2021: The year of the shake on local television

A chess game in which accurate moves are made to achieve the desired checkmate. This was the panorama of Puerto Rican television in 2021.

It was the year of changes, of talent moves and the creation of new television spaces that increased the hours of local productions in the traditional media.

The renewal of the old Univision Puerto Rico signal, now TeleOnce, revolutionized and shook the main local television channels that since January 2021 began to announce changes in order to increase their audience.

On February 18, TeleOnce returned to the roots of channel 11, whose local programming is focused on news and spaces of humor and variety. It did so under the new vision of the Liberman Media Group, which acquired the WLII-DT signal in 2020.

The defunct TeleOnce News Department was reborn and in July they released their editions of “Las Noticias” in the afternoon and evening. A staff of veteran reporters made up of Celimar Adames Casalduc, Deborah Martorell , Ricardo Curras Y Nuria Sebazco in June they announced their respective resignations or terminated their contracts with their former employers, Wapa Televisión, in the case of Adames and Martorell; Univision New York, in Currás; and Telemundo, in that of Sebazco; to make the leap to TeleOnce. Sebazco had worked on the original version of TeleOnce’s Las Noticias before Univision closed that workshop.

The team of veteran reporters, together with the new breed of journalists made up of Tatiana Ortiz, Luis Joel Aymat, Orlando Cruz, Manuel Crespo, Amanda Ramírez, Elsa Velázquez, Luisa Benítez, Jamiebeth González and Shirlyan Rodríguez They give life to the newscasts “Las Noticias now”, “Las Noticias Prime”, the night edition and the most recent “Las Noticias al Mediodia”, which premiered on December 5.

In the same News Department, the investigative unit led by the journalist and lawyer was created. Mardelis Jusino Ortiz and composed by journalists Melissa Correa, Tatiana Ortiz and Arnaldo Rojas. Rojas had worked at Noticentro in Wapa from 2002 to 2008 before moving to Houston, Texas, where he worked in the Univision news program of that network until his return to the island to join TeleOnce. The reporter Yesenia Torres Figueroa He also resigned from Wapa Televisión and signed a contract with TeleOnce.

The puppeteer Antulio “Kobbo” Santarrosa He also came to TeleOnce with his proven formula of the character “La Comay”. The program has been broadcast since March 1 at 5:55 p.m. Santarrosa completed his work on Mega TV in December 2019.

TeleOnce management announced at the beginning of 2021 the integration of the talents Jéssica Serrano, El JD and Shalimar Rivera in the space “Now is what is”, that premiered in March and only ran for five months as it was canceled.

The goal of the space was to replace the old “Now it is!” Yizette Cifredo and José Santana, who joined the staff of “Noticentro al Dawn” of Wapa Televisión in January.

If the resignations of reporters Adames Casalduc and Maryorell made headlines, the one who really caught the public eye was the comedian Francis Rosas to the give up the program “El Remix” and the productions of Gilda Santini and Sunshine Logroño, after 20 years on Wapa TV, to develop as a producer and talent of TeleOnce.

Rosas was sued for breach of contract, as well as for damages by Logroño and Santini. The producers filed an injunction in court that wanted Rosas not to perform on TeleOnce, but the actor and comedian was able to prevail.

In October, the comedian premiered his television program “Lie down with Francis”, which airs Monday through Friday at 10:00 pm on TeleOnce.

For now, TeleOnce will start 2022 with Josué Carrión’s new program, “La Bóveda de Mr. Cash” that starts on January 31, 2022. Similarly, the News Department announced that it will create the morning edition of news such as part of the new programming of channel 11.

The veteran journalist joined the program “Playing Hard Ball” Cyd Marie Fleming as a panelist for the television space.

Wapa Television between resignations

In the case of Wapa Televisión, the first to resign were the presenters Ivonne Orsini and Ramón “Gato” Gómez, who made the leap to Telemundo to be the animators of the new “morning show” of the channel “Today Puerto Rico”. which premiered in February.

The January entry of the presenters Cifredo and Santana to the edition of “Noticentro al Dawn” imparted spark to the news space. At the same time, the professional makeup artist and actor Bryan Villarini joined the team of “Noticentro at dawn” as a collaborator and joined the program “Long live the afternoon” and Carlos Torres, former participant of “Guerreros” joined “Pégate al Mediodía.”

The son of the deceased reporter Keylla Hernández, Kevin Gabriel Rodríguez He made his television debut as one of the collaborators of “Noticentro al Dawn”.

While the celebrity reporter, Brenda rivera, who was also part of the cast of “Now it is!” he joined to the “I know everything” space. Gredmarie Colón, meanwhile, made her contract official in “I know everything” and Fernan Velez, “The Nalgorazzi” Whoever was part of the disappeared space “Dando candela” recently became a companion of Colón and Rivera.

