The Brazilian telenovela, the most popular form of teledramaturgy in Brazil, has been produced and aired in the country since the 1950s. Sua Vida Me Pertence, written and directed by Walter Forster and shown on the now-defunct TV Tupi São Paulo between December 21, 1951 and February 15, 1952, was the world's first telenovela. According to Keske & Scherer, telenovelas have held the "status of the most profitable product in the Brazilian cultural industry" since the mid-1970s.[1][2][3]
Telenovelas are often treated as "open works", as their storylines can be modified to suit the reactions of the audience. Telenovelas are broadcast on national television networks, mostly free-to-air, and their rights are frequently sold to other countries. Originally aimed at entertainment, some telenovelas have also discussed controversies and issues of social responsibility in their stories. Explode Coração, written by Glória Perez and shown on TV Globo in 1995, dealt with the disappearance of children; Chamas da Vida, written by Cristianne Fridman and shown on Record between mid-2008 and early 2009, dealt with the issue of pedophilia.[4][5]
According to a ranking carried out by Ibope, the genre most watched by men on free-to-air television throughout the country is telenovelas. However, the audience for telenovelas is almost double that of men. Children watch more than twice as many soap operas as kids' programs. A survey carried out by Kantar Ibope published in October 2015 showed that telenovelas are still Latinos' favorite television programs. It also revealed that the genre is the favorite among audiences in Brazil, Panama, Uruguay and Paraguay. The institute based its research on audience data from 11 Latin American countries, with a universe of 135.5 million viewers.[6][7]