Endings, changes and ‘games of thrones’: the great television milestones of 2023
Endings, changes and ‘games of thrones’: the great television milestones of 2023 – In 2022, Reed Hastings, founder of Netflix and its CEO until January 2023, predicted that, in 5 or 10 years, traditional television will be dead.
By Megan Sauer
We are about to begin 2024 and television still has not died, and without giving any signs that it will do so in three or seven years. What has been confirmed in 2023 is that platforms are increasingly looking at traditional television.
This year we have seen Operation Triumph, One, Two, Three , the collaborators of Sálvame and Yellow Humor ( Takeshi’s Castle) on platforms.
In 2023, an average of 28.2 million viewers will have watched traditional television every day in Spain, according to data from the annual report of the consulting firm Barlovento Comunicación. Spaniards watched television an average of 225 minutes a day.
It is more fragmented than ever and is seen in very different ways, but with this data it is difficult to believe that it is about to die.
Precisely the step back of Reed Hastings at Netflix was one of the first news that the television industry left in the year that is now ending.
He became president of the company and Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters are the current CEOs. The same platform generated a small earthquake when it officially announced in February that it was beginning to put a stop to shared accounts outside the home: to share, you would have to pay extra money.
In January, the second edition of the Benidorm Fest once again captured the attention of spectators. Although it did not reach the audience and impact levels of the first installment, it was confirmed as a good system for choosing TVE’s representative for Eurovision.
On this occasion the winner was Blanca Paloma’s Lorca and flamenco lullaby, applauded in Spain but not so much in Europe: in Eurovision, she came in 17th place, with only a painful five points from the popular vote. The Swedish Loreen repeated as winner.
This has been the year of change at Mediaset. The group began 2023 with a new leadership and new guidelines in search of a break with the past. In February, this change took the form of updating its ethical code to prevent politics from being discussed on entertainment programs.
It seemed like a movement very much aimed at Sálvame , and time ended up agreeing with whoever suspected it in that sense.
This new management leadership became a game of thrones that continued to make news for the rest of the year, first with the announcement in June that Borja Prado, president of Mediaset España, would no longer have editorial responsibilities and then, in December, with the news that Prado finally left the presidency of the group after a year and a half at the helm.
It was March when Rafa Castaño won the biggest jackpot in the history of Pasapalabra.
In April, Weekly Report turned 50 years old. That same month, another La 1 program was the protagonist of an extra-television controversy when a diner at a MasterChef outdoor test revealed the massive poisoning they suffered during filming.
Strikes in Hollywood
May was a particularly hectic month. On the 2nd, a writers’ strike began in the United States that was quickly noticed on television and which the actors would join a few weeks later.
Between the two guilds, they managed to almost completely paralyze the television and film fiction industry in Hollywood for six months. Continuing with fiction, May was the month in which some of the most awarded series of recent times said goodbye: Succession , Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, among others.
It was May 5 when the entire Sálvame team found out live and through a leak to the press that their program would end a few days later.
Her slot in the afternoons would be occupied, in large part, by Ana Rosa Quintana, who would abandon the mornings to compete in a very different place. In this way, Quintana’s production company, Unicorn Content, came to dominate the Telecinco grid to the detriment of the powerful presence in the past of La Fábrica de la Tele, which at the end of the year would announce its divorce from Mediaset and its disappearance.
Also in May, Jorge Javier Vázquez began a leave due to a medical prescription that made him the most notable absence at the end of Sálvame, in June. They would not be the only news of the year related to these names.
The general elections filled summer television with politicians. On the night of the election, July 23, La 1 won, regaining the lead on such a day. Just the day after, TVE scored another point with the success of the return of the Grand Prix .
A combination of nostalgia and timely programming led to it achieving a huge 26.1% on its debut. That July, La 1 surpassed Telecinco in the ratings for the month, with the Mediaset channel in third place with which it also had to settle for the following months.
On international television, the summer gave rise to curious phenomena, such as the overwhelming success of The House of the Famous in Mexico.
Also singular is the second life enjoyed by the series Suits , which ended in 2019, and which this summer was the most viewed Netflix series in the United States for five weeks, breaking viewing records. Sports also made people talk this summer on television.
Spain’s victory in the Women’s World Cup led to record numbers of monitoring of the Spanish team’s matches. The final achieved a 65.7% share, with 5.6 million viewers following it on La 1.
New era in the platform war
In the territory of platforms, this has been the year of price increases and the consolidation of advertising as another financing option for these services and cheaper versions for their viewers.
In June, HBO Max raised its price; In October it would be Apple TV+ who announced an increase; Disney+ did it in November at the same time that it incorporated its advertising-supported version; Netflix raised its prices in the United States.
In a scenario in which it is increasingly difficult for these services to increase their number of subscribers, increasing the cost for the user is a way of trying to make their clients profitable.
Before the changes began at Telecinco, MarÃa Teresa Campos, pioneer and eternal queen of the mornings, died on September 5. In the death section, another television icon died this year, Laura Valenzuela, the first Spanish presenter. Also Sergi Schaaff, creator of contests such as Know and Win and Time is Money.
Another deceased, Norman Lear, was a renovator of American television comedy. And the death in October of Matthew Perry reminded us of the very strong bond that can be established between viewers and characters.
The fall brought renewal (quite a few movements on the daytime schedule of Telecinco and La 1), varied returns ( Big Brother VIP , the failed Un, dos, tres on Twitch, the successful Operación Triunfo on Prime Video…) and also high-profile cancellations.
Very striking was the brief passage of Jorge Javier Vázquez’s new program, Chinese Tales , on Telecinco. He also couldn’t stand the La plaza talk show in the afternoons on La 1 , with Jordi González.
One of the television news of the year was the signing of Carlos Franganillo for Telecinco. He will take over from Pedro Piqueras on the nightly news program after his retirement on December 21.
In November, Sálvese Donde Puede premiered on Netflix, bringing the Sálvame universe to America and to the platforms. If these are not enough signs that Spanish television has experienced the end of an era in 2023, the end of Tell me how it happened after 22 years on La 1 was another indication of this.
Poquita Fe in comedy and La MesÃas in drama have been the most celebrated Spanish titles in a year of television fiction in which we have had more murders in the building.
Anxiety has run rampant in the kitchen in The Bear, the dystopian universe of The Last of Us has become a series and the police officers of Happy Valley and Blue Lights have earned the attention of series fans.
A year ends in which, once again, television has been a reflection of society. La 1 will express it very graphically in its chimes with the union of tradition (Ramón GarcÃa) and modernity (Ana Mena) accompanied by one of the most influential people of the year, the soccer player Jennifer Hermoso.
Life appears on TV and TV is a reflection, for another year, of life.
