SPAIN / SERIES / PREMIERES / AUDIENCES
Volodímir Zelenski. “The village servant”
Starring the president of Ukraine, last Thursday, April 14, in the middle of Holy Week, the comedy in prime time (10:00 p.m.) reached 8.2%, falling to the leadership of “Aenne Burda” 14.9% from Antena 3.
Mediaset España acquired the rights to the three seasons and the film.
In vacation periods, the channels are timid with their bets to fight in search of audiences, due to the low level of consumption. But in Spain the two big television networks, Antena 3 and Telecinco, decided to play it. Some analysts say the gamble with Zelinsky’s comedy was perceived as tapping into a global issue: the Russian-Ukrainian war. While Antena 3 premiered the film: Aenne Burda: el tiempo entre costuras, obtaining the support of the audience.
The series in a comedy tone in Ukrainian and with English subtitles, starring between 2015 and 2019 by the actor, producer, and comedian; today, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky was acquired by Mediaset. (Three seasons, 51 episodes) and the feature film.
The story. A teacher who, after a viral video complaining about corruption, ends up winning the presidential election, is produced by Zelenski’s studio, Kvartal 95, and is distributed by the Swedish company Eccho Rights, which specializes in Turkish fiction.
Days before the premiere, TVMAS sought to speak with Telecinco programming directors, without obtaining an answer. However, the director of Mediaset Spain’s antenna, Patricia Marco, acknowledged in a conversation with the local newspaper ABC that “we did not realize” regarding the dubbing of a series in the Ukrainian language and in Russian. “There are some puns with the two languages and that has slowed down the dubbing,” explains the person in charge at Mediaset España of selecting the foreign series and programs. Much of the humorous tone has inevitably been lost in translation.
Patricia Marco
Patricia Marco admits that it is an adventure to broadcast a Ukrainian series in prime time. «We know that it is not for general television, but once we have bought it, we must give it a privileged place. We cannot broadcast two chapters in a row each week because we are going with the dubbing very close, so we do not guarantee continuity, “she added.
The battle for the audience was won by Antena 3 with the film “Aenne Burda, el tiempo entre costuras” accumulating an audience of 1,471,000 viewers (14.9%), +7.6 points ahead of Telecinco in its slot with “Zelesnki, el servidor del pueblo” with 939,000 and 8.2%.
Netflix took the opportunity to also release the series in the United States and other countries.