U.S.Hispanic Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: MasterChef judge Aarón Sánchez is returning to Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) U.S. Hispanic for more of his LA restaurant series El Toque de Aarón.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In an exclusive one-on-one interview with Variety, Fernando Medin, president and managing director of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Latin America and U.S. Hispanic, drilled down onthe company’s programming and growth strategy for the region where it launches its rebranded streaming platform, Max, on Feb.

Naman Ramachandran An in conversation event with Paramount Global executives Pam Kaufman, president and CEO of international markets and global consumer products and experiences, and Lisa Kramer, president of international TV licensing, Paramount Global Content Distribution, has been added to the NATPE Global conference. Jens Richter, Fremantle’s CEO of commercial and international and Paulo Koelle, head of Prime Video Latin America, Amazon Studios have also joined the speaker lineup. Other executives who have recently been confirmed include Jeff Sagansky, Sky’s group director of acquisitions, Katie Keenan, ACF Investment Bank’s Richard Gray, Satmohan Panesar, commissioner, factual, ITV Studios, Michael Schmidt, president, Sipur and Ilan Arboleda, co-founder and producer, CreativeChaos vmg.

Temptation Island is heading to Latin America after Amazon ordered three versions of the reality dating show.

Conecta Fiction & Entertainment caught the mood of a larger international market with panelists in its conference strand focusing often on market challenges, when a feeding fever for premium content dominated conversations in recent editions. That said, running June 26-29 in Toledo, in market attendance and insight and shows brought to market, CF&E fairly rocked.  10 takeaways from this year’s edition:    Despite Toledo’s sweltering in a hot snap, even by Spanish standards, Conecta Fiction’s attendance sky-rocketed to 1,031 accredited professionals, an all-time record and 42% up on figures announced at the end of 2022’s edition. Reasons abound. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to exchange ideas, to touch base with production partners, new ideas. It’s really interesting to see what’s happening here on Prime Video, Netflix or Disney+, what’s really working in Spain or Italy, and what lessons I can take back to my territory,” says Marie Leguizamo, MD Banijay Mexico & U.S. Hispanic. 

EXCLUSIVE: Survivor remains a mainstay on CBS and is returning to the BBC this year, and now distributor Banijay Rights has struck a deal to send the adventure reality format back into Argentina.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Tomás Yankelevich, EVP and chief content officer of general entertainment for Latin America and U.S. Hispanic at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), has opted to leave the company by the end of June to “pursue new professional endeavors.” Fernando Medin, president of WBD Latin America and U.S. Hispanic, has tapped industry vet Mariano Cesar to replace him. Cesar, who joined the pay TV industry some 30 years ago, was at the helm of such renowned brands as Uniseries, Retro, I.Sat, Space, TNT, TNT Series and Warner Channel. He was named head of programming and strategic content at HBO Max when it launched in 2021, adding the HBO channel portfolio and, more recently, Discovery+ to his duties.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Hispanic has partnered with GroupM and Cocina Media on “El Toque de Aarón.” The all-new original seriesfollows celebrity chef Aarón Sánchez and his team as they help Latino restaurants in the Los Angeles area reach new heights. Kimberly Clark’s VivaÒ Paper Towels Brand will be an integrated sponsor, with other GroupM clients featured throughout the series. Sánchez will also act as an executive producer. The six-part series unfolds in Latino restaurants with great potential, ready to seize the opportunity to optimize their business – from devising a more exciting menu to improving the overall aesthetics to streamlining their execution and raising their public profile. Sánchez will help reimagine these restaurants to bring out their true soul, with a revamped menu and a refreshed space. In each 30-minute episode, the culinary wizard will put his personal touch on each menu item, while mentoring each restaurant’s chef and sharing tips and tricks of the trade along the way. Helping to round out the renewals with much-needed renovations are designer Cris Mercado (“HGTV Star; Remodelaciones con Celebridades“) and project manager Ángel Riveros (“Hogar Star”). Complicating matters is the fact that they have only four days to achieve this mission. The clock is ticking.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Former top VIS exec Laura Abril has been appointed EVP of scripted and global business development at Buendía Estudios, producer of “Veneno,” “Cardo” Season 1 and “Offworld,” in a move which signals the large international ambitions of one of Spain’s key production powerhouses. Abril will report to Ignacio Corrales, Buendía Estudios CEO.  Rising through the ranks at Viacom from 2009, Abril crowned her career at the studio as the highest-ranking international TV executive in Spain named in 2019 as head of ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS) for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. 

