Formula for the success of humor journalism formats on television according to their professional teams

Abstract

Success on television can be measured according to a series of variables. In this work, a theoretical review was carried out to determine its main factors, complemented with 34 in-depth interviews with the heads of the seven longest-running journalistic humor formats on Spanish television from 1990 to 2015. Owing to their importance in terms of broadcasting and support from society, these enable an evaluation of entertainment as it is linked to information, as both a societal need and technique for escapism, thus depicting the enhanced importance of the television medium in terms of how its content, characters, and structure form part of our collective history. The conclusions have a social character in revealing what the public has consumed, and an economic character, as they decipher what works on television, using a method based on five factors: content, technical execution, awards and reviews, audience, and context. The interviewees provide the keys to the success of the audiovisual cultural industry, characterized herein using 100 categories. For television professionals, success is a utopia that is achieved only by those who combine high-quality content and excellent technical execution, for which they receive awards and strong reviews that reinforce their image with the audience, whose numbers and opinion determine, together with the context, competition, and market conditions, their time on air. Their statements reveal that differentiation, talent, the backing of the network, and creative freedom based on tenacity are fundamental features. Achieving success is a complex task, with a proven formula that does not only represent a limitation but also enables innovative contributions from other genres.