Latin Media Leaders: Televisa USA

BEST SCRIPTED FORMAT

TERMINALES, TELEVISA USA

Terminales is the most talked about scripted format to come out of Latin America since Yo Soy Betty, La Fea turned up on ABC as Ugly Betty. The Televisa novela is also set up at a Disney-owned company, this time, youth skewing cable network ABC Family.

The Mexican drama, which originally aired on Mexico’s Canal 5, was created by Miguel Angel Fox and tells the story of a young woman – April Marquez – whose life is struck short by a terminal illness. The show follows her life as she tries to come to terms with the illness and find true love.

The US version of Terminales, which has just had a pilot produced, is part of Televisa USA’s plans to break into scripted programming in the US. The company, which is run by chief executive Paul Presburger and chief creative officer Michael Garcia, wants to use its experience in producing long-running dramas in Mexico to break into the US, the biggest TV market in the world.

ABC Family’s Terminales, which is a coproduction with Mad Men producer Lionsgate, stars Italia Ricci (Unnatural History), Mary Page Keller (NYPD Blue), Vondie Curtis-Hall (ER), Aisha Dee (I Hate My Teenage Daughter), Richard Brancatisano (The Elephant Princess), Abhi Sinha (The Social Network) and Haley Ramm (Red State).

Ricci stars as twenty something April, a journalist trying to make her way up the ladder at a Boston newspaper, and just as she is about to find true love with her co-worker (played by Brancatisano) she is told some devastating news from her uncle, played by 7^th Heaven’s Barry Watson.

The US version is written by Susanna Fogel and Joni Lefkowitz and it is exec-produced by Aaron Kaplan, the man behind Terra Nova and GBC.

“You wouldn’t even know it was based on a Televisa format,” says Garcia.

LATIN MEDIA LEADERS 2012/13

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT: ENRIQUE R. MARTINEZ, DISCOVERY LAT-AM

MOST SUCCESSFUL US HISPANIC EXECUTIVE: CESAR CONDE, UNIVISION

MOST INFLUENTIAL INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE: HERNAN LOPEZ, FOX

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: PEDRO LEDA, LEADFILMS

MOST INFLUENTIAL PRODUCTION COMPANY: DANIEL GUTMAN, POWWOW

BEST TELENOVELA: EVA LUNA

BEST FORMAT: CAIGA QUIEN CAIGA, EYEWORKS CUATRO CABEZAS

BEST DOCUMENTARY: EXTREME PLANET, GLOBO TV

BEST FORMAT: CAIGA QUIEN CAIGA, EYEWORKS CUATRO CABEZAS

DIGITAL INNOVATOR: HBO LATIN AMERICA

BEST SCRIPTED FORMAT: TERMINALES