino	2008 (P)	TBA
Las Brujas De South Beach	Telemundo (USA, 2007)	Natalia Streignard Jullye Giliberti	2008 (P)	TBA
Idolos de Juventud	Telemundo (USA, 2007)	Geraldine Bazan Eduardo Cuervo Alejandro Chabán	Summer, 2008 (P)	TBA
Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso	Telemundo (USA, 2007)	TBA	2007-2008 (P)	TBA

Late Night

'Title (English Translation)'	'Distributor(s) (Country, Year)'	'Cast'	'Projected / Scheduled Debut'	'Day/Hour'
Mas Vale Tarde	Telemundo (USA,2007)	Alex Cambert	2007-2008 (P)	11:30PM

Upcoming Shows/Series

'Title (English Translation)'	'Distributor(s) (Country, Year)'	'Cast'	'Projected / Scheduled Debut'	'Day/Hour'
	Telemundo (USA,2007)	Penelope Menchaca	2007-2008 (P)	Weekend Primetime

Stations

★ List of Telemundo affiliates

★ List of programs broadcast by Telemundo

See also

★ List of United States television networks

External links

★ Official Site co-branded Yahoo.com site in Spanish

★ Official Schedule

★ Telemundo International

★ Telemundo, from the Museum of Broadcast Communications website

★ NBC Universal's media village website