“Our love broke / from using it so much / from so many crazy hugs / without measures / from giving ourselves completely / at every step / it was left in our hands / one good day” says the song by Rocío Jurado. A song that perfectly describes the divorce between Mediaset and La Fábrica de la Tele, announced last week and which today culminated with the news of the disappearance, dissolution or definitive death of Óscar Cornejo and Adrián Madrid’s production company. In a few weeks Cornejo, Madrid and Mediaset will be able to say that it’s over.
For now, we will have to wait. The terms of the agreement, which has not yet been signed, were closed this Monday night after a meeting in which, finally, both parties surprisingly agreed after months of silence and tension to definitively close La Fábrica de la Tele , in which Mediaset has a 33% stake.
Although on December 31 the contracts of the three productions that the production company currently maintains in Mediaset end after the cancellation of Cuentos Chinos, Sálvame and the Deluxe, it is expected that the definitive breakup and disappearance will not occur until later, when all The fringes of the agreement are closed and well closed, as sources from the production company have assured this newspaper.
The love story between La Fábrica de la Tele and Mediaset was, for years, the most beautiful of idylls until it became a true nightmare. “With hindsight we will think that it was a quick end, but for us it was very long,” confess those responsible for La Fábrica de la Tele.
“You feel joy, vertigo, gratitude, you feel strange things because we have grown up with Mediaset,” they say from the production company. “We don’t know what the future is going to be like,” they insist, although they acknowledge: “We have agreed with Mediaset to agree, which is a lot considering the year we’ve had.”
And that reaching an agreement ends with “ending our current relationship because it was already a toxic relationship and we had to end it.” “It’s the smartest thing to do and it was our decision, you make it because others make you feel like they don’t love you,” they say. Their love broke from using it so much.
“If they don’t love you, the best thing is to leave”
17 years of history goes a long way. 5,000 people working for all these years goes a long way. Dozens and dozens of programs go a long way. Paolo Vasile, former CEO of Mediaset, always saw Cornejo, Adrián and later, La Fábrica de la Tele as his great goose that laid the golden eggs. In fact, Vasile always told them the same thing: “You bring me spectators and I’ll take care of the rest.” And for many years, indeed, he was in charge of everything else, but above all protecting them.
The day Vasile left, the script for the end of La Fábrica was written, although they, the production company acknowledges, were never aware of it. Neither the messages they received indicated otherwise nor did their bubble of happiness allow them to see further. But the end came.
“If they don’t love you, the best thing is to leave,” they admit. At the moment, nothing has been signed, but it is very likely that the dissolution of the company, despite the fact that they still maintain Everything is a Lie, Socialité and on Netflix, Every Man for Himself, will occur this week. In any case, it will be before Christmas. “We will sign that separation. You on the one hand and me on the other. That has consequences, but it does not mean that these two productions will immediately leave La Fábrica de la Tele because the production companies that take it on have to be resolved,” they say.
And in this “painful” but already almost overcome separation, Cornejo and Madrid did not want to keep anything. They have preferred to wipe the slate clean and leave their creations, those that came out of their heads, in the hands of Mediaset: “We told them that we didn’t want anything.”
Thus, of the 130 workers who still remain in the production company, more than half will be subrogated to the new production companies that Mediaset chooses to carry these programs and the rest will enter a new ERE that began this Monday.
We don’t leave because we have fallen in love with others
“The Tele Factory is not going to produce any more,” they conclude, although they are clear that this is only the beginning of the end, that all these years immersed in the Mediaset bubble where they were born, grew and evolved have closed them down – also because That’s how they wanted – many doors that now they want to open again: “A stage has ended and we don’t know what awaits us. We would love to continue making noise, we will try.”
What Cornejo and Madrid do not doubt is that they will remain together and that they will continue making television. They are both going through real grief. They have overcome the phase of pain and anger and now they are in that of sadness and, at the same time, in excitement because they have already received several offers that, although they have surprised them, are more than sweet: “There have been very unpleasant moments and very ugly but they are part of the TV game. We have been privileged and we can only say: ‘thank you.'”
