Josep María Mainat, television producer and creator of the successful talent show Operación Triunfo, has fulfilled his threat and has taken a step forward for what he considers plagiarism of the format belonging to Gestmusic. A few months ago, Mainat assured that Eufòria, the music program on TV3, was plagiarizing OT and that, therefore, he was considering denouncing it as such.
In his opinion, the Catalan regional television contest “reproduces point by point the experience, the mechanics, the elements of the format, the set design, the characters and the terminology of our show, without acknowledging its authorship.” But, what exactly are the coincidences that Mainat has found between both formats?
In both cases these are competitions focused on music; while Eufòria searches for the “most complete artist in Catalonia”, as it appears in its official synopsis, Operación Triunfo has carried out a similar task in all its editions at a national level.
The number of contestants of both programs are also practically identical. In both Eufòria and OT, the final number of participants is 16, although the latter starts with 18 contestants in its ‘gala 0’ and two of the applicants to enter the academy are eliminated.
In Eufòria, as in Operación Triunfo, the artists need to train and rehearse their vocal skills in an academy to give the best live performance at the galas. However, there is no 24-hour broadcast of what happens within its walls; These essays can only be seen both in the same program and through social networks.
The contestants also do not live or spend the night inside the academy. They only go to it for the purely musical, so the reality TV component that OT has is lost, as well as its characteristic lack of direct contact with the outside world.
The aesthetics of the Eufòria set is also largely reminiscent of that of Operación Triunfo: the big stage is its strong point, with a jury located on one of its sides and the audience in front of it. Finally, the circumstance arises that one of its presenters, the singer Miki Núñez, was a contestant in OT 2018 in addition to representing Spain in Eurovision the following year.
