By: Veronica Villafañe
Popular children’s talent reality show Pequeños Gigantes returns to Univision as part of its “family-friendly Sunday primetime lineup.” The new season of the Univision-Televisa co-production includes two of the most famous and iconic celebrities from the Spanish-language entertainment world: Mexican actress, singer and television personality Verónica Castro and Spanish star and humanitarian Miguel Bosé.
Season 4 of Pequeños Gigantes marks the return of Verónica Castro to a Televisa production after a 10-year absence. The television legend, who shot to fame on the telenovela Los Ricos También Lloran and has hosted several TV shows, is celebrating 52 years in the entertainment industry. She most recently portrayed matriarch Virginia de la Mora in the hit Netflix comedy La Casa de las Flores.
“They keep calling me to work,” says Castro. “When they called me to do the show, I said I would do it, because I love children. They make me laugh. I thought it would be a fun experience.”
Along with Bosé, best known for a lengthy successful music career, Castro will be a judge on the Mexico City-produced show. The other two judges are actor Ariel Miramontes in his role as “Albertano Santa Cruz” and actress and singer Karol Sevilla, former star of the UniMás show Soy Luna.
Over the past two years, Univision has seen ratings growth with Pequeños Gigantes. During the 2017 season, a special U.S. edition that aired Monday through Friday saw an average of 1.8 million total viewers. The show finale reached 3.5 million total viewers. Last year, the show co-produced and simulcast with Televisa aired on Sundays attracted an average of 2.3 million total viewers. The 2018 finale reached 5 million total viewers.
Univision is looking to build on that audience and recuperate its No. 1 standing on Sunday nights. It has dropped to second place, behind Telemundo, after the Mira Quien Baila finale on February 10.
Univision and Televisa are pretty good about doing cross-promotions and they’re adding a feature in this year’s Pequeños Gigantes that will give a plug to another one of their reality competitions.
In addition to showcasing their musical and dance talents, the young contestants will also take part in Reto Quinto Elementito (The Little Fifth Element Challenge), inspired by the adventure reality competition Reto 4 Elementos: Naturaleza Extrema, which has aired on Univision’s sister cable network Unimás for the past two seasons. The new segment will feature young athletes seeking to earn points for their teams by tackling a variety of physical and sporting tasks.
Actress and TV presenter Galilea Montijo returns as host.
The two-hour show kicks off on Sunday, March 24 at 8 p.m. and will be simulcast on both networks.
It wouldn’t be the first time Univision simulcasts a show with Televisa. Both networks have been working closer together since 2017, when Televisa increased its ownership stake in Univision and they merged their content development and production efforts.
Source: Forbes.com