Is everything you see on television real? Yes, but… There is always a but, and in this case the but is that on television you see the beautiful, the entertaining, the spectacular and what you don’t see are the hundreds of people who work behind the cameras, the frenetic editors of each program, the shadows of each presenter, those in charge, who are the ones who decide what to do to be the best, the maintenance team that turns one’s set into another’s set, the security members who safeguard the doors, the makeup artists who work magic, the producers who take risks… So many people literally live on a television. What if that television is also the leader in Spain, the one with the most viewers?
Delving into the guts of Atresmedia, the leading audiovisual group in Spain, and its networks, Antena 3 and laSexta, is a journey to a completely different dimension than the one you reach through the small screen. In Roald Dahl’s famous book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mike Teevee is one of the five children who get the golden pass to enter the world of Willy Wonka. Mike is an aggressive, television-addicted boy who ends up inside a television from which he can only get out by stretching it like a piece of gum so that it looks minimally normal again. In the book everything is a game of imagination in which entering the TV is becoming a tiny character in your own world. A day inside Atresmedia does not amount to such a dream, but it is something similar, it is entering a world totally unimaginable for all of us who sit in our chair every day and press the power button on the remote control.
Antonio Segovia, makeup and hair coordinator at Atresmedia and one of those people who has been in the house since the first day Antena 3 started broadcasting, is one of the pieces of the puzzle that makes it possible for the final result to be so spectacular that Sometimes it even seems unreal. He says that he has experienced hundreds of anecdotes, like the time a guest arrived who “had her hair like a tangle, full of tangles and dreadlocks” and they had to spend hours and hours cleaning up the mess. But above all he discovers an open secret: the makeup and hairdressing sets are like a psychologist’s couches. “It’s where they tell us everything about their lives. The makeup artist knows all the exclusives before they come out!” He says. Everyone passes through his hands and those of his team: the presenter, the collaborator, the guest…
An unthinkable information center, as are the wide and eternal corridors in which glass walkways cross where they had to put drawings so that the birds would not collide, and where it is impossible not to meet one of the approximately 2,000 people who They work at the facilities in San Sebastián de los Reyes (Madrid), or even a famous person, a politician, a sports legend or, of course, more than one big television star.
It is curious that as soon as they pass the security check, the first thing the visitor finds is a splendid cafeteria with high tables and also comfortable armchairs arranged in a circle. There it is easy to find Josep Pedrerol preparing the next Chiringuito – he prefers meetings over coffee – or one of the members of Communication organizing the next presentation. There is noise, a lot of noise, like the noise of the internal machinery of a clock in which the gears never stop working. Each one independent, but all in unison.
“Whenever there are recordings of the La Voz galas, small groups of young people come to try to catch the coaches at the entrance or exit,” confesses Pedro Bermúdez while the whir of the Nespresso sounds. He is one of the members of the Atresmedia Security Directorate, those who protect and guard the entrance. “This job is very nice because you realize the strength that television has,” he adds, while revealing some of the best kept secrets, such as when a President of the Government or an important politician comes: “We have to activate very precise protocols where Rigor is essential so that everything happens naturally, fluidly” and, of course, without surprises. It is the machinery, the gear, the piece…
It is impossible to lead two years in a row if there is no prior work and strategy.
Next Wednesday Antena 3 will celebrate exactly two years as the leading television in Spain. It was on November 1, 2021 when the overthrow of its rival, Telecinco, occurred, which has led to its longest leadership streak: 24 consecutive months. A complete change of cycle in television in our country. They are celebrating or they should be, because no one lets their guard down here. Absolutely nobody. It is repeated over and over again by the woman behind one of Atresmedia’s biggest stars: the director of And Now Sonsoles.
Patricia Lennon is that person who is never seen, the one who rules in the shadows. She has a level of self-demand that can be breathed, that is contagious, that is “the same as Sonsoles”, the same as her writing. An editorial that has doubled since the first day of broadcast and in which the intensity and stress can be seen in the races from one table to another, in the busy offices, in the noise of chairs dragging from one computer to the one in front: “On television, every day is a challenge. Even if we do well and are leaders, we cannot settle. Zero relaxation. In fact, it is the other way around: the more we achieve, the more we ask for and the more we demand of ourselves.”