Endemol Shine North America is making some changes at the top.

Naman Ramachandran Banijay Rights, the global distribution arm of Banijay, has revealed the first international adaptation of hit U.K. format “Starstruck,” with a deal confirmed in South America.The show launched earlier this year to a consolidated 4.7 million viewers on U.K. broadcaster ITV and streamer ITV Hub and was re-commissioned for a second series.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorNetflix released its second annual inclusion report, touting gains in representation among women and Black employees in 2021 — while acknowledging it’s continuing efforts to increase diversity.Last year, women grew to more than half of Netflix’s global workforce, hitting 51.7% in 2021 compared with 48.7% in 2020. Among its leadership ranks (directors and above), women represented 51.1% of the total, up from 47.8% the year prior.In the U.S., Netflix employees from historically excluded racial backgrounds comprised 50.5% of the workforce as of December 2021, up from 46.8%, according to the company. That includes an increase of U.S.

Mexico-based Grupo Televisa and Univision have closed their $4.8 billion merger, uniting their vast Spanish-language media and production holdings in the U.S. and Mexico.

Emiliano De Pablos Entering into a post-“Money Heist” phase, the Spanish TV fiction industry is immersed in international growth strategies as it promotes at home new and original voices that create TV stories with universal appeal.Key production-distribution TV companies such as The Mediapro Studio, Onza Entertainment, Secuoya Studios and Buendía Estudios are building beachheads in the Americas to strengthen the standout place in the sun of the global TV drama business that the Spanish TV industry already occupies.As by far the biggest part of a 600 million people Spanish-speaking community around the globe, Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic represent the most obvious market for growth.However, a common ambition for Spanish companies eyeing the Americas is to develop projects in the region but aimed at the global market, which are also increasingly based on IP.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentThe biggest product in Spain of the M&A boom which looks set to power much future entertainment growth in Europe, Buendía Estudios, a joint venture of Telefonica’s Movistar Plus and Atresmedia, is fast driving into second-phase expansion in Latin America.In one move last November, Buendía tapped former Telemundo Global Studios exec Ana Paula Valdovinos as director of production and development for Latin America and U.S. Hispanic.Valdovinos will be based out of Mexico, Latin America’s “nerve and talent center,” she said, as the country also accounts for approximately 70% of the 70 million Latinx population in the U.S.In another development, Buendía has confirmed to Variety further details on its first Latin America project, “Swift as Desire,” Billed as a fantasy romantic drama, the series “Swift as Desire” is structured as a six-part, 50-minute adaptation of a hallmark novel by Mexico’s Laura Esquivel, published in 2001.Head writers are Esquivel herself and Marcela Fuentes Beraín (“El diario de Daniela”).Buendía Estudios’ editorial director of series Sonia Martínez – an executive producer on “Money Heist,” “Veneno” and now “Cardo” – also serves as executive producer on “Swift as Desire.”Narrated in two timelines, the series tells the life of Júbilo, born  with a special gift of communication.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In response to the growing demand for premium content across the Americas, Banijay Americas has launched a new unscripted production studio in Mexico with Emmy-nominated producer Marie Leguizamo serving as its managing director.To be known as Banijay Mexico & U.S.

Mónica Marie Zorrilla Adriana Cisneros, the Venezuelan CEO of Grupo Cisneros, and Walter F. Ulloa, chairman and CEO of Entravision Communications, publicly discussed Entravision’s recent acquisition of Cisneros Interactive for the first time today as part of a Paley Center Media Council virtual event.“I think the most important challenge for us and for other companies, especially media companies, is innovation,” Ulloa said.

Hemisphere Media Group has acquired the remaining 75% of Hispanic streaming service Pantanya that it didn’t already own from Lionsgate for about $124 million in cash.

By Jill Goldsmith