Almost two weeks ago, Emma García received the Golden Antenna for her work on the leading weekend afternoon show, Fiesta. He dedicated it to his family, to his father, who passed away in 2022, with whom he always shared all the moments of his life and... And he left the prize in the car.

Sigmund Freud would say many things about this. So we start the interview with one of Mediaset's star presenters and one of the most loved by viewers doing a bit of psychoanalysis: "Let's see, I didn't forget (laughs). She was wearing a very wide skirt, high heels... and I told my dear director -Eva Espejo- to keep it for herself and give it to me the next day. In short, I was very clear about the award that I wanted to place it at home and, especially, give it to my daughter and my husband. In fact, the first thing I did when I arrived was to tell them 'for you.'"

She still hasn't given him the space he deserves at home, but Emma García is clear that she is going to take him to San Sebastian, to the land where she grew up and where she returns whenever she can, because as they say, you always go back to where you were happy.

Although she is one of the faces that have been accompanying television for more than 20 years, few know that the presenter of Fiesta, A tu lado, Mujeres, Hombre y Viceversa and so many other formats came to this world by chance. She wanted, like almost all of us who study journalism, to be a war correspondent. And it was. Also by accident or luck, depending on how you look at it. It was during the Bosnian war. The first time he was in third grade and he went with the Red Cross. "It was a hard and complicated experience, which now you look at with perspective and think 'who would think of going there with a newly approved driver's license to do thousands of kilometers'," he confesses. The second was an intern in a news agency and due to circumstances of fate and, despite the fact that interns could not travel, much less to a war zone, there she went and there she realized that "you have to be made of a very special paste, that we are talking about a war". "Look," he interrupts, "I didn't expect that after so many years we would have to talk about a war again and we would be like this again, it doesn't enter my head and it doesn't enter any of us." The perennial, constant smile that always accompanies him disappears. It's just an instant. "When I get serious , I get very serious."

On TV there is also risk... She has a different risk, but she has it (laughs).And how does someone who wanted to be a war reporter end up being a TV star? Well, by chance. I finished my degree and started in the written press. Then a television station opened in Pamplona and they told me 'come on, introduce yourself'. And I went, as sometimes you go to places, to try. I did the casting, they told me that if I cut my hair they would catch me, I cut my ends and from there to Telecinco as a reporter, then to Cinemanía, then Canal Plus, ETB, Telecinco... And to this day and without stopping. I finished on a Friday at the ETB and on Monday I was already live presenting A tu lado.

And with By Your Side came stardom. In fact, Emma García admits that Fiesta reminds her a lot of those years when A tu lado entertained millions of viewers every afternoon. Now, he has more experience, but "I'm still with the same enthusiasm."

And after 20 years, how much has Emma Garcia changed and how much has television changed? I have realized that every day I like my job more, that it makes me very happy, that I am more confident and that I have clearer ideas. And the TV... Now the competition is absolutely brutal. The competition isn't bad because it also gets you going and you don't relax, but there are so many channels, so many programs that it's very complicated. But you and Fiesta are doing very well. Yes, but there is more and more competition. There are the movies, there is Nuria Roca, there are other magazines... The biggest difference about the weekend is that it has nothing to do with the newspaper. In other words, what works for you one day doesn't work for you the next, what works one hour doesn't work for you the next. It's blessed madness. Are you obsessed with audiences? I'd like to say no, but we all look at the data. Of course, over the years I have learned to manage it because I used to get tachycardia. Now, I'm looking forward to it, but I've learned to control myself.

The reality is that Emma Garcia and her team can forget about tachycardia. Fiesta, produced by Unicorn Content, Ana Rosa Quintana's production company, is, with an average of 35.9% contribution to the network so far this season, the entertainment program of the entire week, which contributes the most to Telecinco's data on its broadcast days, on weekends. And in this, although she wants to pull humility and the great family that was formed in the program, Emma has a lot of guilt.

