Patricio Wills, president of W Studios, explained that they have reached an agreement with Hemisphere Media Group to produce 20 episodes of an episodic series called Descontrol. The production will be launched on Univision on January 7 at 9pm, whereas on Televisa and Canal 1 in Colombia they still haven´t defined dates.
“We are very happy that this is the first co-production with that important company led by our friends Alan Sokol and Jim McNamara,” commented Wills. “It is a new challenge and a new boost for the TV industry, with something new, different formats.”
Regarding the episodic series, Carlos Bardasano Jr., senior general Content VP at W Studios, he said they are formats that offer something different than the long 80 or even 13-episode series don’t offer. Each one has “a beginning and an end, so they allow to have a variety of writers. Each episode can be written by a different writer, and all the scripts are supervised. It allows us to see actors who would be hard to see outside series or novelas, to see them in something that is like a minifilm. Regarding programming, it is a very useful tool for channels, to have stories that start and end as a unit in the concept.”
Jimmy Arteaga, president of Programming at WAPA TV, points out that this production stands out for being one of the first Mexican and Colombian products that will be on Canal 1. According to Arteaga, the script “has that Latin American wit that is very important and with great execution quality,” features that turn it into an attractive product for the TV viewer and for programmers.