The Tele Factory will stop beating soon, although a new heart will take its place. It is not known when, under what name or for whom, but Cornejo and Madrid are not going to stop making television, they even believe that despite the divorce, time heals everything and this will also heal it. “We are not leaving because we have fallen in love with others,” they say. “Hopefully we will fall in love with many but at the moment, no, and perhaps now we will have to explore all the formulas,” they say.
At the moment, it is unknown who will be the production companies that will substitute these programs. In the case of Socialité, the weekend program presented by María Patiño, it seems that Fénix Media, owned by Christian Gálvez, will take over its production, as published by Algo Pasa, although several sources consulted by this newspaper assure that it has not yet been decided. who will take the reins of the program and María Patiño will continue to lead.
As for Traveling with Chester and Everything is a Lie, the two programs presented by Risto Mejide, the production company that will take charge of them is also unknown. A few weeks ago 20 minutes published that Mediaset had made the offer to Mejide himself to take over the production of both programs, although his decision and whether he will be the one finally chosen is still up in the air.
It is also not clear what Mediaset’s participation in La Fábrica de la Tele, of which it owns 33%, will look like. The truth is that it is not the first time that Mediaset España snatches the production of one of its programs from a production company. In 2015, the group decided to change the production of Survivors from Magnolia TV to their trusted production company, Bulldog TV. In 2024 it will change hands again, going from Bulldog TV to Cuarzo Producciones.
Mediaset’s relationship with La Fábrica de la Tele began to worsen as a result of the docuseries Rocio, tell the truth to stay alive. The leadership at that time, in which Paolo Vasile was still present, did not like the impact that Rocío Carrasco’s documentary generated on public opinion nor the war that broke out between network programs and production companies, especially between La Fábrica and Unicorn Content, Ana Rosa Quintana’s production company. This tightened the rope every day until the departure of Paolo Vasile.
With the arrival of the new advisor, Alessandro Salem, La Fábrica de la Tele was completely unprotected. Salem came with a very clear idea: the new Telecinco could not count on a program like Sálvame. In fact, it was shortly after his arrival that he himself conveyed to Ana Rosa Quintana in November his intention for her to take over the afternoons. Then, the TardeAR presenter said no. She had just returned from recovering from breast cancer and was feeling very comfortable in the morning.
However, new rules began to be established that directly targeted La Fábrica de la Tele and Sálvame, such as the creation of a new Code of Ethics for Mediaset in which several paragraphs were added, such as the prohibition of talking about politics in entertainment programs. or the sudden dismissal of all those presenters who left the set during a live show without just cause. In addition, several faces that until then had fed the contents not only of Sálvame but of a good part of the Mediaset grid were banned, such as Rocío Carrasco, José Ortega Cano, Bárbara Rey, etc.
On May 5, Mediaset announced the definitive cancellation of Sálvame. The Tele Factory and the program learned about it live through this newspaper. At the end of June, Sálvame closed its doors and a few weeks later, Deluxe did so.
Even so, and despite the fact that the relationship between the production company and the group’s leadership was increasingly tense, Salem entrusted La Fábrica de la Tele with a new program for access time, Cuentos Chinos. Although Mediaset assured that they would allow time for it to settle when competing in such a complicated segment and in the face of a beast like El Hormiguero, only 10 programs after its premiere, Telecinco also canceled Chinese Tales due to the low audience ratings, which had led Mediaset to make the decision days before withdrawing the program on Thursdays so that it would not drag down the already low audiences of one of its big bets this season, GH VIP.
From then on, as this newspaper has learned, the relationship between the production company and the audiovisual group has been practically non-existent. La Fábrica de la Tele, for example, presented its docureality for Netflix, Save Who Can, without the presence of any member of Mediaset, despite the fact that the group owns 33% of the production company. It seems that there would be a lot of interest from Netflix in a second season, the first beat of that new heart.
“Our love was broken / it was so great / it could never / exist / so much beauty / things so beautiful / do not last long”
