"It wasn't easy. It wasn't easy ... It was the hardest season of my professional career ." With these words and tears in her eyes, Ana Rosa Quintana said goodbye this Friday to a season marked by the coronavirus , by the state of alarm, by confinement, by controversy and by effort. Ana Rosa Quintana will no longer be on television every morning , she has gone on vacation and has been engulfed in a cry that speaks volumes. Tears that the presenter could not contain, as Pablo Motos could hardly contain them last Monday, and that certify the high price they have had to pay for making television in the midst of a pandemic, in the midst of a tragedy.

"It has been a season - the most watched in the last 12 years - very hard because of what we have seen and we have told them, but also because of what we have seen and we have not told them." Raw, very raw. Ana Rosa Quintana has gone on vacation and is carrying the weight of what it has meant for her and for many others to do television -and do it live- during the state of alarm and in the worst moments of the pandemic. A high price that can be summed up in three words: tiredness , overexertion and fear .

On March 14, the Government of Spain declared a state of alarm for the health crisis triggered by the coronavirus . Millions of Spaniards confined at home with very few open windows to see the outside. One, that of 8:00 pm, when we all went out to our balconies, our terraces and our windows to applaud for the toilets; and another, television, the only connection to what was happening outside. If television is already a necessary medium in a normal situation, in the midst of a pandemic it not only became that window to the outside, it became entertainment, evasion and, yes, also a heavy slab that showed every day dead, pain, terror ...

During the state of alarm, each viewer consumed an average of 278 minutes of television , almost an hour more a day than television was seen a year ago on the same dates. Even in the first week of confinement, those 278 minutes were converted to 325 a day per person, according to data from Barlovento Comunicación. We all watched television, we all kept an eye on the news, the appearances, the news, the analyzes ... Television became a necessity, a lifeline, but also a burden. A burden for the spectator and a burden for those who continued to do so.

There were many programs that decided to shut down and wait ; there were others who bet on continuing to do the programs, but from home ; There were those who had no choice but to endure confinement , as happened with the last recordings of the eighth edition of MasterChef ; And then there were those who, despite fear, despite pain and despite doubts, maintained their commitment to remain at the foot of the canyon .

"We had to go back"

"If we did not return, people were going to have a much worse time. We had to go back and continue because this helps people, " they assure EL MUNDO from El Hormiguero . Indeed, let's call them the great swords of television decided that it was necessary to return, that it was necessary to continue informing, that it was necessary to continue entertaining, that people could not be left more alone and abandoned than they already felt.

Retaking the MasterChef recordings after confinement has required an extra effort by the entire team

"Retaking the MasterChef recordings after confinement has required an extra effort by the entire team," they explain from the culinary talent . "At all times the priorities of the producer and RTVE have been to guarantee the safety of all technical and artistic personnel and, of course, to maintain the format's quality standard in order to complete this eighth season with guarantees," they added. A job that happened to keep the contestants confined to the MasterChef house where they usually only spend the almost three months that the recordings last and that overnight became their home and where the 'enemies' became the people they had to live with. And how have you managed to return to record the latest shows? Well, with a lot of effort.

"The production team's work deserves special recognition, which has perfectly solved all the challenges that we had to complete in each recording, especially in terms of location , recording of diners while maintaining the safety distance, and recording in 100% safe spaces , the adequacy of the recordings of the cooks on set and outdoors to the new sanitary measures, and to the permanent supervision of the team in terms of temperature control, weekly blood tests of the team and contestants, distance social and disinfection of space and personal. " None of this has been seen, but all of this has existed. And we are talking about a recorded program that met the confinement, because in the case of live programs, all this had to add a much heavier burden, fear .

Ana Rosa Quintana , Pablo Motos , Jorge Javier Vázquez , Sonsoles Ónega , Susanna Griso , The Ana Rosa Program , El Hormiguero , Save Me , Survivors , It is Noon , Public Mirror ... they said 'we have to continue' and they played it, not only reconverting and adapting their programs to the difficult situation the country was going through, but enduring being the target and the target to shoot at practically every day. Yes, there have been many blunders, others not so much, but they have all been the reflection of the tension , the discomfort and the division that has settled in society when the windows were closed and the doors reopened.

It is what has to be and follow. Ana Rosa Quintana and Pablo Motos , for example, went from being presenters and communicators to becoming headline grabbers. The overexposure they had, especially during the first weeks of the state of alarm, made them news almost daily. His criticism of the Government, Fernando Simón, management, and the political class meant that there was not a day when figures like those of Ana Rosa Quintana , Pablo Motos or Jorge Javier Vázquez were on target every day. But beyond the controversies, which have been many and have been written long and hard, the question is how and how much it has cost to make television in a situation that was new and very difficult for everyone. While most jobs bet on teleworking, they decided to continue making television. What has been its price?

