Nickelodeon And Televisa Break New Creative Ground With "Reach For A Star", First-Ever Telenovela Adapted For The U.S., To Air On Nick At Nite USA

Below is a Nickelodeon Press Release from PR Newswire:

Nickelodeon and Televisa Break New Creative Ground With "Reach For a Star", First-Ever Telenovela Adapted for the U.S., to Air On Nick at Nite

80-Episode Daily Series Centers Around Teenage Girl Who Reaches Stardom and Wins the Love of Her Teen Idol; Produced in Association with Sony Pictures Television

MIAMI, Jan. 24, 2012 /Nickelodeon/Nick At Nite Press Release/ -- Nickelodeon, in partnership with Televisa, has ordered 80 episodes of a groundbreaking, original one-hour U.S. adaptation of the popular Mexican telenovela, Reach for a Star (Alcanzar una Estrella) for Nick at Nite, it was announced today by Cyma Zarghami, President of Viacom's Nickelodeon Group; and Jose Baston, President of Television and Content from Televisa. The first telenovela ever adapted for the U.S. audience, Reach for a Star is a single-camera, daily series following a teenage girl whose life changes completely when she becomes a star and wins the love of her teen idol. Reach for a Star will be produced in association with Sony Pictures Television and is set to premiere later this year on Nickelodeon's nighttime block for families--Nick at Nite. Production begins in March in Los Angeles, Calif.

"We have experienced first-hand the popularity of the daily scripted format with our kid audience through the success of House of Anubis and our teen audience with DeGrassi: The Next Generation," and our Nick Latin American channel has already had great success in producing telenovela's with Televisa," Ms. Zarghami said. "This partnership brings together Televisa's un-matched leadership in the telenovela genre with our expertise in making content, and we're looking forward to introducing this first true English-language telenovela to Nick at Nite's family audience."

"As part of the steps towards building a strong presence in the Anglo TV market, Televisa is excited to coproduce with Nickelodeon one of the many successful scripts from our library in a daily series format," said Baston. We are convinced that the daily series will be well received by Nick´s family audiences, and will capture their attention daily as it has happened in different markets in the world where Televisa has exported its production capabilities. The Televisa and Nick alliance will certainly result in a successful formula, and we envision Reach for a Star as the first of many joint projects.

"For more than a decade Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) and Televisa have been strategically building upon their regional partnership that today encompasses, distribution, consumer products and co-productions," said Pierluigi Gazzolo, Chief Operating Officer, VIMN. "Reach for a Star marks a dynamic new phase in our partnership and VIMN is incredibly excited to once again be expanding our content portfolio with Televisa."

Reach for a Star follows Nickelodeon's success with its live-action serialized series, House of Anubis and Degrassi. Nickelodeon has also experienced tremendous success with the format in Europe and Latin America. The Reach for a Star series is an adaptation of the hit Mexican telenovela, Alcanzar una Estrella, first broadcast on Canal de las Estrellas and Univision in 1990. The success of the series led to a film and sequel telenovela starring Latin American pop sensations, Ricky Martin and Sasha Sokol.

Reach for a Star follows a smart, shy and independent high school senior, Loren, who has ambitions of being a songwriter and secretly sends her song lyrics to her celebrity crush, rock superstar Eddie Wild. Loren's wildest dreams come true when she not only wins a songwriting competition sponsored by Eddie, but strikes up a friendship with her idol. Eddie sees beyond Loren's potential as a songwriter and gives her a first break as a singer, and when the truth about his less-than-faithful girlfriend Chloe is revealed, Eddie and Loren's friendship blossoms.

The series will be co-executive produced by six-time Emmy Award-winner Jill Farren Phelps (General Hospital, One Life to Live) and Hisham Abed (The Hills and The City). Josh Griffith (Young and the Restless, As the World Turns) will serve as head writer.

Nick at Nite is Nickelodeon's nighttime programming block that features popular hit family comedies including the Emmy Award-winning series Friends, My Wife & Kids, George Lopez and The Nanny.

About Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon, now in its 32nd year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 17 consecutive years. For more information or artwork, visit http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB).

