True to this motto, Endemol Shine Boomdog decided to face a challenging year for the industry by investing in some of its most ambitious productions to date, such as the series Como agua para chocolate, or new installments of major formats such as La casa de los famosos, Masterchef or Deal or no Deal.
A consensus that the entire entertainment industry has reached is that 2024 has been an atypical year, where large company mergers, experiments with old and new business models, and economic challenges for original production, have led to an environment of uncertainty for content creators and distributors.
However, those chameleon-like groups that have been able to keep up with the changes in the industry have managed to transform them into growth opportunities, such as Mexican giant Endemol Shine Boomdog, who this year saw the birth of some of its most ambitious production projects, both in terms of formats and fiction.
“It has been a year of many challenges and growth, in which we’ve had to transform and adapt to the moment that the industry is currently experiencing,” Clara Machado, Development and Current Executive Director for the group, explained to ttvnews. “But every innovation process is still exciting.”
“Many challenges, many achievements, so much growth,” summed up Frank Scheuermann, Chief Content Officer of Unscripted at Endemol Shine Boomdog, along the same lines. “We produced more than 1,000 hours of TV, improving our efficiency and performance, meeting our ambitious goals and delivering quality products with excellent results,” he added.
Como agua para chocolate
These great achievements came thanks to the group’s ability to face the challenges of developing and producing content in Mexico and Latin America, which both executives categorize into two themes: knowing the market and creating high-quality content.
“The big challenge is always finding the balance between having the best content, within the best budget, with great quality, to reach the audience in the best way,” explained Scheuermann. “So easy!” he joked.
“I think that precisely, the important thing is to adapt to the market and to the times that the platforms live in,” added Machado. “Knowing how to renew the properties and combine the adaptations with the original product, delivering stories that resonate in the region but also have the ability to travel and become global hits.”
In this attempt to achieve international success, both executives agreed that, while Mexico is their main market, Endemol Shine Boomdog has the ability to work with partners anywhere in the world.
“We want to focus on Mexico, which is our main market, and we feel that the most important thing is to make content local, so that it is also universal. Having said that, of course we want to have a global success that travels and joins the boom that Spanish-language content has had throughout the world,” said Machado.
“In addition, we are very versatile in adapting and producing formats, and we have a very solid production team and a robust company that supports them, which is why we see opportunities to collaborate with clients throughout the continent and, why not, even other continents as well,” added Scheuermann.
Como agua para chocolate
It is with this mentality of betting big that the Endemol Shine Boomdog production machine never stopped working in 2024, giving way to one of its most ambitious catalogs to date. On the fiction side, the group is presenting, in Machado’s words, “the biggest series we have done so far”: Como agua para chocolate.
The series Como agua para chocolate, which will premiere on HBO and Max in November, is based on the 1989 novel by Laura Esquivel, published in more than 30 languages and adapted into one of the most successful Latin American films in the world. Filmed in Mexico, it is produced by Endemol Shine Boomdog, together with Ventanarosa Productions, Endemol Shine North America and Warner Bros. Discovery.
“It is undoubtedly the most important project we have,” said the executive. “Not only because of the base story, which is a global brand, but because of the quality we achieved when producing it. We are extremely proud of it and we want to continue making series of that caliber, not only in terms of size, but in terms of quality.”
Executive producers include Alejandro Rincón, Jerry Rodriguez and Clara Machado, with Manuel Vargas overseeing physical production for Endemol Shine Boomdog; Salma Hayek Pinault, José Tamez and Siobhan Flynn for Ventanarosa Productions; Sharon Levy, Lisa Fahrenholt and Flavio Morales for Endemol Shine North America; and Mariano Cesar, Mônica Alburquerque and Anouk Aarón for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Francisco Javier Royo Fernández is the head writer and executive producer, with María Jaén and Jimena Gallardo as writers; and Julián de Tavira and Analorena Perezríos directing.
“We are living in a very interesting time because the audience of streamers is looking for production value with stories that have a significant melodrama component. This combination pushes us to mix between the most traditional and the most innovative, always looking for stories that touch on relevant topics, that present moral dilemmas or concerns that society has, or rather are escapist and different. In the end, the most important thing is to tell stories that entertain and help the audience recognize themselves or see the world from a different angle”, the executive explained.
Among these potential future titles, Machado said she has “a slate of very interesting projects, with several large and prestigious IPs,” such as, for example, Revolución, by Arturo Pérez Reverte.
La casa de los famosos
And on the entertainment formats side, Endemol Shine Boomdog continues to make a name for itself with hits such as La casa de los famosos, Masterchef or Los 50, to name a few, currently making up “one of the largest and most powerful catalogs in the world,” Scheuermann summarized.
“The stars are those formats that at any moment can become perfect for satisfying the clients’ needs,” explained the COO, highlighting more examples such as Vence a las Estrellas or “the next big success in my opinion, which is Deal or No Deal Island, which will be produced for Univision.”
“I also can’t help but mention Me caigo de Risa, which is a cannon and after 10 successful seasons and almost 400 episodes produced, it has just received a well-deserved nomination for an International Emmy; and of course Cuál es el bueno, which is an original format of ours together with TelevisaUnivision. It is already on air in Norway, Sweden and Peru, and the third season is being filmed for TelevisaUnivision for Mexico and the US,” he added.
With these and other titles, Endemol Shine Boomdog is now heading to a new edition of Mipcom in Cannes, to further exploit the international potential of its catalogue.
“As always, our goal is to get closer to our clients, potential partners and partners of the Banijay group who gather at the market,” said Machado. “To present the slate of large projects that we have and to look for others so that in the future they help us to continue creating and adapting content for Mexico and the rest of Latin America.”
“At Mipcom we are going to take the temperature of the industry and meet up with old friends and colleagues, to get inspired and understand a little more about what there is and who it can be for. We are going to open our minds and strengthen relationships with our clients,” Scheuermann added. “As I said before, we have the largest catalog in the world and a very sharp mind to identify opportunities.”
