[This piece is a version of one of the mailings of the weekly Television newsletter of EL PAÍS, which comes out every Thursday. If you want to subscribe, you can do sothrough this link.]
The second week of 2024 was synonymous with a return to routine, the return to work and classes. Free-to-air television also experienced its own rentrée in those days and in the present week. The counter is reset in the fight for the audience. Each channel starts from a different place: Antena 3 has the advantage after being crowned leader for the second year in a row; Telecinco is on the rise and, after months in third place, in December it managed to draw level with La 1 in second place; The first public channel is also on the rise and with the aim of trying to overcome the psychological barrier of 2024% share of the screen in 10, which has eluded it since 2019.
The first quarter of the year is critical for chains to start with high morale and put themselves in a good position to compete for the rest of the year. Historically, it's not the quarter in which the biggest advertising investment is made (spring and the final stretch of the year are more powerful in that regard, which encourages networks to bring out their heaviest artillery in terms of content proposals), but it is essential to capture the attention of viewers from the first moment. Television viewing is greatly influenced by the daily habits and habits of the viewers, and every day is important.
Learn more
24 International Series to Watch in 2024
What weapons are the main free-to-air networks facing at the beginning of the year? After a hectic autumn in almost all time slots, this quarter most of the news is concentrated in prime time. Outside of the night, possibly the main novelty will take place in the after-dinner hours of Antena 3 when Amar es para siempre says goodbye and gives way to the daily series Sueños de libertad. At night, the television subgenre reigns supreme that we could classify as "celebrities doing things". Well-known characters are the protagonists of many of this winter's bets, and they will be seen baking pastries, dancing, living together, overcoming tests and competing between generations.
Chenoa, in a test of 'The Challenge'.
The battle of the night after the news (which also has news from this week) begins with the so-called access prime time, the time slot before prime time. Its importance is evidenced by the search in which the channels have embarked to try to confront their current king, El Hormiguero on Antena 3. La 1's bet in this time slot is for fiction with the series 4 estrellas. In Cuatro and La Sexta, the already consolidated First Dates and El intermedio are maintained. Telecinco took advantage of the Christmas holidays to place new installments of the contest Allá tú there. And La 2 has joined the fight this week with another alternative: the cultural contest Cifras y letras, from Monday to Thursday from 21.30 p.m.
The coincidence of proposals with a similar spirit is striking. One of the first novelties to see the light of day was Generación Top, which La Sexta premiered on Wednesday, January 3. In it, three groups of celebrities belonging to different generations face each other with questions and different games. A few days later, on Monday the 8th, Telecinco premiered The Best Generation, which pits three groups of singers, organized by age, and with music as the protagonist. Dancing will also be the center of another television duplicity this season: on the one hand, Telecinco premiered on Saturday Dancing with the Stars, which recovers the spirit of Look Who Dances; and on the other hand, La 1 has planned for this quarter the contest Baila como puedes, an original format where those who compete against each other are the professional dancers who accompany the celebrities. And not only is there thematic coincidence, there is also agreement in some participants: Adrián Lastra will be in both The Challenge and Dancing with the Stars.
Telecinco was the first to play its cards for prime time and last week it was full of premieres on the Mediaset channel. It began Monday with The Best Generation, which stumbled in viewership, up 8.7%. The debut of the seventh season of Temptation Island fared better on Tuesday (13.9%), which aired its second installment on Wednesday (and even increased its share, 14.1%). On Thursday, he maintains his appointment with the coexistence reality show, in this case GH Dúo, which reached a 12.7% share. On Fridays, ¡De viernes!, which with its exclusives related to the world of the heart has managed to establish itself on the grid. On Saturday it was the turn of Dancing with the Stars, presented by Jesús Vázquez and Valeria Mazza. And on Sunday, the GH Duo debate.
An image from the first program of 'Temptation Island 7'.
Antena 3 didn't want to delay either and last week it took the gaps left by Turkish series in its nightly schedule. On Wednesday, he programmed the first two episodes of Camilo Superstar without much audience success (a dismal 7.9% and 6.9% share). The series Entre tierras occupies Thursday nights, with a promising premiere (14.5%), and a new installment of The Challenge puts celebrities to the test on Fridays. At the moment, the specials that face Pasapalabra champions are broadcast on Saturdays. In the pipeline for the coming weeks, or months, the channel has in its portfolio the game shows Atrapa un millón, El 1%, La Voz Kids and Mask Singer, although some of them could be moved to the spring. The same goes for fiction, where there are also several titles (Beguines, Una vida menos en Canarias) on the runway for the coming months. This Wednesday it will be the French series Serial Lover that will compete in prime time.
La 1 has preferred to wait and last week only brought to the field Bake Off: baked celebrities, which ended on Thursday with a 9.8% share (in its second week it has changed its broadcast day to Monday). The rest of the week was spent with film, but that will change shortly. The return of Masters of Sewing will be one of their bets for this quarter. Also the contest Baila como puedes and the format The Best in History, where the public will choose the most relevant Spanish character in history. He is also preparing for the return of Supernanny, with Rocío Ramos-Paúl. In the field of fiction, the first title to see the light of day will be the miniseries The Law of the Sea, and the premiere of Zorro and Detective Touré is expected for these months.
There are also some premieres on La Sexta and Cuatro in these first weeks of the year. Generación Top (with a fairly good audience reception) will soon be joined by La Sexta Batalla de Restaurantes, with Alberto Chicote, and the return of Lo de Évole. The channel also plans to bring back Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, from Antena 3. For its part, Cuatro premiered the docuseries On Guard: Women Against Crime on Wednesday. OnLa 2, the comebacks have been Cachitos de hierro y cromo and Un país para escuchar lo on Tuesdays, and El condensador de fluzo on Thursdays.
You can follow EL PAÍS Televisión on X or sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.