An Analysis of National Adaptations of Yo Soy Betty, La Fea.

The global television landscape in the first decade of the twenty-first century is a complex terrain of contradictory developments and trends. Since the early years of television the United States were the most important exporter of TV series, TV serials and game shows. But nowadays times have changed. Admittedly they are still the leading nation in selling TV fiction all over the world, but since the deregulation of the TV market in Western Europe in 1990s Great Britain and the Netherlands are the leading exporters of non-fictional formats like reality shows, Australia sells its soap operas all over the world, and Latin American countries are important exporters of telenovelas. In the beginning of the twenty-first century the Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea made its way around the world. Several countries bought the rights to produce a local adaptation of the format. For example ABC produced Ugly Betty in the United States, the German channel Sat.1 produced Verliebt in Berlin, and there is a Russian adaptation Ne Rodis' Krasivoy. Other countries with local adaptations of this telenovelas are Belgium, Croatia, Greece, India, Israel, Mexico and Spain. This paper compares several local adaptations of the telenovela: the Columbian original and the adaptations in Germany, Russia, Spain and the USA. It looks at the stylistic and aesthetic proximities and differences of the adaptations, the different production contexts and focus on the textual and cultural conditions of the international success. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]