Telenovela Gênesis Tops January’s Wit List

Gênesis, a Biblical telenovela based on the Book of Genesis, picked up the most followers on Instagram of all the new series that made their debut in January, according to The WIT.

Telling the story of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood and Abraham, Gênesis boasts 584,000 followers. Airing on Record TV in Brazil, it stars Igor Rickli (1.1 million), Carlo Porto (673,000), Adriana Garambone (268,000) and Angelo Paes Leme (204,000).

The Disney+ series WandaVision racked up 300,000 followers for second place. Starring Kat Dennings (3.8 million), Paul Bettany (1.3 million) and Teyonah Parris (216,000), the fantasy limited series is based on the Marvel characters Scarlet Witch and Vision, who are bound by a love story.

In third, Big Brother 2021 (91,000 followers) launched on Videoland & RTL5 in the Netherlands last month. The new local adaptation of the format, hosted by Geraldine Kemper (623,000) and Peter Van de Veire (156,000) is also broadcast in Belgium on VIER.

The romantic-comedy telenovela Edificio Corona (85,000 followers) chronicles the adventures of residents forced to live in lockdown after an outbreak of positive COVID-19 cases within their condominium. Airing on Mega in Chile, the fourth-place title features Nicolás Oyarzún (1 million), Francisco Melo (110,000) and Paola Volpato (62,000).

January’s fifth-place title, Walker (74,000 followers) stars Jared Padalecki (5.7 million) in a new version of Walker, Texas Ranger. Centered around Cordell Walker, a widower and father of two with his own moral code who returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years, the series airs on The CW in the U.S.

Pete & Sam’s Reality News, which launched on All4 & E4 in the U.K., is a follow-up to the popular Instagram series of the same name hosted by TOWIE’s Pete Wicks (1.3 million) and Made in Chelsea’s Sam Thompson (1.2 million). The series picked up 73,000 followers for the sixth spot on the list.

Racking up 70,000 Instagram followers for seventh, De Verhulstjes is a reality series airing on VIER in Belgium (North) that follows the daily lives of Flemish actor and producer Gert Verhulst (311,000), his wife and his children, who are also famous actors.

The romantic series Seni Çok Bekledim (I Have Waited for So Long), staring İrem Helvacıoğlu (3.8 million) and Özcan Deniz (2.3 million), has 63,000 followers for eighth place. Airing on Star TV in Turkey, it tells of the relationship between Kadir, who believes that nothing is a coincidence in his life, and Ayliz, who does not believe in love.

A telenovela that debuted on SIC in Portugal, Amor Amor (Love Love) centers on a woman who saw the man she loved succeeding in his singing career thanks to a song he stole from her. Starring Ricardo Pereira (741,000 followers), Maria João Bastos (220,000) and Paulo Rocha (159,000), the series boasts 52,000 followers for ninth.

Rounding out January’s top ten, the Netflix reality series Bling Empire has acquired 45,000 followers on Instagram. It follows L.A.’s wildly wealthy Asian and Asian American fun-seekers—Kim Lee (856,000), Christine Chiu (464,000), Jaime Xie (454,000), Kevin Kreider (370,000) and Kane Lim (395,000), among others—as they go all out with fabulous parties, glamour and drama.

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