The next season will be marked by the duel between David Broncano and Pablo Motos. The controversial signing of Broncano by RTVE, with a two-year contract at a rate of 14 million euros each, aims to compete with the incombustible El hormiguero by Pablo Motos on Antena 3, which this season has an average of more of 2.1 million viewers and a 15.8% share. Broncano will have to demonstrate his ability to compete with guarantees in the open with a program like La Resistencia (or another with similar characteristics) broadcast until now in the Movistar Plus payment.
It will not be the first time that the competition tries to take the lead from Motos, which has faced more than 100 formats: Butterfly Catcher.... The most recent duel was against Jorge Javier Vázquez y sus Cuentos Chinos. The challenge lasted three weeks. In the time they coincided, El hormiguero scored an average of 17% compared to the 7.5% of Chinese Tales, which, except for its premiere, did not reach one million viewers.
Since the arrival of private networks in Spain, there have been various television duels. Currently one is being played in the afternoons: Ana Rosa Quintana versus Sonsoles Ónega. The season offers tight but favorable results for Onega. So far in 2024, the two programs have faced each other 72 times: And now Sonsoles has been the leader on 66 occasions while TardeAR has done so on six.
But Quintana has experienced more rivalries before, from which she emerged victorious. In recent years she has been with Susanna Griso, who premiered Espejo Público in 2006, a year after she landed on Telecinco Las Mañanas de Ana Rosa. Quintana has maintained her leadership in the mornings in these 18 years that they have coincided on screen.
Two decades ago, Quintana also competed with another iconic face on Spanish television. In 2004, after Antena 3 did not renew the afternoon show Sabor a ti, Telecinco signed her to compete with María Teresa Campos, until then star of the Mediaset network and who had just become head of the mornings of Antena 3. Ana Rosa's program premiered in January 2005 and quickly took over the leadership and ousted Campos, whose program, Every Day, ended up being removed from the grid.
And if the mornings have seen great television duels, so has the night. Or rather midnight. In 1995, Pepe Navarro and Tonight We Cross the Mississippi landed on Telecinco, a late show that began to make people stay up late thanks to its gags, the social chronicle and also the black one, with special attention to the Alcàsser crime. After two years trying to counteract its success on Antena 3, this network opted to hire its presenter, Pepe Navarro, to do a similar program: The Pelican's Smile.
Then Telecinco opted for Xavier Sardà for an innovative and transgressive late night that would mark an era for eight seasons: Crónicas marcianas. On the day of its premiere, in September 1997, The Pelican's Smile garnered a 24.8% share compared to 17.3% for The Martian Chronicles. But that difference was reduced, week by week, until in October Sàrda's program surpassed Navarro's program, a situation that remained until the cancellation of the Antena 3 space, which argued that the space violated its code of ethics due to the treatment of topics such as the Arny case or the GAL case.
There began an absolute and almost solitary reign of Sardà in the midnight slot until Antena 3 signed Andreu Buenafuente in the 2004-2005 season, who with his program began to take viewers away from Sardà. The audience for The Martian Chronicles was decreasing until it was announced that he was saying goodbye to the grid, still being the audience leader. A withdrawal on time
