Popular Telenovelas Coming to English-Language TV

Popular Telemundo telenovelas are to coming to English-language TV networks.

NBC Universal and Telemundo, which is owned by a division of NBC Universal, have succeeded in TV ratings when it comes to producing Spanish-language versions of English programs and movies for the Telemundo network over the years. Now Telemundo’s popular telenovelas, similar to soap operas, El Señor de los Cielos and Mujer de Acero are heading to the English TV networks like USA and NBC.

An English-language version of El Señor de los Cielos (The Lord Of The Skies) is Telemundo’s highest-rated novela last season. Telemundo’s upcoming novela Mujer de Acero (Woman Of Steel) will be adapted as well for the networks.

Inspired by true events, El Señor de los Cielos was ranked as Telemundo’s #1 novela last year averaging 2.3 million total viewers and nearly 1.5 million adults 18-49. It tells the story of Aurelio Casillas (Rafael Amaya), one of the most prominent Mexican drug lords from the ’90s, who wants to become one of the most powerful men in Mexico. The season finale averaged over 3.6 million viewers and beat Univision, another popular Spanish television network, among adults 18-49.

Mujer de Acero tells the story of a housemaid who rocks the foundation of the Mexican government after her husband is killed at their wedding. She later finds out her husband was a wanted criminal and becomes the “queen of organized crime.”

Both telenovelas’ will be adapted and produced by Universal TV and Universal Cable Productions. NBC made a deal with Electus to develop three telenovelas with one show airing as a 13-episode series — with multiple episodes running each week. Traditional air patterns for telenovelas are multiple episodes per week, and are usually shown five or six days a week until the season is over for that show.

Watch the English-language trailer below for El Señor de los Cielos: