Patito Feo (in English, Ugly Duckling) is a teen drama TV series from Argentina, starring Laura Natalia Esquivel, Brenda Asnicar, Juan Darthes, Griselda Sicilliani and Gastón Soffritti produced by Ideas del Sur for Canal 13. The show is distributed worldwide by Televisa.
The show started it's run on April 2007 on Canal 13 and had two seasons, with a total of 316 episodes. It was later picked up by Disney Channel Latin America, which started airing it in the entire continent.
The show became a huge success soon after its debut. The soundtrack was the best-selling album of 2007 according to CAPIF, over 70 licensed products were released and the cast toured Argentina (with stops in Buenos Aires, where over 160,000 people saw the live concert, Mendoza, Córdoba, Mar del Plata, Rosario, Salta, Tucuman and Santa Fe) and, subsequently, the rest of South America, North America and Central America with stops in Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Panama, Dominican Republic, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Ecuador, El Salvador, Bolivia and Turkey, selling out arenas and stadiums[2].
In 2008, Patito Feo won the Martin Fierro Award and received a nomination for the International Emmy Award for Best Children & Young Adults program.
Following the success of Floricienta, Canal 13 wanted another show in the same vein so it could achieve those ratings again. Floricienta was one of the few successes on the channel's afternoon slot and it had ended two years earlier, in 2005. After failing to achieve success with youth-oriented shows from Pol-ka (Media Falta) and Dori Media (El Refugio), they commissioned a show from Ideas del Sur, which like Floricienta, gave a modern spin on a classic fairytale.
Patito Feo started production in November and debuted six months later, in April 2007. It soon became a huge hit, winning its time slot and beating competitor show Casi Angeles, aired in Telefe. It was the first time in over 15 years Cris Morena did not have the #1 show among the young demographic and was beaten by another production targeted at this audience.
In its first year, Patito was a huge success. It was the leader in it time-slot, beating Casi Angeles and was a huge phenomenon among children, spawning merchandising and albums. According to CAPIF, Patito Feo soundtrack was the best-selling album in Argentina in 2007 and the DVD of the live Teatro Gran Rex musical was the best-selling musical DVD[3]. The song Las Divinas was the best-selling ringtone ever in the country.
A few months after its debut in Canal 13, the program debuted in Disney Channel all over Latin America and, later, on broadcast television. The show was a huge success all over the continent and the cast toured extensively, selling out arenas and stadiums in over 15 countries.
Although the show was incredibly well received by the audience, Patito Feo attracted huge criticism due to the fact it glamorized the villains, a group of mean and beautiful girls that called themselves Las Divinas (The Divines). Besides being superficial, Las Divinas were also mean and bullied Patito. The fact the villains were much more popular among young girls than the main character caused concern over some groups and the issue was even on the cover of important magazine Noticias under the headline "The Triumph of Discrimination"[4].
After a very well-received first season, the show was renewed for a second one. In May, the second season finally debuted. While its first week did well in ratings, viewership started to decrease significantly day after day. Meanwhile, Casi Angeles, which went through an extreme makeover after a lukewarm reception during its first year, became incredibly popular and it got to a point where it was almost doubling Patito's rating. In the end, Patito Feo second season was heavily beat by Casi Angeles second season and the show ended up being canceled by Canal 13 two months before the initial plan with the final episodes being aired only on the Disney Channel and on international markets. An inconsistent storyline and a huge quality drop in the scripts were blamed for the show big decline in popularity.
In early 2008, under the name De Tout Mon Coeur, Patito Feo started airing on children channel Gulli in France. It soon became a huge success, being the most-watched show on the channel. A few months later, Elastic Rights bought the rights to distribute the show in Italy, Portugal and Spain.
In Italy, Il Mondo di Patty and debuted on the Disney Channel and soon became a gigantic hit. Due to the big popularity, a huge merchandising line was unveiled and Laura Esquivel visited the country to promote the show. The rights were bought by terrestrial Mediaset-owned Italia 1 which started airing the show in the Summer of 2009. Il Mondo di Patty became an even bigger success in the country, being one of the most-watched shows on the channel.[5]
Also in 2008, Patito Feo debuted on Cartoon Network in Spain. It was very well-received and became one of the top shows among young girls on cable. In 2009, it debuted on the Disney Channel and became one of the highest-rated shows on cable in Spain, topping Hannah Montana and other shows ratings[6].
Finally, it debuted in SIC in Portugal under the name O Mundo da Patty. It also became a huge success there, being the leader in its time-slot and one of the highest-rated show among kids[7].
There are plans for a US version and MTV Networks is currently developing a pilot
Paz Eyl. 19, 2010 3:48 am