Over the years I have learned to manage the pressure of data because I used to get tachycardia

Multifaceted as they are, Emma García, as grandmothers would say, is good for a torn and unstitched. You can host a reality show, a magazine, a dating show, a game show. "All I have left is the news," he says, tossing his rod in case anyone wants to listen. "I approach everything the same way," he says. "I always try to be me in a contest, in a current moment or at a table of the heart," he adds, and insists: "I think that since I like what I do and I like to get out of my comfort zone, then here we go."

You rarely see Emma Garcia angry, but when you do get angry, what does it take you out of your mind? I can't stand disrespect when it comes to talking or dealing with issues. The spectator is there and he is the one who is choosing us and we owe him not only that respect, but that deference. When you're talking about something, we're going to put the judge's gavel on the table and we're going to put all the information on the table. Then let each one in his house decide who he supports and who he doesn't. Yes, absolutely, and it's fundamental. But on TV and off TV. I like listening much more than talking because by listening you learn a lot and in the end you realize what you want to say or where you want to go. I get really when I can't hear because then I don't understand the message they're sending.

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I make the final decision and stick to what I do

Every afternoon of the weekend, before entering the set, Emma García tells herself and the rest of the team "let's enjoy it". It is his motto, the one that keeps the flame of illusion burning. On the day that her clothes allow it, she carries with her a small quartz and on her wrists "always, always, always" a bracelet of her daughter Uxue and another of her grandmother, who passed away a few years ago. "For me this is fundamental and then breathe, breathe and breathe," and breathe.

Right now, there aren't as many live shows that last more than five hours as there is with Fiesta. It shouldn't be easy. There is one fundamental thing and that is that I have to have all the information. I mean, I want everything. If you're going to talk about a character, it's all about that character; if a video is to be shown, all the information about that video; If a news story is going to be given, everything that has to do with that news. I don't mind improvising and even more so being a live program, but I need all the information and handle it myself. I try to keep a balance and this was proposed to me when I arrived at Telecinco at the age of 27 because I realized that in this world one day you go down the aisle and they tell you that you are the best and the next you make a bad audience figure and they tell you that you are the worst. You can't live like that, I couldn't live like that. It wouldn't make it the following year. Here, on TV, you have to find a way to survive mentally. It's a complicated process, but it's something that has helped me a lot over all these years so that I didn't get the low, but I didn't get the high either. I also tell you that the first one to criticize herself and who is a perfectionist, is me, something that I have also learned to control. Now I don't beat myself up too much because in the end you become your own worst enemy. Are we more self-demanding? I don't know. We want to keep learning and keep doing better. Look, someone who is not demanding and who does not criticize himself, I doubt very much that he can continue to enjoy his work. And you've had a lot of lows? At first it was very hard, very hard, and it still is. When you know that you haven't done a good program and that you could have done better, then of course it's annoying, but they are slumps that you now know can be overcome because you're going to demand it. If the person who stands in front of a camera already knows everything and is already above good and evil, you no longer transmit. The camera is very prying and reflects everything. Television is a world with a lot of quarrels, envy, egos... Have you experienced a lot of this? I've lived through it all. The reality is that TV is a world like any other. Where there is power, where there is money, you know. You meet a lot of unscrupulous people. And what do you do? Well, be true to yourself. It's what's important to me and to survive in this job.

It's surprising to talk to a presenter, to a star, to the host of a successful show and see that her feet are firmly on the ground. She reveals that whenever she can, she does her hair and makeup herself, to feel like herself, and that this helps her not to fly away and get lost in the clouds. For her, success is not the audiences, nor the Golden Antenna, nor having been chaining successful programs for more than 20 years; For her, success is not having gotten carried away, "having always been the one who has made the decisions". "If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I make the final decision. That way, if I have something to say, I tell myself and stick to what I've decided and what I've thought."

So, we can say that Emma Garcia has become Emma Garcia.

  • Emma Garcia
  • Telecinco
  • Mediaset