A number of years in the past, some had been predicting the demise of Spanish-language tv.
Most of the Latino inhabitants development over twenty years has come from U.S. births, outpacing the arrival of immigrants. The considering was that as a result of most U.S.-born Latinos communicate English and may eat a wide selection of media, Spanish-language TV would recede in relevance.
But Telemundo has defied such forecasts to turn out to be one in every of the nation’s hottest information shops.
The NBCUniversal-owned, Spanish-language community, a longtime underdog, has been notching viewership positive factors upfront of its highly anticipated coverage of this summer’s FIFA World Cup championships.
Last yr, Telemundo elevated its viewers for its night information, anchored by Julio Vaqueiro, by 11% over the earlier yr, in keeping with Nielsen knowledge. Its Los Angeles station, KVEA Channel 52, has surpassed entrenched giants Walt Disney Co.’s KABC and Univision’s KMEX, attracting extra viewers for its native night and late-night newscasts.
The Miami-based division has a robust social media presence. Its Telemundo Noticias (News) account boasts 16 million followers on TikTok, topping ABC News, CNN and Fox News.
Cultural and demographic shifts have helped gas Telemundo’s rise. After greater than a decade of immigration declines, border crossings surged throughout President Biden’s tenure — a tide that turned with President Trump’s return to the White House. Instead, Trump introduced a torrent of great information occasions, together with immigration raids that reverberated by Latino communities.
“We are growing because we are telling the stories that are important to our audience,” Gemma Garcia, Telemundo’s govt vice chairman for information, mentioned. “We are very audience-driven.”
When U.S. navy forces seized Venezuela’s then-president Nicolás Maduro in January, Telemundo rapidly flew its predominant information anchor, Vaqueiro, to report from Colombia, which borders Venezuela. The community interrupted its regular Sunday evening fare for a information particular that scored strong rankings.
Vaqueiro, 38, has turn out to be the recent face of Spanish-language information after Jorge Ramos, who achieved prominence as a forceful advocate for Latino immigrants throughout his 40 years on the air, signed off from rival Univision in late 2024.
The youthful journalist brings a softer tone to his reviews. He was promoted to Telemundo’s predominant information anchor in 2021 after a number of assignments, together with working at KVEA in L.A. He loves stepping out from behind the anchor desk in Miami to cowl huge tales.
Telemundo information anchor Julio Vaquiero
(Telemundo)
Vaqueiro traveled to frigid Minneapolis earlier this yr after the lethal Immigration and Customs Enforcement shootings. He broadcast from anti-ICE protests and stopped by a church to interview a pastor and volunteers organizing a food drive for immigrants too afraid to go exterior.
“We’re very focused on being out there and reporting on the ground,” Vaqueiro mentioned in an interview. “Being close to our audience, that’s a big part of what we are doing at Noticias Telemundo.”
Another key to Telemundo’s momentum has been its dedication to the Spanish language.
Media firms a decade in the past raced to interact younger, bilingual Latinos by launching start-ups, together with a three way partnership between ABC News and Univision called Fusion that flopped.
Now Telemundo is the one with cool cred.
Call it the Bad Bunny impact: While the Puerto Rican artist’s Super Bowl halftime show in Spanish befuddled scores of viewers, tens of millions of different followers, deeply happy with their Latino roots, had been thrilled by his performance celebrating everyday workers.
“With Bad Bunny’s rise and the Super Bowl, it felt like a shift in values towards the Spanish language,” mentioned Mark Hugo Lopez, Pew Research Center’s director of race and ethnicity analysis. “It has become a source of cultural pride … and it seems to be impacting the ways in which English-speaking Latinos also think about their identity.”
Bad Bunny carried out the Super Bowl halftime present in Spanish in February.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
That elevated affinity means that Spanish isn’t going away anytime quickly.
“Our data has shown that Latinos say it’s important that Latinos in the future speak Spanish here in the United States,” Lopez mentioned.
A gradual construct to a information chief
Telemundo’s rise was a gradual construct, coming practically a quarter-century after NBC bought the network for practically $2 billion.
Years of effort took root after NBCUniversal agreed in 2011 to spend big for the U.S. Spanish-language media rights to the FIFA World Cup, dethroning Univision, which had lengthy televised the prestigious soccer occasion. This yr, Telemundo is poised “to deliver the largest coverage in Spanish-language media history,” the community mentioned in an announcement.
It will present dwell protection for all 104 matches, together with on the Telemundo and Peacock streaming apps.