Becoming number one is difficult, as that mythical phrase referring to fame already warned, but maintaining it is even more difficult, especially on television that is no longer like the one it was 20 years ago, although the viewer is not aware of it. Audiences have become fragmented after the appearance of platforms, there is more and more content and less time to consume it, so there is no choice but to hit the nail on the head: give the viewer what they are looking for. If you fail, you try again; If it is successful, woe to the one who remains stuck rejoicing in success.
Antena 3’s leadership goes beyond genres and bands. Month after month, Antena 3 has the most watched news programs (A3 Noticias has 47 consecutive months of leadership), the most watched programs on television (El Hormiguero, Pasapalabra, La Voz, Tu Cara Me Suena, Mask Singer, La Ruleta, Y now Sonsoles…) and the most viewed series, with hits such as Family Secrets, Tierra Bitter, Alba, Hermanos or Amar es para siempre. Is something being done right? “No, something started to be done well more than five years ago,” emphasize coffee-in-hand chain workers. No one has the key to success, but at Atresmedia they are clear that one of the pillars that always supports it is to work as if you were not the leader.
“This is not achieved by chance,” says Carlos Fernández, general director of Atresmedia TV, “television is very complex and one thing that Javier Bardají [CEO of the audiovisual group] has always been clear about is that it is impossible to lead two years in a row if “There is no prior strategy and work that will lead you to that leadership.”
And in television, says this television-loving sociologist, “there is no Big Bang” from which “a new reality is generated,” but rather one learns from day to day, without “accelerators” and anticipating what that is to come. This is what happens in programs.
Patricia Lennon, for example, says that although she arrives at the newsroom at ten in the morning (and doesn’t leave until after eight), from eight o’clock she is waiting to consult the hearings and analyze them with the entire team. Yes, also with Sonsoles, who does not have an office as such like almost none of the great Atresmedia presenters. The vast majority prefer to work in the nerve center of each newsroom. Sonsoles next to Lennon, Cristina Pardo with her team, Sandra Golpe, in the newsroom next to hers. And everyone running from one side to the other because “you can’t relax for a second,” says the director of And Ahora Sonsoles. “You have to be alert all the time,” she adds.
There is something surprising about asking about the relaxation that leadership provides. The answer is a resounding no: “Let’s see, when you do something good you come more relaxed, -Sonsoles, too (laughs)-, but it is true that we are not about celebrating but about thinking about the next day. Of course, if you have a bad piece of information… That’s the other way around.”
And that “upside down” is what is never seen. The pressures, the tension, the responsibility, the stress that everything has its place, that the topics are chosen well (those that are interesting), that “you never sell to anyone directly” or cross the red lines that have been created. marked. To do this, talk to each other constantly, even argue if necessary. “Let’s see, if you have to hit a honk, you’ll hit it,” confesses Lennon.
Crossing the Farmacia de Guardia hallway, named in honor of the legendary series, between cables and cameras, Susanna Griso appears in her chair. We are entering the set of Espejo Público, but also the set of And Now Sonsoles. The program is in a commercial break. Lying down, Susanna Griso chats with two of her collaborators. On one side, Gema López, the co-presenter of the social table, chats with Alberto Díaz, the director, quietly, almost in a whisper, so that no one hears them. Behind them, the chair, the cameras, the spotlights, an immense space in which you can find everything from bales of straw – yes, bales of straw, just as you are reading – to the seats of the stands that They will house the Sonsoles Ónega audience or the presenter’s chair, the only one that has a cushion.
Because in this kind of Disneyland that is Atresmedia, everything moves, everything transforms, everything changes. There is a travel agency, a Santander Bank office and even some buggies to get from one set to another.
Our job is to anticipate before problems explode in our hands
“We have many pieces of a puzzle,” acknowledges Javier Casado, Atresmedia program producer, “and the challenge is to make them all fit together: presenters, directors, lighting, cameras… That all of this is coordinated so that a great format arrives. “. Television production is from another world. Javier tries to define what they do with several words: “solvers”, “improvisers”, “innovators”. They would be, speaking plainly, some of the many who eat the brown that a television program, a series or a gala always carries with it.
“We face great unforeseen events with a lot of imagination,” he concludes, and remembers that day when Antena 3 broadcast the last episode of the series Velvet live and they had to bring an immense mobile unit from France – there was none in Spain – that did not was entering the street where it was going to be broadcast. They had to block the street, notify the Police, clear the area… “It’s not easy at all,” he confesses, “a large part of our job is to anticipate and find a solution before it explodes in our hands” and that gives experience: “The more you have, the more you see them coming.” Because that’s how it is to live on a leading television: without settling, anticipating… A constant long-distance race.