Goodbye to 'Save me': the last program of a format that has made history arrives

It's time to say goodbye.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
22 June 2023 Thursday 10:23
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Goodbye to 'Save me': the last program of a format that has made history arrives

It's time to say goodbye. After 14 uninterrupted years on the small screen, Sálvame says goodbye today, still maintaining more than decent audiences (above a million viewers and with a screen share higher than the average for the channel) but without that absolute leadership that during years he practiced in the afternoon strip. But it is not this drop in audience - logical due to the wear and tear of time and the increase in the television offer - that has precipitated its end, but rather the objective of the new Mediaset management team to make a change of image at Telecinco and recover leadership lost audience, now in the hands of Antena 3.

After the departure of Paolo Vasile as CEO of Mediaset and his replacement by Alessandro Salem, the new board of directors, with President Borja Prado at the helm, now seeks to move away from the so-called "trash TV". Y Sálvame has become its first victim, although contradictory measures are also taken along this path, such as recovering VIP Big Brother next September, absent from the grid since December 2019 due to the controversy over the sexual abuse of Carlota Prado and the subsequent escape of advertisers.

A facelift that began with the recovery of a daily series for the after-dinner meal since last week (Vengeance is mine), which will continue next Monday the 25th with the premiere of the magazine Así es la vida, with Sandra Barneda, and which It will culminate in September when Ana Rosa Quintana takes command of that strip with TardeAR. Some sources consider this relief in a political key: Vázquez has always shown her sympathies for the left while Quintana for the right.

But today it's time to say goodbye to a program that arrived on Telecinco on April 27, 2009 as a pink social gathering and ended up becoming a reality show in which its collaborators (and their lives) would be just as protagonists (or more) than those about whom they gossiped. . Controversies, morbidities and discussions (with set outings included) were its breeding ground and what has led it to be the television space that accumulates the most complaints for breaching the Self-regulation Code for Television Content and Children.

Precisely to try to comply with the restrictions due to the protected schedule for children, the program was divided into Sálvame Limón (16-17h) and Sálvame Naranja (17-20h). It also had its Banana, Watermelon and Tomato versions (20-21h) when they were the bet to replace Pasapalabra. The Deluxe version in prime time, which was combining its broadcast between Friday and Saturday, also had the support of the audience.

After 14 years on the air, the afternoon show has reached a 20% share of the screen. The daily program with the most audience was the one that collected Anabel Pantoja's reaction to the documentary Cantora: The poisoned inheritance, which on November 23, 2019 had 2.9 million viewers and a share of 19.5%, according to a GECA study. compiled from data from Kantar Media. The conflicts of the Pantoja family, in their different versions, have been among the most followed by the audience, as have the scuffles between Antonio David Flores and Rocío Carrasco.

Precisely the broadcast of the documentary by Rocío Carrasco and which Antonio David found out about live (with an iconic moment of the program where the shot of his face was held for three minutes without anyone speaking on set) is considered by many as the beginning of the end from save me.

As for the night edition, Sálvame's ceiling was recorded on February 11, 2011 with almost 3.5 million viewers and a 25.2% share. On this day, Belén Esteban's polygraph was the main theme. In fact, ten of the fifteen most followed programs in Salvame Deluxe have been based on this television character and his various controversies. From when she underwent an aesthetic operation to when she talked about her addictions and therapies, going through her relationship with her ex-husband, Fran Álvarez or her representative Tono Sanchis.

Since it was leaked on May 5 that Mediaset had set a date for the end of Salvame, its collaborators have already been getting used to the idea and preparing what the goodbye of a program will be like in which everyone agrees that, for better or worse, nobody He discusses what has made history on Spanish television. Today a special delivery will be broadcast hosted by Adela González, Terelu Campos and María Patiño for more than four hours live (from 4:45 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.), which will have the night of San Juan as its guiding thread and which will end with a bonfire in which will burn significant objects of the format and scenery.

Musically set by an orchestra, the program will have the participation of 18 of its collaborators and other faces that have been part of its history and will host the imitations of Josep Ferré and the premiere of the Sálvame hymn composed by Alejandro Abad, entitled 'Slate and new account'. There will, of course, be a notable absence except for surprise: that of Jorge Javier Vázquez, on leave "by medical prescription", as confirmed by Mediaset days after a media outlet announced that the liquidation of his contract with the group was being prepared.

All this, however, with a notable absence (except for a last-minute surprise): that of Jorge Javier Vázquez, who is on leave "by medical prescription", according to what Mediaset reported on May 24, a few days after a media outlet announced that the liquidation of his contract with the group was being prepared for him.

As for the future, the production company La Fábrica de la Tele, which announced a few weeks ago that there will be an ERE on its staff, is already preparing new formats for Mediaset. For his part, Vázquez announced on Twitter that he is leaving television while some commentators such as Belén Esteban, Kiko Hernández, Lydia Lozano, Kiko Matamoros, Terelu Campos, Víctor Sandoval, María Patiño and Chelo Garcia-Cortés will star on Netflix in a Callejeros viajeros style format.