Canal Quickie (Quickie Channel) is a streaming channel on YouTube and Twitch that burst onto the Spanish media scene in May 2024, becoming a unique and particularly relevant case for reflecting on the changes that have been taking place in Spanish television over the last decade. Until January 2026, Canal Quickie only broadcast one original programme per day, from Monday to Friday, and on YouTube offered the content of its broadcasts in full, fragmented into pieces focusing on specific topics discussed in each broadcast or as short videos with relevant or funny moments to share on social media. Furthermore, although Canal Quickie could be viewed free of charge online, its programmes were also available on Twitch and on a linear television channel, Ten, which is a minority player within the wide range of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) offerings.
What has made it anomalous is that it had its roots in Spanish generalist television, as it is a kind of spin-off from the cultural universe surrounding the successful TV show Sálvame, broadcast between 2009 and 2023 on Telecinco (the most watched Spanish television channel between 2012 and 2021):1 it drawed on its characters and contents and attempts to update its formula to a new audiovisual distribution window, after the programme was cancelled. Despite its importance in the national television industry and its continued and significant social impact, there is almost no academic literature on Sálvame and its creative world and it deserves much more consideration from television researchers.2
Despite its short history, Canal Quickie has been a very relevant phenomenon due to its multiple negotiations between traditional television and the new streaming windows facilitated by the internet. This article aims to analyse how Canal Quickie emerged in Spain as a hybrid space between these two spheres, one consolidated (traditional television), the other emerging (VoD platforms), and how it interacted with each one’s creative codes. Its success made possible that its main format, Ni que fuéramos Shhh (2023-2025), became adapted by Televisión Española, the Spanish state-owned public television corporation, as La familia de la tele (2025), with Sálvame’s and Canal Quickie’s stars as its protagonists. The article thus will study the main traits of Ni que fúeramos Shhh and how it hybridised televisual conventions from both traditional and streaming television; later, it will pay attention to the failure of its formula in Televisión Española and the final decline of Canal Quickie months later. The analysis will demonstrate how new forms of entertainment are being tested in the contemporary Spanish audiovisual market, exploring the potential opportunities offered by the new streaming landscape, including for creative formats and stars from traditional television.
To provide better context, the following section addresses the multiple industrial, production and social changes that are taking place in the Spanish media landscape. This overview of the changes that have taken place in recent years and how these have been taken into consideration and analysed in the academic literature allows one to have a broader background for a better understanding of the case study examined in the following pages, particularly for international readers.
1 A New Digital Communication Ecosystem: Industrial, Production and Social Changes
The development of digitalisation in the audiovisual sector has promoted the establishment and expansion of OTT (over-the-top) services in the field of television content production and distribution, ushering in a new era in which connected television is at the centre of economic and social transformation.3 In the words of Piñón (2021):
Telecommunications companies have entered the media landscape, as have software and digital companies. These have become media distributors, such as Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, etc., which are the new dominant players and, in fact, the participants in the very infrastructure that supports the television network. This is an important fact, because these corporations are also platforms that not only offer a service, but are also the generators of an infrastructure for social life.4
This circumstance has altered the industrial fabric and relationships between market players,5 as well as audience consumption habits, which are gradually changing to the detriment of traditional television and in favour of accessing content via the Internet.6
In the era of Peak TV, characterised by the saturation of audiovisual offerings, especially television, due to the proliferation of new VoD (video on demand) services, audiences have a large number of devices and options to occupy their free time.7 This has led to new operators and traditional channels competing in what has been called the ‘streaming wars’,8 producing projects that are more risky in form and content in order to attract an audience that is difficult to surprise due to the huge amount of content available.9
The options offered by online media as a distributor of audiovisual content give users more freedom of choice, programming and device, giving way to a new paradigm that surpasses the possibilities of analogue television. In the digital era, streaming platforms such as Netflix or HBO offer big catalogues of films and TV series to the audiences, and there is not a broadcast schedule organising their exhibition. Therefore, subscribers are more able to decide what they want to watch and when.10 As Higueras-Ruiz (2025) puts it: ‘Digitalisation, globalisation and contemporary social issues are driving cultural and creative industries towards innovation through the digital economy’.11
The Spanish market has become a focus of attention for the establishment of international platforms, as television consumption rates in this country lead the figures in Europe and, furthermore, the limited success of pay television is interpreted as an opportunity to expand options beyond free-to-air television.12 The main industrial, technological and legal changes that have enabled the implementation and development of VoD in Spain are: (1) the negotiation of copyright for exploitation on the internet, (2) the revision of the Intellectual Property Law, (3) the implementation of broadband, (4) the development of new technological devices, (5) the penetration of Smart TVs in homes, (6) the arrival of new players, and (7) the development of new content for home consumption.13 In this regard, it is relevant to highlight that the implementation of OTT services in Europe generated regulations to operate under conditions of fair competition in the audiovisual market. The European Union Directive 2018/1808 imposed streaming operators to reserve the 30% of their catalogues for European productions, and in some countries they must contribute with a percentage of their revenues to investments in the national audiovisual sector.14