The price of making television in a pandemic

"With almost 40 years of profession, this has been the hardest season of my professional life . Almost 100 days in alarm, with all of Spain confined and we doing a live program every morning, with a third of the staff teleworking from home, "says Ana Rosa Quintana . Indeed, the Ana Rosa Program at Telecinco continued without a break, working tirelessly. It was the first program that decided not to have an audience on the set days before the state of alarm was declared, exactly on March 10 . They never thought about closing nor did they consider doing the program from home. They decided that it was necessary to continue there, decided that it had to be there.

They took precautionary measures . First, only a third of the staff would work and the rest would do it from home with 15-day shifts. "Everyone has taken turns, except Ana Rosa," they assure EL MUNDO from the program. Since April, periodic tests have been carried out following the protocols of the chain and the Unicorn TV producer, checking that all the equipment was OK. Of all of them, only Ana Rosa Quintana came to the set every day except for a Friday, which caused an allergy that prevented her from speaking and caused all alarms to go off.

We had to reinvent ourselves every morning because it was all uncertainties

"We have had to reinvent ourselves every morning because everything was uncertainties . We started the program pending the numbers of the deceased who did not stop growing; pending the news from the Government, which changed our life habits; concerned about the colleagues who were contagious And sharing the pain of those families, who were heartbroken, but when the camera was turned on I was there trying to overcome all those situations. Sometimes my voice would break , "he explained at the end of the season.

The program was reorganized in record time finding great difficulties that were added to the already habitual complications of a live program. "The biggest difficulty has been with the videos. The program was still live and it was necessary to give the same coverage that was given before the alarm state was declared. But finding videos, content, mounting them, with just one A third of the workforce has been the most complicated ", they explain from The Ana Rosa Program . Of all the workers on the staff, it was only decided to quarantine Ana Pardo in case she had to replace Ana Rosa Quintana at any time, the rest continued to work every day without rest.

"There have been very hard days and this team has lived up to it. There have been days when our young people were afraid to go out into the streets to report and return home and be able to infect their family; to speak of almost 900 deaths; to testimonies they will always stay in my heart, "praised the presenter last Friday during her farewell to the work of her team. "It has been hard but here we have been to tell about it, to report from the scene, to ask for explanations, to demand responsibility, and to accompany nearly 1.5 million families who have followed us every morning during the pandemic" , Add.

The price, physical and mental "weariness" . Physical, because it was necessary to continue making a daily live program with only a third of the workforce, and mental, because behind the cameras they suffered the same thing that they suffered at home , fear, worry, anguish and ... And headlines, the headlines that Ana Rosa Quintana has grabbed day after day.

The "pain" of El Hormiguero

The same as Pablo Motos and El Hormiguero , who today enter their last week and close the season. The presenter himself revealed last Monday on the return of the public to the set of the Antena 3 program that mounting the program again in a state of alarm was not easy, that there was a bad feeling, that there was much fear, that, despite what we watched from home, on the set the faces were long ...

El Hormiguero was suspended the first week of alarm to reinvent itself. Pablo Motos doubted whether to return or not . There was fear. As Miguel Ángel Revilla revealed last Thursday, Motos called him "scared" days before confinement "concerned about a company that has many people in place." And it was precisely Revilla who encouraged the presenter to do the program even if it was without an audience and with interviews with remote guests.

It was very difficult to come up with a new program, but if we didn't go back people would have a worse time

As reported from El Hormiguero , proposing a new program "was very difficult", so Motos met with Marron , Juan Ibáñez and Damián Mollá (Trancas and Barrancas) and "in record time" they took out of the hat a program adapted to the situation . " We cut the team in half . It was analyzed department by department to see how to organize ourselves and that most of them could go home. People continued to work from home and the minimum necessary remained on the set, " they explain from the program. . The objective was clear: "You had to help people . "

"We came back because I felt it was important that people did not lose hope, that they thought that, if the program continued, it was not so serious and that we would get out of it. We came back so that you had a routine, so that, at a certain time, you had company and, if possible, a smile, "confirmed Pablo Motos this Monday. However, the return was not easy. We proceeded to take all possible precautions, from daily disinfection with ozone on the set , through not allowing more than two people in the same room, to reducing employees to the essential minimum , always controlled by the program's medical team. I carried out the appropriate tests and checked that they were in good health. In fact, it was thanks to the PCRs that were performed that an asymptomatic was detected among the team and "thanks to the fact that we did them, we are not all infected."

