Telenovelas: Inside the Bold, Beautiful & Totally Bizarre World of Univision Soaps

Image credit: PHOTOGRAPH BY LIVIA CORONA

With Univision's status as the leading Spanish-language network in the United States hanging in the balance, emotions will no doubt run high during the Televisa v. Univision court battle, which kicked off Jan. 6 in Los Angeles. Televisa currently provides Univision with 15 of its 20 prime-time telenovela hours a week, and is credited with raking in $517 million in revenue a year for Univision. ''That programming cannot be reproduced very easily,'' says Julio Rumbaut, a media analyst at Rumbaut & Company. ''And it's the heart and soul of Univision.''

According to one Univision insider, the two sides can't seem to agree on anything these days: ''We go outside and we think the sky is blue, and they go outside and say the sky is red.'' Of course, the color really in question here is green, and the folks at Televisa feel they are simply not seeing enough of it. ''It's important to understand we're not talking about some mistake on the part of Univision doing its math,'' argues Televisa attorney Marshall Grossman. ''This is a case of justifiable distrust on the part of Televisa toward its current partner.'' (A source at Univision dubs Televisa's royalty claims as ''sort of crazy.'')

Whatever happens in the real courtroom — back payments this, new-media revenue that, blah blah blah — won't be nearly as colorful as the legal drama happening on Cuidado. In fact, in the scene about to be shot right now back in Mexico City, Juan Miguel has just arrived home from court with a woman named Blanca. Everything seems normal, but what's up with the odd rip in Juan Miguel's gray pinstripe suit? Explains Levy, ever so matter-of-factly: ''I'm a psychologist, and she goes to jail for killing my wife. But I know it wasn't her; it was her second personality. So I'm trying to defend her and prove that she's crazy. During the trial, she becomes the other person, and she gets a gun from another guy. I try to be like, 'Calm down, I'm going to help you.' And she's like, 'No, no, you can't help me, I'm going to jail.' And she shoots me. I get shot in the arm.'' In other words, it's just another day at the office.

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