In the Spanish audiovisual context, the first attempts at VoD, such as PixBox, Yodecido, and Youzee, had little success. Among the reasons for this, Albújar points to the strength of the Atresmedia-Mediaset television duopoly (which brings together the main generalist private television channels, such as Antena 3 and Telecinco respectively, beyond the state and regional public television channels), the lack of a tradition of pay television in Spain, and the reluctance to pay for a service that has traditionally been free.15 This option has been strengthened by the arrival of international companies such as Netflix and Google Play,16 which have been joined by Spanish initiatives such as Movistar+, Atresplayer and Rakuten TV. All of this has also led to the structural recovery of the audiovisual production sector following the 2008 economic crisis.17 With the arrival of VoD services, new independent production companies have emerged and, together with traditional ones (increasing in number since the 1990s due to the appearance of private television channels that commissioned production tasks to external companies), offer content adapted to the new landscape. According to the latest CNMC18 Report on this economic sector (June 2025), users’ habits and preferences in the type of audiovisual service they consume depend on their age: people aged 65 and over lead the way in free-to-air television/DTT, while young people aged 16 to 24 prefer video-sharing platforms, and those aged 25 to 34 opt for VoD services in the majority of cases.19 Similarly, the results of the Spanish consulting firm Barlovento on the distribution of audiovisual consumption by Spaniards according to age groups show that people aged 18-44 are the demographic group that most accesses YouTube, with 55 minutes per day, compared to individuals aged 55 and over, who only spend 25 minutes per day on this social network.20
The rise of streaming platforms has also motivated traditional media groups to offer their own VoD services and seek new market strategies to adapt to the ecosystem through different channels, such as apps or social media (YouTube, Twitch, X).21 Therefore, ‘in its most recent phase, the arrival and rapid popularisation of streaming platforms has not only changed the way we watch and consume television, but has also shaken the foundations of the audiovisual business landscape’.22
The result is an environment of convergence in which different types of digital operators (pay TV, streaming, social media) coexist with national free-to-air channels, giving rise to new business opportunities. At the production and distribution level, alliances are being formed between local agents and new operators;23 in terms of content, new proposals are being developed that reformulate the parameters of traditional television;24 and in terms of reception, new parameters, such as engagement on social media,25 are used to assess the success of projects,26 so that the consumption patterns of the era of convergence and digitalisation also differ from traditional ones.27
Beyond television fiction, new VoD audiovisual platforms are committed to developing different lines of innovation in terms of content, such as the creation of documentary series28 or the production and distribution of entertainment formats, an option that has been embraced in recent years by streaming services as a strategy to compete with linear television in Spain.29 The turning point in this dynamic is 2021, especially with Netflix and Prime Video’s initiatives to develop entertainment formats for VoD with a clear focus on reality shows such as Amor con fianza (Netflix, 2021) or, in dialogue with the talent show genre, examples as Celebrity Bake Off (Prime Video, 2021).30
Meanwhile, traditional generalist television channels are also venturing into new areas such as YouTube. The results of the study by González-Neira et al. on the supply and consumption of content from Spanish generalist channels on YouTube show that the promotional aim of directing audience communities towards their channels is present in all cases, although there is no single strategy or model of action for linear television in the digital arena:31
Therefore, the role of YouTube is confirmed as a touchpoint for traditional broadcasters’ TV content. However, for different legal and business reasons, it is merely used by the private channels as a hook and attractive element to promote certain content stored on their own websites. They do not take advantage of the potential of YouTube and do not consider it to be a key element in their digital strategy; in practice, there is a lack of crossmedia initiative which could improve the user experience in view of an absence of exclusive material. There is thus no extended content strategy.32
On the audience side, social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitch are valued for their flexibility, as opposed to the rigid schedules of traditional television.33 Users, especially younger ones, turn to these services for their live streaming possibilities for entertainment and online gaming,34 seeking the flexibility and interaction that digital media allows. As Piñón puts it:
The inside-out transformation of Internet television allows the television experience to remain consistent with established norms while deploying a substantial change on the inside, specifically the non-linearity and interactivity inherent in the digital video platform.35
In this regard, it should be noted that as early as 2020, the results of the study by Vázquez-Barrio et al. indicated that ‘YouTube and Spotify were the applications most mentioned by participants as entertainment channels for watching videos and listening to music’,36 which shows previous evidence of the potential of this type of applications for the consumption of audiovisual contents.
In this context of huge changes, from May 2024 to January 2026, Canal Quickie has operated as a hybrid audiovisual space between traditional television and new streaming platforms, resulting an anomalous case in the Spanish media landscape, as an intermediate media area between traditional linear television and new spaces for the production and distribution of audiovisual content. The case of Canal Quickie is similar to other initiatives developed in Europe in recent years, such as TalkTV in the United Kingdom or LeStream in France, which are exploring strategies for producing streaming content.
To analyse this case study, this article takes a media history approach, historicising this new audiovisual phenomenon, its origin and its evolution, while analysing the textual aspects that characterised Ni que fuéramos Shhh, the main format created by Canal Quickie, considering both from the perspective of Cultural Studies.37 In a context of major industrial transformations, this case study shows how attempts are emerging in Spain to hybridise conventional forms of television creation with novel forms of audiovisual content production and distribution for new screens. However, despite the success of Ni que fuéramos Shhh, the subsequent quick failures of La familia de la tele and No somos nadie, both formats being its successors, and the near-disappearance of Canal Quickie in late January 2026, raise doubts about the extent to which these experiments will take root over time, at least with the same creators and protagonists, as will be explained in the following pages.