The program was rethought so that in the absence of an audience, practically no science, "in the absence of suppliers", and being unable to do the interviews in person, Pablo Motos turned El Hormiguero into a table of anecdotes, confessions , humor and closeness that worked perfectly from the beginning, but that has also cost him more than a displeasure. You just have to use the audience data that El Hormiguer has collected during these 101 days. It has continued to score gold minutes and averaged over 15% screen share.

It was not only the fear that they confess to have breathed at the beginning during the broadcast of the program, but also that, like Ana Rosa Quintana , their presenter has also been involved day by day and also in controversy . If he talked about brain function, criticism rained down the next day and experts denied him. If he talked about the Government, the next day Pablo Motos was trending topic on Twitter and not exactly to flatter him. If he criticized Fernando Simón, but still. Even before the state of alarm was decreed, Pablo Motos received harsh criticism for triggering alerts during his interview with José Antonio de la Morena, about what he believed could happen and what happened. Much wear .

Madness, responsibility, business?

Wear to which was added the personal tragedies that were also being experienced in El Hormiguero and that obviously the viewer never perceived until it was Pablo Motos himself who last Monday recounted "the pain" that has been experienced in the program. "Many of those who were here had been angry with their partners because they did not understand that they had to come to work in the middle of an unknown thing that was killing people, some even asked me if I had gone crazy (...) We could not preventing our people from dying has hit us very hard. Every day there was news, dramas ... there are people on this team who have lost their father, grandparents, mother and father in the course of four weeks".

Madness, responsibility, business? Be that as it may, the price has been high to give viewers an escape route. Save me also continued, some from home, others from the set. With fewer changes than, for example, El Hormiguero , but with the same difficulties and the same wear and tear: less equipment, the same time to cover, less capacity ... And like others, they reinvented themselves. They left the heart to make room for the pandemic with the opinions of experts and different analyzes that were widely applauded by the audience until ... until politics entered the scene and Jorge Javier Vázquez became one of the most critical voices with the right and looser with the Executive. Remember that only for "reds and fags" or the latest, the Kim Jong-Vázquez.

Ana Rosa Quintana, Pablo Motos or Jorge Javier Vázquez have been hoarders of headlines and controversies

Undoubtedly, the television protagonist of this pandemic not only continued to lead Sálvame but also had to face the most complicated survivors in the history of reality . The program came face to face with the health crisis. It was even published that the reality was going to be canceled. However, far from it, Survivors continued without an audience, with a minimum number of collaborators, without makeup equipment, without props and with a good part of the team in Honduras, where the program adapted everything to the new situation. Even the chain chartered a private flight from the South American country or to bring the entire team to the end of the program.

Survivors could not be canceled, first, because the audience data that it gave to Mediaset could not be lost and, second, because although there are many who do not share it, the Spanish needed to disconnect at some point. Whether it was with television platforms, whether it was with Survivors , El Hormiguero , Sálvame or watching movies that if it hadn't been for the confinement you would never have had time to watch.

The tears of Lara Álvarez at the closing of the 2020 Survivors palapa were not just for saying another goodbye to the program, the tears of Lara Álvarez hid behind the more than three estranged from the family while in Spain one of the worst battles was fought of its history. Lara Álvarez's tears hid uncertainty, doubts, worry, fatigue, melancholy ... Imagine having lived through the worst moments of the health crisis thousands of kilometers away with only the information from the media and the occasional phone call to your loved ones. Difficult, very difficult and, above all, not knowing what would become of them, if the program would continue, if they would be allowed to return ... This has also not been seen.

There is probably no awareness of what television has meant in these months, but imagine a 70-year-old person , alone at home, unable to see his family, listening to terrible news at all hours and with no company other than a television. . Or imagine a family confined all day with their children , without turning on the television so that the children do not see what is going on and who only turns on the television once a day to disconnect, laugh and spend time with the family. Or imagine a man in his 30s or 40s alone, with his family hundreds of kilometers away, teleworking from the first hour to the last, and with only the sound of television - even if only the sound - for company. Well that's what they have all done for 101 days. Without the viewer having been aware at any time of the fatigue, or the effort, or the pain, or anything that was behind, and behind there was much. Has television continued to do magic? Think about it.

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Know more

  • Antenna 3
  • Telecinco
  • RTVE
  • Masterchef
  • Ana Rosa Quintana Hortal
  • Jorge Javier Vázquez
  • Pablo Motorcycles

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