Upfronts 2014 Reax: FOX beats Spanish-speaking nets to the punch in content geared towards Latinos

bordertown

Yea, I know. FOX Mundo had lunch today for its Upfront guests, yada-yada-yada. But, on Tuesday not only did ABC deliver its Upfront 2014 presentation, but yesterday concluded the run of every major Spanish-speaking network making their Upfront presentations. That’s right, everyone from  Mun2, Univision, NUVOtvand Telemundo made their cases to advertisers about all of the exciting new programs each network is touting featuring the likes of Simon Cowell or Top Chef or even fucking NASCAR….NASCAR!!!!!

But not ONE of the Spanish-speaking networks announced any sort of development in animated comedy leaving the bilingual American audience pretty much WIDE OPEN for anyone’s taking. And guess who stepped up to the plate? FOX. Almost 30 years ago, FOX picked up the animated series that single-handedly (OK, maybe besides Married with Children) put the still-budding network on the map aka The Simpsons. Since then the network has done nothing but dominate the animated comedy space for broadcast television with legendary programming like King of the Hill, Futurama, and Family Guy. So are you THAT surprised that FOX was able to be the first network broadcaster to pickup a series that is a satirical look at the multicultural issues facing America? You shouldn’t be.

That series starts next year for FOX and it’s called Bordertown. Earlier this week, the series officially went social and posted some preview images, but I wouldn’t get TOO excited about any of that yet because Murder Police had a similar push before the series would eventually be cancelled before we even got like 30 seconds to look at it. Where the fuck THIS show is going to end up, I haven’t a fucking clue, but I hope we see it somewhere soon, but I digress.

Family Guy producers Mark Hentemann and Seth MacFarlane brought in some of the best in the biz for Bordertown including Lalo Alcaraz (“La Cucaracha”) and Gustavo Arellano (“¡Ask a Mexican!”) as consulting producers so already you have some of the best in the biz on FOX. Every Spanish-network should probably take a minute and think about that, because this fell swoop of talent could of done wonders on their networks in creating content for a targeted but valuable audience in the 18-34 Latino demographic. Now, these guys are set to play catchup, because if Bordertown becomes the next big deal for FOX, all of those guys are going to make an attempt to jump ala the way NBC, CBS, and ABC did in the early 90’s when The Simpsons hit big. 

FOX may have found another gold-mine here with Bordertown.