2 From Telecinco to Canal Quickie, via Netflix (May 2023-May 2024)
Canal Quickie emerged as a space outside the Spanish television industry to keep the universe of Sálvame (Telecinco, 2009-2023) alive after the programme was cancelled. For 14 years, Sálvame was one of the most successful and influential programmes on Spanish television. Despite its importance in the national television industry and its continued and significant social impact, there is almost no academic literature on it, and it deserves much more consideration from television researchers.38
Sálvame was a difficult format to define, characterised by its hybrid nature, offering four hours of live television. Depending on the moment, the programme could be a gossip show, a talk show commenting on reality TV programmes from the Mediaset group (of which Telecinco is the main channel) or a reality show where the personal and professional relationships of its colaboradores (contributors) were central in terms of narration and spectacle. The structure of each programme could vary depending on the celebrity or reality TV news that appeared or the conflicts between its contributors as they arose.
Its contributors were the stars of the format: some were journalists specialising in celebrity gossip (Lydia Lozano and María Patiño, for example), others were celebrities from the world of celebrity gossip (Belén Esteban and Kiko Matamoros, for example) or from reality TV programmes (such as Kiko Hernández). The success of the format led to multiple spin-off programmes, such as Sálvame Deluxe (Telecinco, 2009-2023) and La última cena (Telecinco, 2020-2021), which were popular both among older audiences who consumed traditional television and among younger audiences due to the virality of their contents, which were characterised by its costumbrista style (which depicts everyday life, customs, and habits of local groups, often highlighting national or cultural particularities) and sometimes its surreal nature, and generated memes and phrases with enormous impact in Spanish popular culture, such as ‘¡Por mi hija ma-to!’ (‘I’d kill for my daughter!’) or ‘¡Ni que fuera yo Bin Laden!’ (‘It’s not like I’m Bin Laden!’). The personalities of its stars largely sustained all the formats related to the Sálvame universe, with abundant followers, but also detractors due to its recurring controversies, content unsuitable for minors, and exploitation of the emotions of its contributors, for which it has been labelled by some as ‘trash TV’.39
The concept of ‘trash TV’ (telebasura) emerged in Spain during the 1990s and 2000s in response to the new dynamics of content creation resulting from competition for audiences between broadcasters: with the emergence of private television channels in 1990, reality TV proliferated and increased its popularity, characterised by its spectacular and dramatic portrayal of real people and stories, leading to the rise in stardom of anonymous individuals who were appealing to the audience because of their striking personalities or the emotional connections they forged with their personal stories. Authors such as Gustavo Bueno and Lorenzo Díaz promoted the use of this concept, ‘telebasura’, which was also widespread in the press, to describe this type of new television in pejorative terms.40 As Smith pointed out,
the telebasura debate is important because it links politics, ethics, and aesthetics; because it is a focus for anxieties around national identity and society; and because it embraces multiple institutions beyond the electronic media: government, the press, the academy, and audiences.41
However, despite the widespread use of the term over a number of years, Smith would highlight that there was no specific definition of what ‘trash TV’ meant and that it was used by different voices in divergent, markedly subjective ways.42 The British academic indicated as a key factor the proliferation of reality TV formats following the success of the programme Gran Hermano (Big Brother), broadcast on Telecinco since 2000, as these programmes challenged the boundaries between the real, the fictional and the ludic, and the discursive limits on what could be seen or said on television.43
A programme like Sálvame pushed the narrative and aesthetic conventions of reality TV to the limit, with its extreme blending of content and its frequent functioning as a reality show centred on the coexistence of its contributors, all of which was combined with usual sensationalist elements. Consequently, critical reception ranged from outright contempt to appreciation by some for its originality, or a vindication of the show as part of a tradition of popular and gendered culture, given the simplistic and sexist commentaries frequently directed at the show, which disparaged both its content and its audience, generally seen as working-class women.44 In this regard, it is worth noting the scarcity of academic authors who have assessed these reality TV programmes or their celebrities beyond the perspective of ‘trash TV’: in this context, some works by Lamuedra stand out, dealing with the social relevance of certain celebrities and how they are interpreted and appreciated by Spanish audiences, with one article dedicated to the main star of Sálvame, Belén Esteban, who rose to media stardom as the ex-wife of the bullfighter Jesulín de Ubrique in the early 2000s.45
A change in the management of the Mediaset group after more than two decades with Paolo Vasile as director, among other factors, led to the end of Sálvame, seeking a change in the channel’s editorial line.46 The stars of Sálvame and its production company, La Fábrica de la Tele, were expelled from Telecinco (where it is not possible to mention the programme, its spin-offs or many of its contributors, as if they had never existed, thus attempting to draw a distinction between the post-Sálvame Telecinco and its previous years, but such strategy has not been commercially successful). La Fábrica de la Tele had until then been one of the channel’s most important production companies, responsible for numerous formats such as Sálvame and its spin-offs, but also magazine programmes such as Cazamariposas (Divinity, 2013-2020, Telecinco 2014-2016, Cuatro, 2019), Socialité (Telecinco, 2017-2024) and Hable con ellas (Telecinco, 2014-2016).