Being a part of NBCUniversal has introduced different advantages, too, notably as Telemundo’s predominant competitor, Univision, has struggled under a succession of ownership teams.
NBCUniversal built-in its English and Spanish-language information models at its tv stations. In Los Angeles, KVEA’s newsroom is in the identical constructing on the Universal lot as KNBC-TV Channel 4. The identical managers run each divisions.
“All of these things have evolved,” mentioned Millie Carrasquillo, a Hispanic media guide and former Telemundo analysis senior vice chairman. “It’s an alignment of the audiences, an alignment of how technology is evolving — and also the way that news is being delivered.”
Telemundo’s nationwide newscast, anchored by Vaqueiro, averages 1.2 million viewers, its largest viewers in years.
But audiences, notably youthful ones, are much less prone to watch TV information, so community executives have tapped the potential of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to spice up their attain.
On TikTok, Telemundo reporters broadcast dwell from exterior the U.S. Supreme Court final week as justices heard oral arguments on Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship for infants born to oldsters who’re in the nation unlawfully. Telemundo featured dwell protection of the conventional Easter egg roll at “La Casa Blanca” (the White House) and frequent reviews about NASA’s Artemis II mission, which scored tens of millions of views.
“Radio and television hasn’t gone away,” mentioned Mari Castañeda, University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Commonwealth Honors College dean. “But Telemundo has recognized that [cellphones] are where most of their audience is located and they leaned into that.”
Social media posts are straightforward to share, serving as a viral enlargement of the community’s viewers.
“Telemundo has emerged as a leader because it has modernized,” added Castañeda, a local of La Puente in Los Angeles County.
The U.S. Latino inhabitants practically doubled between 2000 and 2024, rising from 35 million to 68 million, in keeping with the Pew Research Center. Since the Great Recession, the development has largely come from U.S. births, and the median age of U.S.-born Latinos is about 21.
The development line bent throughout the Biden years as U.S. births roughly equaled the arrival of immigrants, Lopez mentioned.
“Immigrants are still a very large part of the Latino story,” he mentioned.
Noticias Telemundo anchor Julio Vaqueiro talks to a baby dwelling in a makeshift migrant camp alongside the Rio Grande close to the Ciudad Juarez-El Paso border on Feb. 28, 2024.
(Telemundo)
‘This is a country we really love’
Telemundo’s brightest star — Vaqueiro — was born in San Juan del Río, north of Mexico City and got here to the U.S. when he was 26 along with his spouse, who was additionally born in Mexico.
“We have three American kids,” Vaqueiro mentioned. “All we know as a family is the U.S. This is a country that we really love and we’re grateful to it.”
In some ways, Vaqueiro’s journey is the story of U.S. Latinos.
“He’s Mexican but he’s also a U.S. Latino and he understands the context and issues that communities are feeling,” mentioned Castañeda. “There’s a sense of authenticity and care that comes through.”
Vaqueiro wrote a e-book, “Río Bravo. México, Estados Unidos y el regreso de Trump, (Rio Grande: Mexico, the United States, and the Return of Trump),” to discover the political temper throughout a interval of tumult and infrequently tense relations between the nations.
Telemundo strives to remain out of the political fray, Garcia mentioned.
“We don’t think about politics,” Garcia mentioned. “We cover what is happening within our community, and now more than ever, we are on top of our community’s stories.”
Vaqueiro added: “We have to be very careful reporting the facts and verifying every information that comes to us.”
Political divisions course by Latino communities, together with in South Florida the place Telemundo is headquartered.
“We’ve always known that Latinos are not a monolith,” Vaqueiro mentioned. “This is a complex community that is constantly growing. It’s diverse: geographically, culturally and generationally.”
Interest in information has swelled since Trump started his second time period. Ratings are additionally up for ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir,” which is drawing 8.4 million viewers per telecast this season, outpacing NBC, Fox News and CBS.
In nationwide information, Univision nonetheless tops Telemundo. In native information, Telemundo’s KVEA has continued to construct on its lead this yr, though KMEX stays aggressive and Disney’s KABC stays dominant amongst English-language stations.
“I just hope that we meet the moment,” Vaquerio mentioned. “This is a critical moment for Latinos who are navigating very difficult times under a lot of pressure.”
He has one other aim, too.
“I want to lift Latino voices who are moving forward — opening new businesses and graduating from college,” Vaqueiro mentioned. “I want to talk about the positive side of this community that brings huge contributions to the United States.”
