The creators of La Casa de los Famosos assure that the second season produced in Mexico surpassed the success of the first. However, Alejandro Rincón, CEO of Endemol Shine Boomdog, the company that produced this program, has a wide range of factors to which to attribute what happened.
“This has been even more successful than the first, which was very successful. And it is a combination of many factors. (…) Although the first most valid answer I would give is that I don’t know, because these great unprecedented successes are difficult to know how they happen,” says Rincón.
The House of Famous Mexico 2024 became a media phenomenon. The figures don’t lie: in just three weeks, it accumulated more than 6.5 billion views on social networks, becoming the program with the most video views in the history of Mexico, which represents 30% more audience than last season. according to company figures.
In addition, it registered more than 5.5 million viewers in the Grand Final and accumulated more than 411.7 million hours of viewing on ViX. On the other hand, in social media videos, the program reached 19.4 billion views, with a growth of 259% compared to the first season, and was positioned as a trend in 87% of its broadcast time. While in the digital votes of the audience to support their favorite celebrity, 213 million were counted, which demonstrates the interaction of the public with the program.
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Some of the factors that could have caused this phenomenon, explains the CEO, are the casting that was carried out together with Televisa; a much larger and more aggressive social media strategy compared to the first season, where, according to Alejandro, it was still not very clear what it was and how it complemented the on-air program; as well as the connection with the people and the format, which has been in production for 20 years.
The format is “the most successful on the planet, because like no other it touches reality television in a raw and as least affected way as possible, which continues to be produced in 30 countries and continues to connect with people in a way that does not connect with any other format in the world. It’s almost a miracle,” says Alejandro.
But to make that possible, the company has a production that doesn’t sleep. The Casa de los Famosos 2 had a 24-hour operation, 7 days a week, “that is, there were always people working,” explains Javier Pérez Teuffer, COO of Endemol Shine Boomdog. In the place where the program takes place, 500 people work directly at different times, so another deployment was also required, giving rise to a dining room that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as transportation. In addition, another 200 jobs are generated indirectly, between suppliers and others.
Another factor that he does not hesitate to put on the table is the series of antagonists that were not present in the first season that, according to Rincón, served to tell the story in a different way. However, this narrative brought with it a series of criticisms from the audience and the departure of various sponsors.
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‘We are not trying to give moral lessons‘
During the development of the second season, conversations broke out about some topics such as mental health, depression and anxiety, and gender violence. As was the case of Adrián Marcelo, a YouTuber from Monterrey and participant in the second edition, who left the house in the early hours of September 3 after discussions arose with Gala Montes.
According to data from Kantar, the market research company, it indicates that less than 24 hours after the start, 90% of Mexicans knew that they had left the reality show, which confirms the reach it generated on the different platforms.
Likewise, other data indicates that on the day after his departure from the reality show, the topic “Adrián Marcelo abandons LCDLF2” on reproductions.
“As a program we do not try to give moral lessons about anything. The success of La Casa de los Famosos is a reflection of life itself, of what we are as a society and that is why these important issues come to the fore and are discussed and talked about, and we try not to have a partial editorial line, What we try is to show things as they happened, interfering as little as possible. There comes a point where if there is physical violence or certain things that we consider not acceptable we would have to intervene, but our policy is to intervene as little as possible,” he comments.
“Throughout the different editions we have done, it has brought different social issues to the table and we are very proud of that. That there have been those conversations and that people talk about what they consider to be right or wrong, what is appropriate or not at this time in terms of gender violence or any other relevant issue is what we want to happen. We are not the conversation. We are the reflection of what is happening there, intervening as little as possible,” comments the CEO.
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However, the positions taken by the sponsors were also noted, where some decided to leave, such as the Unilever brands (Knorr, Rexona and Helados Netherlands), those of Nestlé México (Nescafé and Purina) and DiDi, to name a few.
“That made a lot of noise on social networks, but it was minimal. It was something that happens with this format in other parts of the world. There were more than 60 sponsors. Some left, others entered. Both Televisa and we are used to it and we always try to do our best so that the sponsors are happy and that it is a program that works for them and that goes with the strategy of what they are doing,” says Rincón.
Although he recognizes that the challenges and discussions are inherent to this format and have been seen over the years in all the countries in which it is produced, he explains that it is also one of the challenges that the company faces: understanding the sensitive topics, that times are changing and see how to adapt it to the protocols based on those times.
Endemol Shine Boomdog not only works with Televisa, but also with Telemundo and Max, and other companies, which is why, says Javier Pérez Teuffer, they always look for ways to grow and improve production values in line with the company’s values and ethics.
A production that does not sleep
The House of Famous People 2 is one of the few programs like Big Brothers that broadcast a live program six days a week. “He is the only one who does five two-hour live galas and, apart from Sunday’s, also two hours. Not only is the entire 24/7 process very cumbersome, but going live every day is an additional complexity that makes it very difficult,” says Rincón.
Pérez Teuffer explains: “to be able to get to a live program, which when doing it live also becomes an even bigger challenge because you have to be at the exact time, ready with all the rehearsals done previously, with all the content that is needs, one of the main challenges is that everything works like a machine despite the number of people there are.”
Although both seasons were very similar at an operational and conceptual level, Rincón affirms that the learnings from the first were used in the second, something that helped the success of the program.
The second season had an aggressive multiplatform strategy that seeks not only to reach more people on each platform, but also to add more eyes to the others. “From the live program on Televisa we try to bring people to 24/7; From 24/7 we try to get people to social networks; From social networks we try to bring people to the live program; and that strategy is like a snowball that is getting bigger, if it works it will attract and add people to each of the platforms,” says Rincón.
For them, this is a paradigm shift in which the digital world complements open television. “I think that the scope that this project is having speaks of the potential change,” says Javier.
The National Survey of Audiovisual Content Consumption (ENCCA), 2023 edition, of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications, indicates that on average people consume 2.5 hours daily to watch open television channels and 3 hours to consume audiovisual content on internet platforms, in this Last item, 54% of people indicated watching content on internet video platforms, mainly social networks and streaming platforms.
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The Mexican market
Endemol Shine Boomdog, a Banijay company and founded in 2017, is dedicated to the creation of original content for both the Mexican market and the US Hispanic market. The company operates in 35 countries and is the largest independent production company in the world where the Hispanic market, specifically the Mexican market, is increasingly relevant and important.
“More and more productions that we make or that other companies make in Mexico travel and are seen all over the world; It is one of the places where the company as a group puts the most effort and attention to grow worldwide,” says Alejandro.
Rincón leaves open the possibility of the third season of the reality show arriving. “I want to think that there will be, we immensely enjoyed doing this program, a very complex program to do, which takes up many hours of sleep, but we enjoyed it a lot,” he mentions.
They recognize that having a success of this magnitude is very difficult due to all the offer that there is on social networks, in streaming and against other competitors, something that is increasingly difficult, so now they will take a break. “The program was in all the conversations for better and worse, it monopolized social networks, it is a very complicated challenge to achieve and when it is achieved we also want to give ourselves a space to enjoy,” explains Rincón.
However, the projects continue, such as Who is the Mask (Televisa), the premiere last November of Como agua para chocolate (HBO Max), next year’s Masterchef (Azteca) and La Casa de los Famosos (Telemundo).
“As for what is new, we are constantly searching for how to rediscover, connect with audiences and reach those who are moving from one place to another and who increasingly have more offers and new ways of consuming. Our challenge is to also rediscover ourselves as a company and adapt to these new ways of consuming or those new ways of moving through content. There is nothing written,” says Alejandro.
Rincón says it clearly: La Casa de los Famosos is the success that we would like to have in all the programs we produce, it is like the light at the end of the tunnel.
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