The Sálvame universe was embraced by Netflix, creating a six-episode documentary series, ¡Sálvese quien pueda! (2023-2024, translated by the platform as Fame After Fame for international audiences), starring its main stars (Esteban, Lozano, Patiño, Matamoros, Hernández, among others), in which they look for new jobs in the Latin American entertainment and television industry, first in Miami and then in Mexico City.47 To do so, they must face different challenges, such as interviews or auditions, visit television studios, and attend parties, which advance the narration of the docu-reality show, promoting moments of spontaneity, improvisation, and comedy associated with its stars. However, the series did not achieve the results Netflix had hoped for and, after premiering its first three episodes in November 2023, it released the remaining three in February 2024 with little promotion, and the project was cancelled,48 remaining an isolated experiment in integrating stars and creative formulas deeply rooted in linear television into its catalogue.
Video 1
Netflix trailer for ¡Sálvese quien pueda! (Source: YouTube; last access: 02/04/2026).
Faced with failure, the producers decided to return to live programming and long broadcasts that accompanied their audience in their daily lives, as Sálvame did, and so they launched Canal Quickie as a channel on YouTube and Twitch, where, starting in May 2024, the programme Ni que fuéramos Shhh (2024-2025) would begin airing in the afternoons, in a similar time slot to Sálvame and with approaches similar to that format, featuring its stars, their lives and their conflicts interspersed with gossip, celebrity news and commentary on reality TV programmes. Esteban, Patiño, Lozano, Matamoros, journalist Chelo García Cortés and contributor Víctor Sandoval returned to the original formula, but now with a programme recorded in a very small studio, created in the offices of La Fábrica de la Tele in Madrid, and with remote-controlled cameras or using a mobile phone camera at times. It was originally going to be called Ni que fuéramos Sálvame (‘It’s not like we’re Sálvame’, paraphrasing the famous ‘¡Ni que fuera yo Bin Laden!’), but Telecinco prohibited the use of the name of the old format.49 The production company also changed its name to Fabricantes Studio and, since February 2025, it has been called La Osa Producciones Audiovisuales.50 The format had a notable media impact and, a few days later, the television channel Ten decided to broadcast it as well to increase its audience.
Video 2
Advertisement of the start of broadcasting of Ni que fuéramos Shhh on Ten (Source: YouTube; last access: 02/04/2026).
3 Main features of the format Ni que fuéramos Shhh (May 2024-March 2025)
Since then, the duration of the programmes, broadcast from Monday to Friday, would increase from 3 to more than 4 hours, generating two alternative versions: one with commercial breaks for conventional television, and another with identical content for Canal Quickie where, during commercial breaks, the programme continued to be broadcast, offering complementary content. On Canal Quickie, on YouTube, programmes would be stored and available free of charge, increasing their viewership with delayed viewing.51 Their broadcast would also be broken down into shorter videos focusing on specific topics,52 and ‘shorts’ for social media,53 where an intense promotional campaign was launched and some moments would go viral. During those weeks, Ni que fuéramos Shhh would have a particular impact among young viewers.54 This data contrast with the typical audience of afternoon programs in Spain, which are generally aimed at women over 65 years old, such as the case of Y ahora Sonsoles (2022-present) in Antena 3.55
Its first programmes would accumulate more than 300,000 views on YouTube, with a premiere that reached 676,000. In its first season (May-July 2024), it would achieve audience ratings on Ten ranging from 2% to 3%, exceeding 200,000 viewers on most days; in its second season, the programme would remain closer to 2%, ranging between 150,000 and 200,000 viewers.56 Similarly, on YouTube, after exceeding 200,000 views in the first few weeks, cumulative views would drop to between 100,000 and 150,000, with some peaks above those numbers. These figures would be particularly noteworthy given the limited financial and technical resources with which the programme was produced and the fact that magazine programmes on generalist channels such as Y ahora Sonsoles and TardeAR (Telecinco, 2023-2025) had audience shares of between 9% and 12% with larger budgets. Although no details were ever released regarding the budget of Ni que fuéramos Shhh or how much the contributors were paid, the limited budget was evident: for example, the programme was broadcast from a set created in the offices of the production company, where most of the cameras were robotic, there was usually only one camera operator moving around the set; besides, when a live connection with a reporter outside the set took place, it was recorded and broadcast using mobile phones.
With Ni que fuéramos Shhh, La Fábrica de la Tele experimented with adapting the highly successful format Sálvame to the context of new screens, thus creating synergies between traditional television production dynamics and those of contents offered via streaming by YouTubers or streamers on platforms such as YouTube or Twitch. Above all, this new programme allowed the development of the production company’s speciality, consisting of offering many hours of programming per day at a very low cost with content generally light-hearted and generated for rapid consumption, as its directors acknowledged in 2014.57 With its online distribution, especially through YouTube, it reached audiences who could not watch the programme live or did not want to watch it in its entirety, as well as younger audiences familiar with these new windows and social media. With its broadcast on Ten, within traditional linear television, it reached audiences accustomed to more conventional television consumption patterns.
