Bermúdez (telenovela)

Plot

The telenovela tells the story of Arturo Bermúdez (Víctor Hugo Cabrera), a sports journalist who works for Hechos, a Bogotá-based weekly current issues news magazine. Bermúdez, who excels as a journalist, nevertheless is regarded as an annoying person, who tends to make disrespectful remarks and jokes, especially toward women. The former editor-in-chief of the magazine quit because of Bermúdez's behaviour.

Hechos's owner, Gonzalo Lleras (Diego Bertie), who returns to Colombia in order to run his businesses, appoints Silvia Vargas (Valentina Rendón) —at the moment editor-in-chief of an evening newspaper— as the new publisher of the magazine. Both Lleras and Vargas are college classmates of Bermúdez, who jokingly refers to Silvia as cuatrolámparas ("four-lamps", because Silvia used to wear glasses during her college years).

Bermúdez, who thought he would become the new editor-in-chief of the magazine as he was friends with then publisher Aníbal Fernández (Alberto León Jaramillo), is transferred by Silvia from the sports section to the "home and women's issues" section instead, as a punishment for an article by Bermúdez published on the magazine during Aníbal's tenure, criticizing the role of women in the Police, responsible for security at football stadia during matches (incidentally, Silvia's older sister, Lina, a police official, was harshly criticized by Arturo in the article), which prompted a backlash among readers and advertisers. Silvia makes Bermúdez rectify the article. Therefore, he is decided to not allow Silvia to "humiliate" him, trying to make Silvia feel bad or angry, with little success. Instead, Vargas ends up helping Bermúdez when he needs it.

Unknowingly, Silvia and Arturo have a friendship via internet. On night hours, they chat using the nicks Solitaria and Solitario respectively (both meaning "lonely"). Their anonymity allows them to pour out and support honestly each other, unlike real life.

Silvia has a crush on Gonzalo, whom he calls in secret the jefe papito, because of his looks and apparent gentlemanliness. On the other hand, since college Bermúdez has had a crush on Lucía Congote (Andrea Nocetti), who works at a television network owned by her family, and Gonzalo's ex-girlfriend. Lucía uses Bermúdez in order to upset Silvia, whom she hates (referring to her despectively as Gatúbela, Batichica or Mujer maravilla), blaming her for "stealing" Gonzalo's love.

Cast

Apart from the four main characters, there have been some inconsistencies regarding the other characters' last names, between the initial press releases and related promotional material issued by Caracol TV to the media and the actual broadcast of the telenovela. In one episode, outgoing Hechos publisher Aníbal introduces most of the staff to his successor, Silvia. The most notorious case is Luz Adriana ("Archila" as for the press releases, "Giraldo" as for episode 3, "Jiménez" as mentioned by Gerardo Bermúdez in another episode). .

Episodes

Only the first 2 episodes were around 1 hour long. From episode 3 onwards, episodes last around half hour. It must be noticed that, since the telenovela is being broadcast in Colombia with half hour or even shorter episodes, the numbering has no relation with the 80 hours produced.

Source:

Reception

Though its first episode was the most watched programme in the Colombian primetime on 2 February 2009, ratings declined because Todas odian a Bermúdez was competing against El último matrimonio feliz, rival network RCN TV strongest telenovela at the time. Caracol TV removed the "todas odian a" from the title and Bermúdez was moved to a time slot later in the night, with shorter episodes. Ratings slowly improved, but RCN TV's own ratings crisis before and after El último matrimonio feliz ended 22 April 2009 and Caracol TV's primetime overall performance helped Bermúdez to stay on the air (whereas rival RCN TV pulled or cut most of its shows premiered in the first quarter of 2009).

In April 2009, El Tiempo claimed Bermúdez had been cut from 120 to 80 one-hour episodes and that tapings would end by mid-April. On the L.A. Screenings 2009, held late May in Los Angeles, Bermúdez was introduced as an 80 episode serial.

Diego Bertie told a Peruvian newspaper that Bermúdez was cut from 120 to 100 episodes, stating that "competition is very hard [in Colombia]." Ana María Arango told El Tiempo she was "sad" it was cut because the character she was playing did not become a journalist "as the scripts stated". As of 14 May 2009, Bermúdez ratings were higher that any programme broadcast by RCN TV in primetime.

The end

On early August 2009, Caracol TV advertised the last episodes of Bermúdez, though the plot of the telenovela was not foretelling its end, because its main characters were just starting to get closer. On 17 August (a holiday in Colombia, where telenovelas are not broadcast on holidays), Caracol TV broadcast a little advertised 100 minute special. The next day, its final episode was announced for 21 August. Hundreds of viewers protested on the network's website because of the sudden end of its run, which only solved, in a fast-paced way, the situation of the main characters, leaving the stories of the other characters without conclusion. Apparently, Caracol TV needed to make room for reality show Desafío 2009 and the series Las muñecas de la mafia (at the time known as Las mujeres del cartel). In Colombia the 80 hours filmed (42 minutes plus commercials each) were not completely broadcast.

One day before the final episode was broadcast, Juliana Tabares, journalist for Doble vía (a programme of the Caracol TV defensoría del televidente [viewer ombudswoman's office]), claimed that recordings of Bermúdez had ended on 30 April and that, despite its short run, it had not been cut not having a different ending to "the one already agreed". A week later, Amparo Pérez, the network's viewer ombudswoman, recognized that "the final episodes were cut and [Bermúdez] was given a fast end where there were even edition flaws", adding that the opinions from the viewers were sent to the Caracol TV "production departament".

International broadcasting

The telenovela has been broadcast, under the title Todas odian a Bermúdez, on Mexico (52MX), Venezuela (RCTV) and Ecuador (Teleamazonas). Unlike its original run on Caracol TV, the 80 hours produced were broadcast on their entirety in these countries.