The MyNetworkTV telenovelas are Fox Television's attempt to create a successful low-cost programming franchise by adapting Spanish-language telenovelas for American viewers. While originally planned for syndication, the format became the original lineup of MyNetworkTV in 2006. Six limited-run serials were produced, each running about 65 episodes, and at least four others were halted in development.
New episodes aired from Monday to Friday – and weekend clip shows recapped the shows' storylines. Producers planned continuous cycles of thirteen-week serials with no repeats. Once one series ended, another unrelated melodrama would begin the following week. In total, MyNetworkTV planned to air 600 hours of original dramatic programming in HDTV every year.
The telenovela format was unsuccessful and ratings were unexpectedly low. An average of about 781,000 people tuned in to watch the telenovelas, according to Nielsen Media Research.MyNetworkTV will try Plan B Deseret News (Salt Lake City), March 27, 2007 by Scott D. Pierce Parent company News Corporation said MyNetworkTV lost two million dollars per week with the all-telenovela lineup.Heat Index; weekly rating (0-10) of sizzle & fizzle Advertising Age February 12, 2007
Under new network president Greg Meidel, production and development stopped in early 2007. "Trying to get people to watch serialized dramas every night on MyNetworkTV was asking the impossible," he remarked. The novelas premiered on September 5, 2006 and last aired on July 18, 2007.
Production
Development
Syndication plans Paul Buccieri, Twentieth Television's programming chief, became fascinated by telenovelas in the 1990s, inspired by his Latina mother-in-law's devotion to such shows.Plot Twists for Genre - 10/16/2006 - Multichannel News He said that the nightly soap concept would work in the U.S. if given sufficient time. Along with colleagues Stephen Brown and Jack Abernathy, he started discussing the telenovela format in 2005.
Before it announced MyNetworkTV, Fox offered the telenovelas in syndication under as an anthology titled Desire, which would air one hour each weeknight starting in the fall of 2006. It originally planned to air three serials per season. They were originally intended to air as late night time programming. In December 2005, Bucceri said the company had already bought enough novela formats to air original shows for five years.
Fox then added a second hour and planned to use two umbrella titles: Desire and Secret Obsessions.MNT: All Novelas, All the Time - 7/21/2006 7:01:00 AM - Broadcasting & Cable After receiving lukewarm response from stations not owned by Fox, Twentieth Television decided to pitch the show for June 2006. It argued that teenagers are out of school and planted in front of their TV sets, while reruns dominate network schedules. The telenovelas were also briefly considered for placement on The CW.
MyNetworkTV Fox Television Stations chairman Roger Ailes greenlit the format as a contingency plan for Fox-owned UPN stations. Then MyNetworkTV was introduced to advertisers on February 22, 2006, as a reaction to the demise of UPN and The WB. The telenovelas became the new network's weeknight lineup, along with clip shows on Saturdays.
MyNetworkTV targeted the telenovelas at the "Adults 18-49" demographic, which is a general audience. While the novelas had a few takers for a planned summer syndication run, Twentieth made those stations surrender the shows, thanks to a contract clause that let Fox take away the show if it is carried by a network.
As MyNetworkTV's debut grew closer, Fox dropped the idea of using two umbrella titles for its telenovelas. Desire became the title of the first series aired. The two umbrella titles reappeared in 2007, showing up during opening credits and on the network's Web site.
Budgets Jack Abernethy, chief executive of Fox Television Stations, said before launch that MyNetworkTV's six-day-per-week format was the wave of the future because a traditional schedule costs too much. Each episode was said to cost about one-tenth the budget of traditional prime-time shows, and even less than the typical daytime soap. Another estimate said the serials cost $200,000 to $500,000, compared to the $2 million to $3 million cost of a mainstream primetime drama.
Unfortunately, ad revenue was not sufficient for the format to succeed. At the 2006 upfront season, MyNetworkTV secured less than $50 million in ad deals, compared to $640 million for the new CW network. National advertising spots sold for between $20,000 and $35,000 for a 30-second spot as of September 2006.
Writers’ dispute At first, MyNetworkTV called its soap writers "translators" since the projects were adaptations of existing Spanish telenovelas. These people were also non-union, which soon led to a labor dispute.MyNetworkTV Nears WGA Deal; Telenovela 'Translators' to Gain Writer Status.(TV Currents)(Writers Guild of America) Industry & Business Article - Research, News, Information, Contacts, Divisions, Subsidiaries, Business Associations The eventual settlement with the Writers Guild of America led to higher-than-expected programming costs.Murdoch’s Next Bet - 8/28/2006 - Broadcasting & Cable
MyNetworkTV’s union deals doubled its programming costs to more than $1 million per week for each series. This significantly affected the telenovelas' bottom line. Before the dispute, News Corp. President-COO Peter Chernin said the format could "be profitable from day one."My Network TV Mulls Change To Programming Strategy - 12/15/2006 2:13:00 PM - Broadcasting & Cable
Filming The shows were shot at Stu Segall Studios in San Diego. The facility, built by a former porn producer, specializes in low-budget productions. Since Segall rented part of the lot to the U.S. government, the telenovelas were shot near a mock Iraqi village used to train military personnel.SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Features - Modest mogul
As a cost-saving measure, producers tend to hire performers with limited acting experience. The same sets were reused in multiple shows. Producers built 53 shared living-room sets, which were repurposed by changing colors and camera angles to give them a different look.MyNetworkTV soaps race against time, low budgets Also, scripts were finished before taping started, so that all scenes on the same set were filmed at the same time, out of episode order. Up to three shows were filmed at once.
The production model resembled that of movies more than normal American television series. Each complete series — equivalent to three seasons of conventional dramas — was filmed in about four months, as nine crews worked simultaneously,MyNetworkTV to offer series of 'telenovelas' : Entertainment : Evansville Courier Press For example, Desire used three directors, 50 cast members, 200 bit players, 2,000 extras and 2,800 script pages (compared to 120 pages for features and 45 for dramas).
Two main groups worked on the novelas, one for the Desire brand and one for Secret Obsessions serials. The Desire shows, such as Watch Over Me, were more action-oriented to attract more male viewers. All of the telenovelas used the same narrators, actor Ray Van Ness III for the Secret Obsessions, and an uncredited female actor for the Desire brand.
The telenovelas are broadcast in high definition where available – and in letterbox format on standard definition broadcasts. During the all-novela period, MyNetworkTV promoted itself as "the first all HDTV network." In addition, early shows carried a SAP signal carrying a Spanish audio track, but an alternate closed captioning channel with Spanish translation was not used; in execution as most affiliates of the network never utilized SAP channels due to a lack of programming requiring it, and outside of major markets, the Spanish dub was never heard.
Comparison with Spanish telenovelas MyNetworkTV’s telenovelas were much shorter than the originals: about 65 episodes, rather than 120 to 180 hours. Each show was scripted, filmed and completed as a whole. The network could not shorten or lengthen shows.
In familiar telenovela form, shows often began with the tag “MyNetworkTV Presents.” Yet the beginnings of shows featured long flashbacks intended to refresh viewers. The first two rotations also added titles to each episode.
The daily format also featured the “Story” episode. These were clip shows that outlined the development of a major character. They were used in lieu of reruns. In addition, MyNetworkTV's shows featured white, black and Hispanic actors in prominent roles and often showed interracial couples, along with gay subplots. These English novelas also toned down the high pitched emotionalism of conventional telenovelas.
The producers said they needed to account for the cultural differences with Latin countries. So while these serials were said to add campiness, cat-fights and gay sensibility, they were also seen to lack the "cultural depth" and "raw passion" of the Spanish originals.
Camilo Cano, the VP of Caracol Television International, which sold two telenovela formats to MyNetworkTV, said he was satisfied with the English versions. “The basic elements of the novela were respected,” he said, “which is what concerns us the most.” He said Caracol worked to ensure the adaptations were faithful to the original serials.World Screen – Home
Broadcast rotations All times are Eastern and Pacific (subtract one hour for Central and Mountain time) Telenovela Time Premiere Date Finale Date Fall 2006 Desire 8:00 p.m. Fall 2006 Fashion House 9:00 p.m. Winter 2006 Wicked Wicked Games 8:00 p.m. Winter 2006 Watch Over Me 9:00 p.m. Spring 2007 American Heiress Weekly Spring 2007 Saints & Sinners Weekly
Had the daily format continued, Friends with Benefits and Rules of Deception would have debuted on June 5, 2007. Crossed Loves would likely have begun the second season in early September. It could have been joined in the Fall lineup by Friends & Enemies, which was announced in the 2006 pre-season upfront presentation (in the third-quarter slot taken by Friends with Benefits).
International broadcasts
The MyNetworkTV serial lineup was broadcast in Australia as FOXTELENOVELA on the W. Channel.
CKXT-TV, an independent station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada showed Desire and Fashion House, airing them in the afternoon time slot traditionally held by daytime soap operas. However, the station elected not to air any of the other telenovelas after the first cycle.
Reaction
Campy melodramas MyNetwork promoted its telenovelas as trashy melodramas, resembling prime time soap operas like Dallas and Dynasty. Paul Buccieri called them "guilty pleasures" and compared them to beach novels. While these shows attempted to adhere to the telenovela format and tone, the network's executives and producers developed their own campy interpretation of the genre. They added characters and situations that differed from the Latin American originals. As telenovelas are inherently implausible and cartoonish, both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences scorned the new adaptations.Plot Twists for Genre By Luis Clemens -- Multichannel News, October 16, 2006
Reviewers were resoundingly negative. For example, TV Guide's Matt Roush called one "something worse than nothing." Robert P. Laurence of the San Diego Union-Tribune complained of "amateurish acting, cheap sets and tedious scripts."SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Features - Telenovelas haven't lured viewers; San Diego channel not losing hope Robert Bianco of USA Today remarked, "Think of the most incompetent soap opera you've ever seen, imagine something even worse, and there you have MyNetworkTV."