The format, like Sálvame, had enormous flexibility, with the premise of offering long discussions about the latest celebrity gossip and reality TV news interspersed with the reality TV spectacle of the emotions and conflicts of its contributors. Taking advantage of this flexibility, new content and sections could be tried out, all with the common denominator of low budget and limited resources. For example, as they were unable to include images from Telecinco programmes, the contributors recreated situations and dialogues from these programmes using toys or by playing the celebrities they were referring to themselves. On occasions, a contributor would attend an event outside the studio or had to carry out a special mission outside the set, and this was recorded and broadcast using mobile phones, as indicated above. As the programme was not broadcast on a big traditional generalist channel, there was greater freedom in the treatment of certain controversial content (for example, there were no filters on discussing the sexual relations between the showwoman Bárbara Rey and King Juan Carlos I, showing images of both of them or broadcasting audio recordings made by her clandestinely). This also allowed for greater doses of eccentricity and surrealism than on conventional television, for example by presenting collaborators in costume, on or off set, or treating certain content with a particularly irreverent tone.
New sections were developed, such as the ‘Quickie Ronda’ (‘Quickie-Round’), in which journalists specialising in television from different media outlets (from established newspapers such as El Mundo to online portals such as El Televisero) took part by communicating current news, especially about television, but not in person on the set, but by participating via video calls from their laptops or mobile phones. Similarly, in September 2024, a kitchen was installed on the set (expanded in space and with some cameramen already hired), and cooking challenges were set for Belén Esteban or María Patiño, generating the sections ‘Belén a cenar conmigo’ or ‘Al baño María’ (both wordplays difficult to translate linking cooking with their names), in which humour was often generated by the difficulties encountered by the cooks. Another regular section was ‘Minuto de oro y minuto de plomo’ (‘Golden minute and leaden minute’), in which the audience ratings for the previous day’s broadcast on Ten were analysed and the contributor who had generated the minute with the highest audience increase was rewarded, while the contributor who had caused the programme to lose the greatest amount of viewers was punished, thus creating a monthly ranking.
A selection of short videos created by Canal Quickie for YouTube and social media:
Video 3
Costumbrismo and comedy: María Patiño trying to cook with a mixer (Source: YouTube; last access: 02/04/2026).
Video 4
A common (comical) situation: Belén Esteban complains to the programme director during her cooking section (Source: YouTube; last access: 02/04/2026).
Video 5
Recreations of events with toys because they cannot afford to pay for image rights from other channels or to ‘explain them better’ (Source: YouTube; last access: 02/04/2026).
Video 6
Reporter Sandra Bruman sings the cuplé (old Spanish spicy song) La banana (The banana) in the Madrid underground during a special assignment (Source: YouTube; last access: 02/04/2026).
Video 7
Kiko Matamoros responds to television contributor Terelu Campos by stating that, if she compares him to Shrek, she resembles his girlfriend Fiona (Source: YouTube; last access: 02/04/2026).
In this way, the audiovisual creation dynamics already tested in Sálvame were combined and adapted to a very low-budget, streaming context, bringing together characters and conventions from mainstream television with other elements more typical of new platforms, with their low-budget live videos starring celebrities. Alongside the veteran stars of Sálvame, new figures and contributors were included progressively, with varying degrees of experience in previous generalist television formats, such as gossip journalist Javier de Hoyos and reporters Marta Riesco and Gonzalo Vázquez; and, alongside the established dynamics, new sections, contents and experiments were added, such as the sections ‘Minuto de oro y minuto de plomo’ or ‘Pasión de Campos’, providing daily coverage of news relating to the Campos family, related to the late journalist María Teresa Campos. Interactivity was also encouraged, with live polls created for YouTube users to give their opinions on the content being broadcast at that moment, or, for example, viewers being promised that if a certain audience figure was reached at a given moment, new information on a topic of interest would be revealed.
The success of the Canal Quickie experiment was surprising given the enormous fragmentation of audiences, with traditional television viewing figures falling steadily, far from the millions who watched television just a decade ago. Canal Quickie thus functioned as a hybrid space between traditional television and VoD platforms. Its originality and anomalous nature in the Spanish media landscape, backed by its success, caught the attention of Televisión Española (TVE, Spanish Television), the state-owned public television corporation. TVE decided to import the innovations developed in Ni que fuéramos Shhh, together with the established Sálvame universe, into its programming, incorporating its directors and collaborators in May 2025 into TVE1, Spain’s main public television channel, as the heads of a new format, La familia de la tele.
4 From euphoria to disillusionment (May 2025-January 2026)
Televisión Española made a strong commitment to the new programme, investing heavily in creating a large set and bringing in numerous additional contributors.58 To justify the inclusion on public television of characters and content from Canal Quickie and Sálvame, which are often controversial or criticised as ‘trash TV’, TVE added two of the channel’s presenters, Inés Hernand and Aitor Albizua, and attempted to add public service content. The name La familia de la tele (The TV Family) alluded to the familiarity of Spanish audiences with the former contributors to Sálvame, whom they may feel are part of their family due to their regular presence as accompanying figures in their daily lives. The stars of Ni que fuéramos Shhh saw their arrival at TVE as a triumph that recognised their efforts to innovate while remaining in television from the humble and independent space of Canal Quickie with the support of Ten, after their traumatic expulsion from Telecinco. They thus returned to one of the three main Spanish television channels in terms of number of viewers (the three most watched are the public TVE1 and the two private channels Antena 3 and Telecinco).
