The artistic and farandulesco world of Argentina is governed by cycles. All those who integrate it know that they can go very quickly from the top to oblivion and that their star can stop shining from one year to the next. Very few manage to contradict this rule and remain current and popular. Only a few chosen ones achieve trise, reinvest and adapt to survive. One of the members of this select group is Marcelo Tinelli, the host who for more than 30 years has been a prime time figure on the three air channels to which he has taken his program.
However, the magic of the native of Bolívar seems to start to lose. Whoever was the undisputed leader of local TV no longer shines like before. The rating, that ally that accompanied him for a long time, has not been what he was for several years and the preferences of the public seem to have left him aside. As if that were not enough, off the screen he adds defeats and problems that no longer make him untouchable and banished his aura of invincibility. His recent resignation from the presidency of San Lorenzo, with numbers that do not close included (see box), adds to this course that includes from unpaid prizes to participants of other programs of his production company LaFlia until his failed and criticized presence in the “Table against hunger”. Thus, the man who was once a kind of TV King Midas that everything he touched turned into a success – to the point that the presidential candidates were fighting to close the campaign on his program – now he must shuffle and give again.
Strategy
In this need to reinvent himself from the screen, Tinelli faces a scenario that he already knows in some way. In 2006, his first year at El Trece, something similar happened to him. Although at that time the audience numbers were much higher, the driver had to battle with the event that the telenovela “Montecristo” on Telefe entailed and many questioned the success of “Showmatch”. It was in that year that Tinelli imported a foreign format that catapulted him back to the forefront and that marked his television future: “Dancing for a Dream”. 16 years later history could repeat itself. After “Bailando” lost its impact and similar adaptations such as “La Academia” failed to reverse the rating and, on the contrary, made it drop even more, LaFlia will bet again on importing a format. Although there were two in the portfolio, one of general talents and the other only of dance, from the production company they opted for the first one, called “All Together Now”which is broadcast by the BBC, in which a jury of one hundred people evaluates anonymous artists.
The plan has a pessimistic background and is that every time Tinelli opted to get away from the famous contestants and the scandal they generate, the programs failed at the rating level: “Bailando Kids” in 2009 and “Genios de la Argentina” in 2019 attest to this.
Anyway, in El Trece they trust: “We are enthusiastic about the project and we are working so that everything goes well”, they detail from the Grupo Clarín signal. The support even reaches the point that from the channel they are carrying out the renovations to the studio in Don Torcuato that Tinelli occupied last year to be able to house more than 100 jurors. In addition, screens are being renewed and state-of-the-art equipment is being incorporated.
This support is spearheaded by Adrián Suar, who, beyond crosses and Chicanas, supports Tinelli and it is your main ally behind closed doors. Something that does not happen with other priests of the station who are not satisfied with the performance of “Showmatch” and do not believe that Tinelli is capable of remounting the ship. After a 2021 in which the program bottomed out, reaching only 3.6 rating points, the directors of the channel would have demanded a minimum clause of 10 points for this year, something that the host refused. The relationship with some sectors of the channel is not on good terms and thus opens a lot of speculation since this is the last year of the contract with Artear.
Offside
Tinelli’s need to become strong again on television is mainly because many of his last out-of-this-world bets were elusive. The departure of San Lorenzo only confirms that the pretense of a weighty character in Argentine football will be, at least for the moment, forgotten. With his place in the club he still retained a certain sphere of influence. But his departure only confirms something that had already been advanced on April 7 by Chamber B of the Civil Chamber of Federal Justice, when it ruled in favor of the AFA intervening in the Professional Soccer League, chaired until then by Tinelli, Thus removing the bastion from which he dreamed of building his entire career as a leader.
The other big setback from which the driver seeks to detach himself is his comings and goings with politics. There is no posting on social networks in which they do not remind him of his curious and controversial participation in the failed “Table against hunger.” There were even boycott campaigns against his program, a luxury that cannot be afforded in times of low ratings.
Trying to put these failed forays behind him and refocus on television, he seeks to be reborn. With new projects in the pipeline and with the hope of being again, he will debut at the end of June with his new show that will no longer even bear the name of “Showmatch”. He will seek to return to being what he was from the place where he was born: television. Only time, and the rating, will prove him right or not.
