The Telenovelas Beat the Crappy Reruns

/in /by

Almost a year ago, Obama offended DC’s chattering class for appearing on Univision’s Sunday show, Al Punto, but not appearing on Fox News Sunday. But as I noted at the time, Al Punto is actually a more popular show than Fox’s Sunday swill.

And, as it turns out, the White House can justify blowing off Fox for Univision not just to reach out to Latinos rather than white racists. According to Univision’s corporate communications, Al Punto (531,000) does better than FNS (417,000) in the all-important 18-49 demographic (and has done so for the last 10 months), and it often beats CBS’ Face the Nation in that demo as well.

And last week, Univision as a network was actually more popular than any other.

Univision was the most popular network among television viewers aged 18 to 49 years old last week, the first time a Spanish-language station has beaten the English ones in this key demographic in the United States.

Soap operas reaching key points in their stories combined with a desultory week of reality and reruns at the English broadcast networks made the milestone possible.

Maybe the advertisers could do something about the ginned up anti-Latino racism fueling politics of late, since they’re going to want to stay in good graces with the increasingly powerful Spanish-language network?

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  2. Mary says:

    All I can say is that, if the Dem’s are relying on a performance like the one Tim Kaine gave on last night’s TDS to woo the viewers, they are done. Done done done.

  3. Mary says:

    OT – another piece, this one WaPo by Chandrasekaran, on Karzai seeks to limit role of U.S. corruption investigators

    The big news is that this time he’s relying on a 9th Circuit ruling to protect his corruption and graft rackets.

    /s

    or not

    “Above a certain level, people are being very well-protected,” one lawyer for torture victims senior U.S. official told The Post.

    The Pentagon is apparently trying to help out the DOJ on this issue by providing humor.

    Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, speaking in Kabul last week after meeting with Karzai, said he supports the Afghan leader’s view that anti-corruption investigations should be led by Afghans, but he noted that such inquiries should be credible and internationally accepted.

    You know, like Abu Ghraib and Bagram and GITMO and Polish black sites and Thai evidence destruction facilities. Good one, Bob.

  4. bobschacht says:

    I haven’t been watching the telenovelas, but I’m willing to bet that the dramas portrayed in them seldom involve the intrusion of national political debates. IOW, they represent a self-contained universe where the only things that matter are very local, and there is no need to worry about who the presidente is, or whether or not he is corrupt, or the state of national health care, etc.

    Bob in AZ