Telenovelas have been central to the constitution and development of Latin American cultures, becoming the most popular genre of television broadcasting. In the Brazilian case, the melodramatic serials soon became the basis for the commercial success of TV Globo, the dominant network. The prime-time telenovelas of TV Globo are currently watched in almost 50 per cent of the dwellings with TV sets every night. This paper argues that this popularity is specific to the Brazilian industry. The realism and treatment of political issues in the genre is traced to the role of scriptwriters.
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