Video 8
Campy advertisement by TVE for the premiere of La familia de la tele, presenting its stars as the protagonists of The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), travelling to a new fantasy world (Source: YouTube; last access: 02/04/2026).
Various formulas were tried to alternate linear television broadcasting with exclusive online content (as was done on Canal Quickie), in this case offered via streaming through the free platform RTVE Play. However, the ratings for La familia de la tele were not as high as expected, partly due to the programme’s unusual approach as a ‘container’ format, which began at around 4 p.m., then integrated two soap operas, and resumed broadcasting until 8 p.m. Before the start of the broadcast and during the interval between soap operas, free content was offered on RTVE Play, but for weeks there were multiple programming changes that may have added to the confusion of an audience that was gradually abandoning the programme. At the same time, there was widespread criticism from viewers and the media (as well as from Televisión Española’s own staff) who considered that these contents were not suitable for a public broadcaster and that they should not be funded with public money: for example, the press reported numerous complaints from viewers to RTVE’s Audience Ombudsman, and there was criticism from television personalities such as Mamen Mendizábal, journalist at the TV channel La Sexta, who criticised the lack of quality of the programme, which was funded by taxpayers’ money.59
The experiment proved to be a failure. After a debut with average figures of around 750,000 viewers and approximately 9% audience share, the numbers stagnated at around 550,000 and 6.5% for the first part of the programme (before the soap operas) and around 400,000 and 5.5% for the second part (after the soap operas). Along with external and internal criticism, the creators and stars of Quickie and Sálvame, behaved in a restrained manner and often seemed uncomfortable, in the face of pressure over what should and should not be broadcast on public television, losing much of the transgression and spontaneity characteristic of their previous formats. The difficulties of defining the format as public service television and of hybridising the conventions developed in Quickie and Sálvame with such a model were thus evident, leading to declining audiences and cancellation after only 32 days.
Meanwhile, Ni que fuéramos Shhh would be replaced on Canal Quickie and Ten by Tentáculos, another similar format broadcast at different times from La familia de la tele with another presenter from the Sálvame universe, Carlota Corredera, and new contributors, retaining only Kiko Hernández from the previous format. The production company La Osa thus kept its regular programming on Quickie and Ten active, probably to preserve such spaces if the TVE experiment did not work out. Here, the spirit of its previous format would continue, albeit with more limited audiences and several changes in name and duration until June 2025. On Ten, audiences would hover around 100,000 viewers and 1% audience share;59 on YouTube, the programmes would average around 50,000 views.
The failure of La familia de la tele would drive away several Canal Quickie contributors. In September 2025, the channel began broadcasting a new programme, the successor to Ni que fuéramos Shhh, called No somos nadie (We Are Nobody), continuing its dual version in streaming and for Ten, retaining only Patiño, Esteban and Matamoros from its star contributors of the past, while others returned to generalist channels or remained with them (for example, Lozano would leave for Telecinco, and García Cortés, de Hoyos or Vázquez would stay at TVE); others would stay away from television. By December 2025, Esteban had left the programme to take part in a reality show on TVE and Matamoros had just left. The new contributors, especially those who joined Tentáculos, remained. Perhaps due to exhaustion or disillusionment, the format had left behind much of the creativity of Ni que fuéramos Shhh and fell into a certain stagnation where continuous commentary on news was prioritised and sections such as the ones dealing with cooking and audience analysis were removed; similarly, the level of transgression and eccentricity were reduced.
A plausible explanation for such stagnation could be that Canal Quickie was no longer a priority for its producers. Despite the failure of La familia de la tele, La Osa had taken root at TVE as co-producer of two magazines about current affairs with a strong focus on political content in a context of high political polarisation in Spanish society: Malas lenguas (TVE1-TVE2, since April 2025) and Directo al grano (TVE1, since September 2025). Both formats are performing well amid the widespread audience crisis in Spanish generalist television: for example, Directo al grano has ranged between 800,000 and 1,000,000 viewers since its premiere, with ratings above 10%.
It seemed that, after a period of experimentation, Canal Quickie and Ten had come to the conclusion that their hybrid formats, combining traditional television and streaming, would not exceed a 2% audience share. No somos nadie achieved between 1.5% and 2% audience share daily on Ten, which was not insignificant in times of fragmentation for a programme with such a small budget and limited resources, and in any case such figures were higher than those of Tentáculos, but it seemed that such 2% ceiling had been accepted as the expected limit. Similarly, although the programme fluctuated between 100,000 and 150,000 views on YouTube in its first broadcasts, later stagnated at around 80,000. The gradual departure of contributors from Ni que fuéramos Shhh and Sálvame evidenced a growing disillusionment and a lack of commitment to what once was an experimental project whose innovative nature even convinced TVE to incorporate it into its programming and make a significant financial investment in it. Finally, the programme ceased broadcasting at the end of January 2026. Since then, all its episodes remain available on Canal Quickie, and only a few experimental programmes have been produced without the former stars of the previous shows, not generating much interest among viewers.
