The great challenge of TVE: replace the 'man of the running of the bulls' with 68% share

If we ask anyone about the figure who has contributed the most to spreading the Sanfermines, the answer would be quick and obvious, a commonplace:

.

If we ask about the second person in this

, more than one would hesitate to give him a name, but not a face.

His name is

,

journalist

with 27 years of television experience and more than 200 narrated running of the bulls.

A whole professional life that has come to an end.

It's time to reinvent yourself on TVE.

He will do it through

, a veteran runner from San Sebastian who is habitual in the streets of Pamplona and in other running of the bulls in Navarra with his Osasuna shirt.

A relay that is not yet official by public television, as Teo himself comments to this newspaper.

And a relay more complicated than it might seem.

To begin with, we are talking about a program of about an hour and a half (between 7:15 and 8:30) on La 1. The running of the bulls closed 2019 (the last year before the pandemic break) with a 68.7% share of the screen .

Four million spectators saw one of the eight running of the bulls that year, according to data from Barlovento, which points out that the Sanfermines modify the consumption habits of the spectators: one million joined the usual quota at 8:00.

Javier Solano was in charge of this program on TVE since 1988, with the exception of the years 2010, 11 and 12. He could be defined as a public worker, an announcer with a great voice and narration capacity.

Nothing given to excesses, adjectives or risqué.

The only controversy that he is reminded of in so many hours of broadcasting was describing the case of the rape of La Manada in Pamplona as an "accident", a comment for which he quickly apologized.

So why is it difficult to replace a worker so little given to the show?

who replaced Solano during his three-year absence in Pamplona, ​​answers: "Javier has been the one who has brought the Sanfermines to the whole world, he is the one who knows the most about the running of the bulls and knows more details. In addition, he

narrates

very well, we have all learned thanks to him".

Chapu Apaolaza

, journalist, runner and author of the book

(Libros del KO), in the order you prefer, emphasizes that Solano, as the first announcer of the Sanfermines "had many challenges, because it is not easy to find the right tone , don't fall into sensationalism, don't turn the runners into stars, understand that the protagonist is a great mass that are the waiters and therein lies the magic".

How to count the closure?

Around 3,000 people fill the streets of the encierro every day in San Fermín.

A clean run takes no more than two and a half minutes to complete 850 meters of distance.

six bulls.

The combinations are counted by millions, nobody knows what can happen and there is no previous script.

How is that narrated?

Perhaps those who have the most experience in this aspect are the radio announcers.

, Navarrese, commands the

team in charge of telling what happens on the route every morning.

A work for which he was awarded by the Radio Academy in 2011. He has in his favor his background in the sports world, narrator of handball matches, stages of the

: "As in cycling, this is a sprint, a fragment. My stage lasts about 20 seconds."

And could radio language be transferred to television, as happens in football matches?: "It could, but would it be bearable? Because, what can I contribute that your eyes don't see? You can't expect to go in and count a thousand details that happen constantly, you have to appreciate the value of silence".

Izu adds that, for him, the most important thing is to know how to "transmit emotion", because "you can't prepare for the running of the bulls. You have to be yourself and show the passion you feel".

Also, there is the technical issue.

In 2007,

entered the bid for the running of the bulls and competed with TVE.

He came up with the idea of ​​telling the race like never before.

To do this, he relied on one of the most renowned filmmakers,

responsible for the revolution in the broadcasts of the San Isidro bullfights on Canal + in the 90s and the World Cup in Germany, among others.

However... The critics of the spectators followed one another.

There were mistakes or, simply, plans that the public rejected.

"They wanted to do spectacular things, the idea was good, but when it comes to doing it, difficulties can be seen", says Patxi Cervantes.

"It's very dynamic. The details have already passed when one still has to focus. In addition, you have to know the running of the bulls very well," says Apaolaza.

Teo Lázaro Armendáriz, in the center of the image, in a race in Pamplona.

the blood show

In recent years, moreover, a question has been added to the difficulties inherent to confinement: How will a show in which blood, violence, drama and even death are always present fit into the future, even if only as a burning threat?

Chapu Apaolaza speaks here also dressed in his spotless white running suit: "If society gives in completely to the sweep of death, the confinement has no meaning. The confinement offends because it puts the existence of death on the table. I hope it does not succumb ".

And the televisions will do it?

"In life and in confinement you hurt yourself, sometimes very terrible things are seen. Logically, it is not about recreating in the wounds," adds Apaolaza.

Faster and cleaner

Another threat to the show that begins each year on July 7 is the repetition in which the running of the bulls has fallen, the added lack of

, due to a mixture of factors such as the anti-slip in the Estafeta curve that keeps the herds together and the training of the oxen, which protect the bulls at all times.

Cervantes clearly sees the danger of boring the viewer: "The measures of recent years have subtracted emotion. Now a loose bull is extraordinary, in recent years they have been extremely fast,

Apaolaza shares it, but with nuances, since in his opinion television transmits "a sensation of ballet, of the runners falling as if on an ice rink. However, up close there is sound, smell, energy... the fear".

And he transfers to the spectators a piece of advice that his father gave him: "Let them look at a person, where they come from, where they go, how they run, if they make a mistake...".

And both coincide: each running of the bulls is different.

On July 7 in Pamplona the flowers will return to the bust of Hemingway.

Javier Solano will now be just a spectator, one more from Pamplona.

But the bulls will take to the streets again and hundreds of thousands of people will get up early again to see the spectacle of the running of the bulls live.

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