La familia de la tele

Critical and viewer reaction to the premiere was overwhelmingly negative. After ratings failed to improve, Chair of RTVE José Pablo López took responsibility for the failure, saying: "We tried it out, and the programme didn't work."^[4] By the end of the show's run, the show's cast admitted that the show's fortunes would not turn around, with Belén Esteban saying: "I got used to being on successful programmes, and real life is probably like this."^[5]

Other presenters, such as Marc Giró, defended the show's presenters, saying that he would have kept the programme going for a little longer.^[6] Ramón García said that "tabloid programmes don't work anymore".^[7] Presenter Inés Hernand suggested that La 1's afternoon audience was not accustomed to the kind of show that La familia de la tele aspired to be, and that the format felt confused.^[8] Borja Terán, a critic for 20 minutos, felt that the show's failure was due to what he believed to be the public's rose-tinted view of Sálvame, and that a disjointed format was to blame, rather than the performance of its key figures.^[9]

The first part of the show had an average of 570,000 viewers in the afternoons (6.7% share). The second part averaged 402,000 viewers (5.5% share).

The show's failure also generated criticism for the show's large budget, especially for the number of episodes it was planned to have. The contract for the show gave it a budget of €6 million for the planned sixty-three episodes, however the show's episodes were soon halved and the show cost €4,194,088 overall. Details were soon released about the presenters' (€1,616 per programme) and collaborators' (between €950 and €1,150 per programme) salaries, the monthly salaries of producers (€8,750 and €5,000) and honorariums paid to guests, which could be up to €2,000 per show.^[10]

The controversy over a show largely seen as incompatible with TVE's viewership was also linked to a feeling that the show was similar to the trash TV genre premiered by Telecinco, with many of its presenters having been closely linked to Sálvame, Telecinco's former flagship tabloid TV programme.^[11] José Pablo López said: "In public-service television we are never going to put up a red line against 'who', but 'what'," saying that public-service TV needed to try out different types of programming.^[12]

Trade unions also denounced a show they called "incompatible with the values of public-service TV" and warning of a "loss of credibility" for the network, such as one of the show's presenters being sent to cover the conclave in Rome, which some news organisations believed to be of questionable journalistic rigour.^[13]