by Adrian Bono, 09 August 2010.
Have you turned on the TV lately? Have you, by any chance, tried to watch something on any of the big Argentine networks only to find out that they all talk about one little thing? Have you been horrified by the ever-present deformed face of some dude who goes by the name Ricardo Fort?
Ricardo Fort (Photo/arugatse via Flickr)
If so, join millions of people who, like you, scratch their heads in disbelief as most of those shows – no matter what network – function as satellite programs of what has now become a Showmatch-centric dynamic.
As dramas and comedies struggle to find a time slot –any time slot – on television, gossip shows have never been more successful. No matter what time, they’re always on. And they always feature people who are talking about the fight du jour in Showmatch while wearing bizarre costumes and suffering from delusions of grandeur.
If by now you’re confused, don’t worry. Everyone is.
The truth is this little show called Showmatch and its main feature, Bailando por un sueño, have become the only thing to talk about in television due to their ridiculous, never-ending (staged?) fights and naked chicks. Lots of naked chicks.
Originally a show which in theory dealt with an amateur dancer performing with a celebrity while chasing a noble cause, Showmatch mutated into a variety hour in which its main attraction is not the dancing, it’s the fighting.
And so, the endless parade of pseudo-celebrities invades Argentine television and leaves no room for anything else while engaging in a hypnotic, alluring drama that, like it nor not, has become must-see TV in most Argentine households.
However, this phenomenon began not too long ago, as two very powerful cultural currents merged. The symbiosis of these two factors spawned Showmatch, whose existence is rooted in several changes that rocked the very foundation of Argentine society.
To understand the Argentine TV’s present, first you must understand its past. And this is what I will briefly try to do.
Factor One: Marcelo Tinelli and Videomatch
Host Marcelo Tinelli (Photo/Wikipedia)
The year was 1990 and Argentina was still recovering from a brutal dictatorship that had ended seven years before, and had taken the life of thousands of people. After so many years of censure, Argentine television was flourishing with transgressor TV shows in which sexual innuendos and showing half a boob would make the audience giggle in complicity with their hosts. Crossing the line was fun!
Amidst this new wave of progressive television came a small TV show, called “Videomatch,” which went on the air Mondays to Fridays after midnight and would focus on sports. The show’s host, a little-known sports journalist named Marcelo Tinelli would come out every night along with a team of other journalists and entertainers to offer viewers their takes on football, tennis and other popular practices.
The show was so dull that their ratings went little over zero (here’s a short sample if you want to watch). Videomatch was a complete failure. So, as a desperate measure before they were shut down, they decided to start broadcasting something that would hopefully help them obtain a larger viewership: bloopers. I know! Genius, right? The show was an instant hit, and as ratings rose and people –especially teenagers and young adults – became their prime audience, they decided to bring in other actors who would do comedic sketches and hidden cameras, something that in 1990, by Argentine standards, had never been seen before.
As time went by, the show moved to prime time and became must-see TV, with the media praising Tinelli’s midas touch and genius vision. By 1996, the prolific host and producer had become the new media mogul everyone looked up to. His non-stiff, in-your-face attitude, depicting a stereotype of the common Argentine man, a swearing, ill-mannered, loud-talker, misogynistic guy, caused millions of male viewers to see themselves reflected on the TV screen. His show was now an important part of Argentine culture and was the subject of water cooler talk at work. Of course, dislike towards him was directly proportional to how much people loved him. His detractors accused him of creating trash television and being a bad example to children, but he didn’t really care much. Some of the show’s original characters, like Paraguayan Riquelme, socialite-wannabe Figuretti or village idiot Bobby Goma would be branded into Argentine pop culture forever.
With a 1 peso – 1 dollar exchange rate, and Argentina entering the first world country club with Menem’s neoliberal policies (or so they said), Tinelli was visited regularly by international figures like actors, singers and even presidents.
Everyone wanted to be a part of Videomatch and no one wanted to miss it.
But, alas, then came 2001, which brought with it a disastrous economic meltdown. The country plummeted in a downward spiral of uncertainty and disillusion. The golden age of the 90’s was certainly gone, and the Argentine people’s collective humor took a radical change. Suddenly hidden cameras, bloopers and silly sketches were not doing it anymore. For a couple of years, Videomatch held on but eventually it fell into oblivion: by 2004, despite respectable ratings, it moved from Telefe to Canal 9 and become just one more of those TV shows that you know are still on, but you’re not watching anymore.
Check back tomorrow for the Second part dissecting on the other factor that helped shape the present of Argentine TV: Gossip shows.
