"There's no such thing as a comfortable No. 2," Telemundo president Emilio Romano said at a press conference last week, and indeed, the network is trying to take market share away from its juggernaut competitor Univision—up to a 30 percent share to Univision's 60 percent, according to its own research.
The broadcaster has a slew of new programming landing in the fall—five primetime novelas including a show called Camelia la Tejana, which Romano touted as the successor to the company's successful La Reina Del Sur. Ryan Seacrest Productions also has a new show on the net—Superstar Showdown, featuring established musical acts in a sing-off in front of a voting audience. Daytime will feature court show Caso Cerrado and dating gameshow 12 Corazons.
The network will also host event programming, including a special on Billboard's Mexican Music Awards, distinct from the Latin Music Awards, also on the network (Full disclosure: Billboard is owned by Adweek parent company Guggenheim Digital Media); and the Miss Universe pageant.
Plenty of the network's other live event programming will be World Cup-related in preparation for Telemundo's takeover of the popular event in 2015. Telemundo is also starting a billingual production studio called Fluency, which will handle content aimed at younger, acculturated Hispanics who speak to each other in both languages. Telemundo showed off two projects in progress at the mini-studio—La Buena Mala, a Freaky Friday-ish show about a young woman and her novela protagonist lookalike who swap lives; and ISA, a science fiction mystery show.