About Televisa

Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., is the largest media company in the Spanish-speaking world based on its market capitalization and a major participant in the international entertainment business. It has interests in television production and broadcasting, production of pay-television networks, international distribution of television programming, direct-to-home satellite services, cable television and telecommunication services, magazine publishing and distribution, radio production and broadcasting, professional sports and live entertainment, feature-film production and distribution, the operation of a horizontal internet portal, and gaming.

SOURCE Nickelodeon

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Also, from C21Media:

Nick nabs Televisa novella

US kidscaster [kids broadcaster] Nickelodeon will follow hit teen dramas Degrassi and House of Anubis with a local version of a classic Televisa telenovela.

Nick has ordered an 80×60’ English-language adaptation of Televisa's Reach for the Stars (aka Alcanzar una Estrella), which the Mexican media giant created for Hispanic audiences two decades ago.

The new series will be produced in association with Sony Pictures Television and broadcast daily on Nick’s family-skewed Nick at Nite programming block later this year. Nick claims it’s the first telenovela adapted for the US market. Televisa and Sony signed a major copro pact earlier this week.

The single-camera series will tell the story of a high school girl whose life is turned upside down when she becomes a star and wins the love of her teen idol. The original ran on Televisa network Canal de las Estrellas and Univision in the US in 1990 and lead to a film and sequel novella that starred pop act Ricky Martin.

Shooting begins in LA in March. Jill Farren Phelps (General Hospital) executive produces with Hisham Abed (The Hills and the City). Josh Griffith (The Young and the Restless, As the World Turns) will pen the scripts.

The order follows Nick’s success with it serialised live-action dramas Degrassi: The Next Generation and the House of Anubis, the latter of which was the US company’s first internationally coproduced show of its kind.

“We have experienced first-hand the popularity of the daily scripted format with our kid audience through the success of House of Anubis and our teen audience with DeGrassi, and our Nick Latin American channel has already had great success in producing telenovelas with Televisa,” said Nickelodeon president Cyma Zarghami.

“This partnership brings together Televisa’s unmatched leadership in the telenovela genre with our expertise in making content, and we’re looking forward to introducing this first true English-language telenovela to Nick at Nite’s family audience.”

Televisa’s president of television and content Jose Baston added the production was “part of the steps toward building a strong presence in the Anglo television market” and that he saw it as the “first of many joint projects between his company and Nick.

Jesse Whittock
25-01-2012
©C21Media

Also, more from C21Media:

Blurring the language lines

As attendees arrive home from Natpe 2012, Michael Pickard looks back at how drama fared during this week’s market in Miami.

One of the main lessons to be drawn from Natpe this week in the drama space was that the lines between English- and Spanish-language content producers and broadcasters are becoming increasingly blurred.

Venezuela’s Cisneros Group of Companies (CGC) is moving into original English programming that will air on its US partner Univision or cable networks, and plans to produce a comedy in the style of Desperate Housewives. CGC is also aiming to develop English-language scripted web content.

Meanwhile, Univision, which ranks as one of the biggest networks on US television, told delegates it will begin to target English-speaking audiences by adding subtitles to some of its biggest shows, beginning with telenovela El Talismán, coproduced with Venevision.

Mad Men producer Lionsgate and Mexican media group Televisa have partnered on a long-term programming and development venture to create English-language content for US broadcast and cable networks.

The move comes on the back of their movie joint venture Pantelion Films, which launched in 2010, and the new television arm will focus on developing between six and eight scripted and unscripted original projects each year, as well as format adaptations of Televisa’s vast telenovela library.

Projects already underway include From Prada to Nada, Pantelion’s debut film that is being turned into a comedy series; Badlands, a scripted drama at ABC made in coproduction with ABC Studios and based on Televisa’s telenovela Soy Ty Duena; Terminales for ABC Family; and Teresa, based on another telenovela.

Televisa has also linked up with Sony Pictures Television (SPT) in an exclusive first-look, coproduction deal for scripted and telenovela formats, and won a commission from Nickelodeon in the US for an adaptation of the telenovela Reach for a Star (aka Alcanzar una Estrella). The show will air on Nick at Nite and is produced in association with SPT.

You can read C21Media's news article about the Natpe 2012 conference fully here on the official C21Media website, C21Media.net. NATPE stands for "National Association of Television Program Executives".