Jordi González, TVE’s unexpected asset to compete against Ana Rosa

2023-08-15 00:10:12

With more than half of Spain on long weekends, the cathodic news of the summer broke on the eve of August 15 when the small screen touched all-time lows in television consumption: Jordi Gónzalez will present a program on La 1. It will be a live show, with just over an hour long, and that will enter fully into the battle for the evening leadership. According to Algo Pasa TV, the Catalan communicator jumps in this way to the afternoons of the public channel to compete with two heavyweights of the competition: Sonsoles Ónega on Antena 3 and Ana Rosa Quintana on Telecinco, the great bet of Mediaset in the next season to improve some weakened audiences after the cancellation of ‘Save me’.

Although presumably they are going for the same public, from TVE they warned that it will not be a “usual” magazine similar to that of private televisions. Its title will be ‘La plaza de La 1’ and it will be broadcast from Monday to Friday from the legendary Estudio 1 in Prado del Rey. The premiere is scheduled for September 25 and, for the moment, the contents that the new program will deal with are unknown.

With this decision, the corporation once again plays the evening slot with the aim of improving its share of the screen and also taking advantage of the good performance of the daily series ‘La promesa’ which, in seven months, has become the audience leader ahead of from ‘Love is forever’. The contest ‘El cazador’ and the informative space ‘Aquí la tierra’, which will continue to be broadcast next season, are also working positively. In the morning, moreover, Jaime Cantizano will present a new format on La 1 after ‘La hora de La 1’.

What will disappear from the grid after the summer will be the other afternoon contest, ‘El comodín’, which has been presented by Aitor Albizua since October 2022. The Basque journalist, however, will continue to be linked to public television as host of the return of ‘ Figures and letters’ to La 2. His place in La 1 will foreseeably be occupied by the new format of Jordi González. In addition, the channel is also preparing another daily serial titled ‘Salón de té La Moderna’, to be broadcast just after ‘La promesa’ starting in September. Based on the novel ‘Tea rooms’ by Luisa Carnés, the fiction tells the story of several employees of a distinguished tea room near Puerta del Sol in Madrid in 1930. Produced by Boomerang TV (‘The Secret of Puente Viejo’ , ‘Acacias 38’), will star Miryam Gallego, José Luis García-Pérez, Teresa Hurtado de Ory and Sara Rivero, among other performers.

Trust

With this bet, TVE redoubles its confidence in Jordi González, a communicator whose professional career has been fundamentally linked to Telecinco. He left the chain in December 2021 to take a sabbatical year after completing 25 years in the company, as he had agreed with the former CEO of Mediaset, Paolo Vasile.

The possibility of ending his stage on television was even raised, as he recently recalled in an interview with this newspaper. «A long time ago I had already planned to rest and decide even if I stopped working. To find out if he would gain strength and continue (…) I really like my job, but I wanted to take a break. I haven’t missed TV, honestly. I never had the feeling of emptiness from not working, quite the opposite », she reflected.

At the end of this rest period, and now without any ties to Mediaset, TVE called Jordi González to present the new season of the ‘Lazos de sangre’ debate. The space achieved good audience data and, in its last broadcast, it had a 10.6% audience share and 589,000 viewers with its program dedicated to the figure of Pepa Flores.

Now, the 60-year-old Catalan communicator will face an important challenge on public television: standing up to Ana Rosa Quintana and Sonsoles Ónega, as well as trying to convince that orphan audience that stopped watching television after the cancellation of ‘Save me’. González counts in his favor with the good moment of public television, which managed to unseat Telecinco from second position in the month of July. However, the landing of Ana Rosa in the afternoon will be a tough competition that will turn the strip into an interesting competition for the leadership of the audiences.