Bogota Blogger

For the first year I lived in Bogota, I did not have cable TV, so I was limited to 8 or 9 stations, including the big three Bogota network stations, and I almost never came across any TV in English. That has now changed, I have cable, and 6-10 of the stations I get broadcast shows in English–in fact, many of them are US stations, like Fox, Fox News, CNN, etc. But, I’m going to talk about the Colombian TV that I used to watch regularly a year or so ago.

Three Major Networks

There are three major Colombian networks broadcasting in Bogota. They are RCN, Caracol, and the Canal Uno (Channel One).  Apparently all three are owned by wealthy families that have controlled Colombian media for decades, and have a lot of political influence, which means they get a lot of political favors, of course.

The most popular shows are telenovelas, like soap operas in the US, except that they are broadcast at night, during prime time. There is also news, of course, and variety- and reality-type shows that are often based on US shows (which, in turn, are often based on British shows).

The Telenovelas

Telenovela are little stories that people follow. They can be steamy, have intricate plots, with lots of love scenes, betrayals, fights, murders, etc. They last half an hour or an hour, and are really popular in Colombia. I have never gotten involved in any since my Spanish wasn’t good enough to follow very well, but used to watch 15-20 minutes or so every night just to expose myself more to the language. I could get to know the personalities of the characters and follow the plots a little.

Los Reyes

One of the most popular shows, and I guess it classifies as a “telenovela” even though it’s mostly comedy, is called Los Reyes (The Kings). It’s about a family that was very poor but inherited a lot of money when the patriarch of the family did a good deed for a wealthy old woman who then died, leaving him all her money.

There are a lot of odd characters, including a transvestite (or maybe she’s a transexual, not sure), and a lot of the comedy comes from the fact that these nouveau riche folk don’t know much about how to act in their new world. It’s kind of like the Beverly Hillbillies (which was called Los Beverly Ricos–the Beverly Riches–when it was broadcast in Colombia).

Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso

This show was a little controversial, but Colombian TV is known for going a little more edgy than the major networks in the US would go. The title translates as, “Without Tits, there is no Paradise,” and is about a poor but beautiful girl in Medellin who feels that having her breasts enlarged will be her ticket out of poverty, and she sets out to find a way to raise the cash (imagine what kinds of fund-raising might cross her mind). It was  based on a novel, and lots of people criticized it because they said it teaches that superficial (and artificial) beauty should be the standard everyone aspires to. It advocated drug use, drug sales, prostitution, adultery, etc., according to critics. But the creators insisted that the show was meant to show why all those things DON’T lead to happiness and fulfillment. I think there’s a pretty good chance, though, that the show was created for the purpose of making money, nothing more.

Factor X

The show called Factor X  is basically the Colombian version of the British X Factor (which, of course, inspired the US American Idol) . It’s set up the same way as American Idol, with a panel of three judges–two men and one woman–a live audience, a home audience that phones in their votes, and and emcee. One difference is that the emcee on Factor x is a beautiful woman, who happens to be the wife of the show’s owner.

Another difference is that Factor X, from the beginning apparently, has always been open to all kinds of contestants, not limiting them by age, looks, music style, etc. Colombians, like most Latin Americans, from what I can tell, don’t identify their music generationally, so that young kids like the same stuff their parents and grandparents like. So, a 50-year-old grandmother who sings ballads or salsa can be popular with the under-30 crowd.

One of the judges on Factor X is a woman named Marbelle, who’s apparently much younger than she looks (she’s about 23, but looks 35-ish), a little overweight, has a big personality, and is a huge Colombian singing star. She’s fun to watch and probably the main personality of the show.

Now that American Idol is trying to expand into South America by starting Latin American Idol, we’ll see what the effect on Factor X is going to be. I would actually guess that it will stay popular with the Colombians, though maybe lose some of its exposure outside this country.

Reality and Entertainment Shows

I used to watch a little of a show called “Sweet!”  It was sort of an E-Entertainment! type show, except that, besides the gossip, it had hosts who did interviews with popular Colombian entertainers. But whenever they had a little gossip tidbit, it would be followed by a cartoon character who would scream in a really shrill voice (and in English), “Swe-e-e-e-e-t!!!!”

There’s also Cambio Extreme, basically the Colombian version of Extreme Makeover. This I mention because my dentist, Christian Salazar, does the dental work on the subjects.

Betty La Fea (Ugly Betty)

This is a huge Colombian success story, because the show originated here and has now been copied and become hugely successful in the US. I haven’t seen Betty La Fea and I haven’t seen the Ugly Betty version in the US either, but people who know them both insist that the Colombian version is the better one.

Cable TV

I finally got cable because I wanted an internet connection at home, and for purposes of TV watching, I probably shouldn’t have done it. Just like in the US, I hardly ever watch a TV show all the way through, and usually put it on just for background noise, so I usually watch CNN or some other news-type station. (I actually watch Fox News just for the yellow journalism of it.) But, I therefore almost never watch Colombian TV, and I kind of miss it, even though I continue to go the easy route and only tune in to English-speaking shows these days. Not helping my Spanish, either.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Daily Life in Bogota. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.