Everything seemed under control in Wapa Television until that in June the two veteran journalists Adames Casalduc and Martorell They presented their resignations and shocked the News Department of Wapa Televisión, directed by Rafael Lenín López.

Both television reporters had been on channel 4 for more than 25 years. In the case of Adames Casalduc at the time of his resignation there was a lawsuit against Wapa Televisión in which he alleged that he was the victim of a pattern of discrimination based on gender and age since 2002. The reporter and Wapa TV reached an agreement in October regarding the federal lawsuit. Weeks later, the journalist Yesenia Torres Figueroa, also resigned her position at Wapa TV’s “Noticentro”.

The Wapa TV news department reacted immediately to the casualties and integrated to the new reporters Alanis Quiñones and Reina Mateo.

However, that same month of June, Francis Rosas announced his resignation from the productions of Sunshine Logroño and Gilda Santini.

Rosas accepted the new job offer from TeleOnce, since it allowed him to be the producer of his own program that premiered in October under the name of “Go to bed with Francis.” Prior to the departure of Rosas to “El Remix”, the young Luis Ponce and Mariangelie Vélez made their debut in that space.

Jay Fonseca’s surprise jump

Another surprise channel jump was made by political commentator and lawyer Jay Fonseca, who after twelve years ended his contract with Tony Mojena’s productions on Telemundo in July to sign with Wapa Televisión. Since August Fonseca leads its space “The data is the data” in the different news editions of Wapa Televisión and produces its program “Fourth power”. The graduate’s team was joined by the former beauty queen Estefanía Soto and the journalist Milly Méndez. The latter came out of ABC Puerto Rico, where he worked for the past four years. Journalists Hermes Ayala, Ámbar Suárez, Laura Isabel González and Katriana Vélez, all new to the small screen, also collaborate in the program “Cuarto Poder”.

The departure of Fonseca last summer gave way to the renewal of the old program “Jay and his X-rays”, whose name changed to “X-rays”. The journalistic investigation program produced by Tony Mojena includes the journalists Valeria Collazo Cañizares and Yolanda Vélez Arcelay, as well as the work of the rest of the researchers Shaína Cabán Cortés, John Paul Vallenilla and the graduates Osvaldo Carlo, Ernie Cabán and Alexandra Acosta .

In the case of the renowned journalist Vélez Arcelay, the communicator left the chair of “Playing Hard Ball” on TeleOnce.

Telemundo with a new awakening

Telemundo, meanwhile, was the first channel to announce changes to its local programming in January. However, it was not until February that he started his new morning program “Today Puerto Rico” with the talents of Ivonne Orsini and Ramón “Gato” Gómez.

Both presenters left Wapa Televisión. Orsini left the program “Long live the afternoon”, while Gómez said goodbye to “Pégate al Mediodía”. The lawyer Zoé Laboy also made the leap to Telemundo, who was one of the panelists or analysts invited to the editions of Noticentro and “Decision 2020 ″ on Wapa TV. Laboy is part of the morning program.

Television reporters Grenda Rivera and Elizabeth Robaina, both from “Telenoticias” joined “Hoy día Puerto Rico”. In the “Day to Day” program there was a change of chef with the arrival of Noelian Ortiz.

To the team of “Telenoticias ”from Telemundo the reporter Luisa Sotero joined. While the beloved characters of “Susa” (Carmen Nydia Velázquez) and Epifanio (Víctor Alicea) arrived with their laughter at the program “Alexandra at 12”, animated by Alexandra Fuentes. The former participant of “For Love or for Money”, Asaf Torres also joined the program “Alexandra at 12” as a collaborator.

For his part, Julio Daniel Guzmán, better known as “The JD ” returned to Telemundo, specifically to the program “Puerto Rico Wins.”

Innovation in WIPR

In the channel of the Puerto Rico Corporation for Public Broadcasting (WIPR), one of the constants is that new programming is integrated according to the fiscal year. The actors Modesto Lacén and Jessica Gaspar moderated the production “Afro-descendants: Race in the skin and in the conscience”, a series of six documentaries that aired in February.

In November the updated version of the student competition “Club 6” was released with the leadership of Mariana Monclova and Omarjadhir Flores at WIPR. Likewise, the television spaces “The Chucho Avellanet show ”,“ And who is it? ” Y “Lives ”.

What’s more…

During 2021 on the channel Mega tv There were cancellations of programs such as “Los HP” and “Qué Junte”, among others.

Meanwhile in ABC Puerto Rico The ABC News Extra newscast with Veronique Abreu Tañón, Liam Rodríguez and Milly Méndez premiered in April, although Méndez eventually moved to Wapa TV to be part of the investigative journalism program “Cuarto Poder”.