5 Conclusion
As a conclusion, taking stock of the evolution of Canal Quickie, this is undoubtedly an example of experimentation, at times innovative and successful, at others unsuccessful, in a context of enormous transformations in the Spanish television and media landscape. Their formats are hybrid entertainment spaces that seek to establish a dialogue between Spanish generalist and linear television and the new audiovisual distribution channels dominated by streaming, offering free, simultaneous or delayed viewing, and where interactivity has frequently been promoted. The production of formats such as Ni que fuéramos Shhh, streamed independently with limited financial resources, represents a milestone in the attempt to integrate the creative dynamics of traditional Spanish entertainment television within the more limited frameworks (in terms of budget and technical resources) of the new platforms. However, the quick failures of La familia de la tele and No somos nadie raise doubts about the extent to which these experiments will consolidate over time, at least with the same creators and protagonists.
In this regard, several key factors related to entertainment formats and the contemporary Spanish media environment can be highlighted. One is that traditional television is increasingly moving towards more conventional entertainment formats (or, at least, moving away from reality TV programmes with anonymous participants), as can be seen especially in Antena 3 and TVE1. In fact, since 2021, Antena 3 has established itself as the most-watched TV channel in Spain, after many years of dominance by Telecinco and their reality TV programmes. Audiences tired of such formats may be a key reason why Telecinco is now the third most-watched channel after many years of leadership. Another factor may be that the dynamics of reality TV, with its sensationalised and dramatised portrayal of real-life experiences, are now playing out on social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram or TikTok, featuring a different profile of celebrities (younger ones with different narrative and thematic approaches) who no longer need to go through channels like Telecinco and their reality TV programmes. A possible additional reason for Canal Quickie’s limited results compared to the past of Sálvame on Telecinco may be that a large section of its former audience is accustomed to traditional generalist channels and is not in the habit of exploring other, more niche DTT channels such as Ten or, above all, is not comfortable with new technologies such as YouTube and social media or do not have the habit of using them for reasons of age.
In light of the above, it is worth highlighting the case of La casa de los gemelos 2, a reality show produced directly for YouTube in December 2025 that has proved hugely popular with viewers.61 The programme replicates the format of the reality TV contests that enjoyed years of success on Telecinco, featuring celebrities living together in the same space (a sort of Big Brother VIP). However, the main differences are that most of the celebrities come from social media platforms such as TikTok, which are better known to younger generations than to the older audiences who watch(ed) Telecinco, and, above all, that, taking advantage of the lack of regulation that still exists regarding the broadcasting of streaming content on platforms such as YouTube, the reality show contained numerous moments of physical and symbolic violence, as well as behaviours that would hardly be acceptable on free-to-air television, for which it has been criticised by newspapers such as El Mundo or TV channels such as Antena 3.62 In both respects, a programme like this differed from Canal Quickie, which did not feature this new generation of celebrities to the same extent, nor did it push the boundaries of the socially acceptable to such extent in terms of content. It remains to be seen whether the emergence of a format such as this has been merely a punctual success; however, in any case, both Canal Quickie and La casa de los gemelos demonstrate contemporary experiments aimed at integrating certain dynamics of traditional television entertainment programmes into the context of new screens, seeking to adapt them to this environment and exploring their possibilities and limits.
Notes
[1] GECA, El Balance GECA. Año 2021. (January 2022). https://www.geca.es/geca/informes/20220103--El%20balance%20del%20a%C3%B1o-2021.pdf
[2] See Reinald Besalú, Mercè Oliva, and Óliver Pérez-Latorre, “Framing Sálvame: Public debates on taste, quality and television in Spain”, Communications no. 43.2 (2018): https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2017-0055; Tinúviel Ortiz and Francisco Fernández, “La agresión verbal como espectáculo: estrategias de descortesía en ‘Sálvame’”, Oralia: Análisis del discurso oral, no. 17 (2023): 289–315, https://doi.org/10.25115/oralia.v17i.8013; Josep Camacho, María Teresa Mercado, “Sálvame, un formato paradigmático de la hibridación de géneros en la historia de la televisión española”, Historia y comunicación social, no. 30.2: 357–365, https://doi.org/10.5209/hics.105878.
[3] Henar León, Francisco Asensi, and Cristina Morales, “La transformación de la industria audiovisual en España,” Boletín económico de ICE, no. 3161-3162 (September 2023): 3–16, https://doi.org/10.32796/bice.2023.3161-3162.7653.
[5] Judith Clares-Gavilán and Alfons Medina-Cambrón, “Desarrollo y asentamiento del video bajo demanda (VOD) en España: el caso de Filmin,” El profesional de la información 27, no. 4 (2018): 909–920, https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.jul.19.
[6] CNMC, Telecomunicaciones y Audiovisual. Informe económico-sectorial 2024. (June 2025), https://www.cnmc.es/expedientes/estadcnmc00425.
