On Antena 3 they have a new after-dinner series: Dreams of freedom, a daily bet with Natalia Sánchez, Alain Hernández and Dani Tatay. It has the ideal ingredients to capture the audience’s attention: drama, a woman in search of freedom and, of course, a forbidden love. But the first obstacle they will have, for now, is The Promise, after Rtve has decided to thwart the primetime premiere with the broadcast of two special episodes.
February 15 was when Atresmedia announced that Dreams of Freedom will premiere this coming Sunday the 25th at 10 p.m. It tells the story of Begoña Montes (Natalia Sánchez), who believes she has the perfect life after marrying Jesús de la Reina (Alain Hernández), a businessman from a good family and the golden widower of the region.
Soon her marriage feels like a prison: in Franco’s Spain in 1958, divorce is not an option and the patriarchy operates at full capacity. And, as the first images of her suggest, she will feel attracted to her brother-in-law Andrés de ella (Dani Tatay), who returns injured from the army. Eulàlia Carrillo, as an expert in the format after working on El cor de la ciutat, Ventdelplà, La riera and Com si fos ahir, acts as script coordinator.
But, five days after Atresmedia put its cards on the table, La1 counterattacked with the perfect excuse: The Promise has reached 300 episodes on broadcast and, to celebrate, they plan to broadcast two installments in primetime this Sunday at 10:05 p.m.
“Who is behind the terrible events of the hunt? What is the relationship of the Count of Ayala with the palace? Where are the relationships between María Fernández and Salvador and Lope and Vera going?” they asked the public to whet their appetites. With this counterprogramming maneuver, Rtve intends for the audience to ignore the new big bet of the afternoon slot, taking advantage of the success of The Promise, which averages 12% and 1,040,000 in its daily broadcast.
This offensive, for the record, is punctual. Starting Monday, the two fiction proposals will not compete in the same time slot. Dreams of freedom, produced by Boomerang, will air the 50-minute episodes from Monday to Friday at 3:45 p.m., while La Promesa, by Bambú productions, airs from 5:30 p.m.
Dreams of Freedom’s rival, during its last minutes of the episode, will be La Moderna, which is in poor shape: with 750,000 viewers and an 8.2% screen share, it pales in comparison to La Promesa, which is currently one of the main assets of the public channel and, on a delayed basis, adds another 300,000 viewers.
