Telemundo’s Sunday-night lineup is about to get a little more real, thanks to a “big” new show.
Big Brother, the Endemol reality-show franchise that isolates a randomly selected group of housemates together — and continuously monitors them by audio and video — has been adapted for a U.S. Hispanic audience some 17 seasons after its debut on CBS.
Telemundo’s iteration of the show will be titled Gran Hermano, the name the series aired under in Spain and Argentina for multiple seasons. In Colombia, Gran Hermano aired for one season in 2003 on Caracol TV and saw a 2012 single-season revival on Citytv Bogota.
In Mexico, the program is known as Big Brother Mexico and airs on Televisa.
While the show’s format is undoubtedly familiar to Telemundo viewers, its cast will be different. Producer Endemol Shine Latino will cast Gran Hermano with an exclusively U.S. Hispanic group of 14 housemates.
“We are pleased to add yet another truly global hit franchise to Telemundo’s reality lineup,” Telemundo president Luis Silberwasser said. “Our viewers are passionate and engaged with reality entertainment programming, and with Gran Hermano, our partners at Endemol Shine North America have provided us with an addictive new series whose cast will fully represent the changing face of America."
Telemundo hasn’t specified a debut date or time slot for the show. It currently airs the highly successful music competition show La Voz Kids from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays, followed by the half-hour entertainment talk show Suelta La Sopa Extra. Spanish-dubbed Hollywood films and other family programs air from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thus, given its more adult themes, Gran Hermano could air at 10 p.m.
Telemundo said it would run the series for 13 weeks.
"We are thrilled to bring Gran Hermano to U.S. Hispanic audiences with our partners at Telemundo,” Endemol Shine North America co-chairmen and co-CEOs Cris Abrego and Charlie Corwin said in a statement. “This series continues to resonate with TV audiences all over the world, and our team has developed an exciting new version that we believe will resonate with the Spanish-language viewers here in the U.S."
La Voz Kids — based on sibling NBC’s The Voice — is a competition between musically inclined children aged seven to 15 that is returning for its fourth season. Coaches for season four include Daddy Yankee, whose performance closed NBCUniversal Hispanic Group’s 2015 upfront presentation; Natalia Jimenez, former lead singer of Spanish pop act La Quinta Estacion; and regional Mexican superstar Pedro Fernandez.
The upcoming season of La Voz Kids will be produced at Universal Orlando Resort, a marketing move designed to spur theme park attendance among Spanish-speaking U.S. Latinos.
