El Chavo Bows Big

Friday, January 25, 2008
By: Ryan Ball

El Chavo: La Serie Animada, the first prime-time animated series for Spanish-language network Univision, debuted to impressive ratings on Sunday. According to Nielsen Fast Affiliate ratings, the premiere was the most-watched entertainment programming offering (excluding sports) among Adults 18-34 for its time period, and saw double- and triple-digit audience gains in every other key demographic.

Featuring Flash animation produced by Mexico City-based Anima Estudios, El Chavo is based on the successful 1970s children’s sitcom, El Chavo de ocho. Comedian Roberto Gomez Bolanos created the show and starred as an eight-year-old orphan who lived on the streets in a barrel. The original series is still in syndication throughout Latin America and airs in the U.S. on Univision’s Galavision.

The debut of the animated show helped Univision captured the No. 3 spot among teens 12-17 and kids 2-11 on Sunday for the hour starting at 7 p.m., beating out CBS, NBC and The CW. Among adults 18-49, Univision was the 4th ranked network, out-performing NBC and The CW. Locally, El Chavo was the No. 1 entertainment program outside of sports in its time period among key demographics in such major markets as Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, New York, Dallas and San Francisco.

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