Chilevision, Turner Broadcasting System’s Chilean broadcast network, has acquired “Educating Nina,” one of the two big fiction hits last year on Argentina’s No. 1 free-to-air broadcaster Telefe, acquired in November by Viacom.
Bowing out with a bang on Dec. 1 when it punched an 18.9 rating, identity comedy “Educating Nina” is produced by Telefe and Sebastian Ortega at top Argentine production house Underground, the company behind Netflix acquisition “El Marginal.”
Chilevision will launch “Educating Nina” in 2017. It stars Griselda Siciliani (“Patito Feo”) as a rough-at-the-edges chanteuse who impersonates her identical twin, a refined but duplicitous woman (also Siciliana), but falls for her supposed husband’s brother (Esteban Lamothe, “The Student”), a brilliant writer who has been swindled by his own brother.
“Educating Nina’s” sale to Chile builds on licensing deals for Argentina’s comedy of the year with Ecuador’s Teleamazonas, Parguay’s Unicanal and Colombia’s Caracol TV.
In further international sales deals announced at Miami, Telefe has sold the format for “Dear Daddies,” a 2014 comedy which it produced, to six Eastern European TV groups owned by Time Warner-owned TV holding Central European Media Enterprises (CME): Slovakia’s Markiza, Czech Republic’s CET 21, Romania’s Protv, Bulgaria’s BTV, Slovenia’s Prom Plus and Croatia’s Nova. Chile’s Mega has reversioned the show, with a large success,, about three dads who meet daily at a kindergarten to pick up their kids.
Chilevision has also acquired, dubbed into neutral Spanish, “Love After Loving” (“ADDA, Amar despues de amar”), one of Telefe’s biggest bets for 2017 which airs on its primetime from Jan. 23. Muscularly promoted in international by Telefe at October’s Mipcom TV fair, where a billboard festooned Cannes’ Palais des Festivals, “Love After Loving” was selected by The Wit to illustrate Latin America’s energetic diversification from telenovelas reaching 150 episodes or more into noir tinged thrillers. “In Latin markets, black is becoming the new pink: There are more thrillers and less episodes,” The Wit’s Virginia Mouseler proclaimed.
Set over two time periods, more intricately plotted, boasting broader character arcs that most novela fare and weighing in at just 75 episodes, “ADDA” turns on the growing attraction between a man and a woman who discover that their partners have been carrying on an affair after the latter suffer a terrible car accident which leaves the husband in coma, while the wife’s body disappears.
“Our network sees ‘ADDA’ as the fresh show we had been looking for – a top thriller with a high dose of emotion and an engaging plot,” said Chilevision’s Holger Roost.
“We feel that we have very good content, an amazing story, and a top production that will allow ‘ADDA’ to have a big international journey,” added Guillermo Borensztein, head of Telefe Intl.
Argentina’s audiences will judge Monday. “Love After Loving” forms part of Telefe’s’ push into development and production, including high-profile production partnerships with Keshet and Fremantle Media, under Tomas Yankelevich. Production levels may now increase all the more under Viacom ownership. Pierluigi Gazzolo, president of Viacom International Media Networks, said at the NATPE market this week in Miami that Viacom wanted to take Telefe to another level, distributing its content and producing more.
