Lista Social Wit: October 2017

Of all the new programs that debuted in Latin America last month, O Outro Lado do Paraíso on TV Globo in Brazil had the most social-media buzz, according to The WIT.

The telenovela, set in a mining town, follows a young woman of modest origin, granddaughter of the owner of a small bar by the roadside, who is coveted by a young psychiatrist and a man of dubious behavior. The debut episode saw around 47,000 comments on Facebook and Twitter.

The premiere of Papá a Toda Madre on Las Estrellas in Mexico drew around 17,000 tweets. The telenovela charts the story of frivolous business owner Mauricio, who is forced to grow up when confronted with an unconventional situation: a 9-year-old girl shows up claiming to be his daughter.

Around 15,000 tweets accompanied the debut of Candidato, llegó tu hora on TVN in Chile. The political interview format sees the eight candidates for the incoming presidential election being questioned (one candidate per episode) by a panel of 12 interviewers, who are not experts in politics but civil society figures: a scientist, a business representative, a cultural facilitator, etc.

Azteca 7 in Mexico launched Exatlón México to around 5,600 Facebook and Twitter comments. The local adaptation of the adventure competition Exathlon follows two teams that are sent to a Dominican island for 13 weeks (one is composed of celebrities, the other of anonymous people). They take up a variety of physical challenges, solo or as a group. Every week, the public votes to eliminate a candidate. The winner receives a cash prize.

Misión Encubierta on Mega in Chile had around 5,100 tweets. The investigative magazine show denounces illegal or abusive situations from the point of view of a “mysterious investigator” who infiltrates—under a different identity in each episode—the targeted environment and reports the facts in the first person.

Some 3,500 tweets went out about the first episode of Kally’s Mashup, which launched on Nickelodeon Latinoamérica in Argentina. The teen series tells the story of a young 13-year-old who joins one of the most prestigious classical music academies but dreams of becoming a pop star. The first episode bowed on the Nick Play app and website MundoNick.com. It followed with a launch on Telefe.

Telefe in Argentina also aired The Wall, construye tu vida, which saw some 3,500 tweets. A local adaptation of the format The Wall, the series features two-person teams that are bonded together by family, friendship or life experiences. They compete for life-changing amounts of cash that can be won or lost in an instant, depending upon whether a ball bounces their way or a trivia question is answered correctly.

Azteca 13 in Mexico launched La hija pródiga, which saw some 2,500 comments. The thriller telenovela tells the story of one of the two daughters of the Montejo family, who reappears 20 years after being abducted—a return that upsets the life of the family.

Ramona, which debuted on TVN in Chile, had around 2,200 tweets. The period drama looks at the social changes in Chile in the late 1960s—among other things, the land reform—seen through the story of Ramona and her sister Helga, two young women who leave their rural area and parents who are farmers in crisis, to live with a remote relative in Santiago, the capital city.

Number ten on this list is Neruda: el misterio de su muerte, which premiered on Chilevision in Chile. The three-part documentary is about the mysterious death of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda on September 23, 1973. While the official version of the story evoked prostate cancer, the testimony of his last driver planted seeds of doubt in 2011 and raised the hypothesis of assassination. Around 2,100 tweets were sent during the debut episode.

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