[7] Judith Clares Gavilán, Elena Neira, and Cristina Merino Álvarez, La revolución over the top. Del video bajo demanda (VOD) a la televisión por Internet (Barcelona: Editorial UOC, 2019).
[9] Clares-Gavilán and Medina-Cambrón, “Desarrollo y asentamiento del video bajo demanda”; Judith Clares Gavilán, Elena Neira, and Cristina Merino Álvarez, La revolución over the top.
[11] María José Higueras-Ruiz, “Distribución y exhibición de cine y televisión en el hipersector audiovisual-TIC: retos y oportunidades,” in El Hipersector Audiovisual-TIC. Una aproximación multidisciplinar, ed. Francisco Javier Gómez-Pérez (Salamanca: Comunicación Social, 2025), 74.
[14] European Union, Directive (EU) 2018/1808 of the European Parliament, Eur-Lex, November, 28, 2018, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2018/1808/oj?eliuri=eli%3Adir%3A2018%3A1808%3Aoj&locale=en.
[15] Marta Albújar, “Las plataformas OTT para la distribución de contenidos audiovisuales: ¿una amenaza para el duopolio de la televisión en abierto en España?” Quaderns del CAC 19, no. 42 (2016): 21–28, https://share.google/1uBgjIhjA6Rrc5TUu.
[17] Mar Chicharro-Merayo and Fátima Gil-Gascón, “Las series de televisión españolas entre 2015 y 2021: producción, emisores, géneros y subgéneros hegemónicos”, Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico 30, no. 4 (2024): 739–751, https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/emp.97989. For greater detail on the phases of the television industry in Spain, taking television fiction as a reference, see also: Concepción Cascajosa-Virino, “Las series de televisión españolas ante la llegada de los servicios VOD (2015-2017)”, El profesional de la información 27, no. 6 (2018): 1303–1312, https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2018.nov.1 and Javier Mateos-Pérez, “Taxonomía de las series de televisión españolas en la era digital (2000-2020),” El profesional de la información 30, no. 6: e300608, https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2021.nov.08.
[18] CNMC stands for Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (National Commission for Markets and Competition).
[20] Barlovento Comunicación. El rosco del consumo audiovisual de los grandes grupos audiovisuales. (January 2025), https://share.google/QHTJdak2VckELRpxq.
[21] Ana González-Neira, Jorge Vázquez-Herrero, and Natalia Quintas-Froufe, “Convergence of linear television and digital platforms: An analysis of YouTube offer and consumption,” European Journal of Communication 37, no. 4 (2022): 426–442, https://doi.org/10.1177/02673231211054720.
[22] Tatiana Hidalgo-Marí and Vicente García-Escrivá, “La producción de series españolas de ficción para SVOD: evolución, tendencias y estrategias”, Communication & Society 37, no. 2 (2024): 35, https://doi.org/10.15581/003.37.2.35-48.
[24] Juan Ignacio Fernández-Herruzo and Luis Miguel Pedrero-Esteban, “La producción local de formatos de entretenimiento en servicios SVOD como estrategia de competencia frente a la TV lineal en España,” Dixit 37, no. 2 (2023): 3–12, https://doi.org/10.22235/d.v37i2.3342.
[25] María José Higueras-Ruiz and Jordi Alberich-Pascual, “Estrategias de interacción y comunicación de showrunners de series de ficción televisiva de Netflix en Twitter”, Comunicación y Sociedad, no. 18 (2021): 1–25, https://doi.org/10.32870/cys.v2021.7772.
[26] Elena Neira, Judith Clares-Gavilán, and Jordi Sánchez-Navarro, “Las claves del éxito en streaming. Una aproximación teórico-práctica a la medición del impacto de los contenidos bajo demanda en las plataformas SVOD”, Visual Review. International Visual Culture Review 16, no. 3 (2024): 145–165, https://doi.org/10.62161/revvisual.v16.5233.
[28] Santiago Lomas-Martínez, María-José Higueras-Ruiz, Teresa Martín-García, and María Marcos-Ramos, “La serialización del documental como estrategia de innovación en las plataformas de streaming españolas: cartografía y tendencias dominantes (2016-2024),” Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico 31, no. 1 (2025): 103–114. https://doi.org/10.5209/emp.98884.
[30] María José Higueras-Ruiz, Santiago Lomas-Martínez, Teresa Martín-García, and Marcos-Ramos, “Estrategias de las plataformas de VoD ante los formatos de entretenimiento: entre la innovación y la asimilación de la televisión lineal en el mercado televisivo español”, Doxa Comunicación, no. 43, https://revistascientificas.uspceu.com/doxacomunicacion/article/view/2838.
[33] Tamara Vázquez-Barrio, Teresa Torrecillas-Lacave, and Rebeca Suárez-Álvarez, “Percepción sobre la televisión en el ecosistema audiovisual de la convergencia digital”, Profesional de la información 29, no. 6 (2020): e290640, https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.nov.40.
[34] Bárbara Prummer-Arabaolaza, Iru Díaz-García, Aileen Chales-Aoun, María Muñoz-Carballo, and Gonzalo Carniglia-González, “Investigación social en Twitch: Un análisis experimental de seis streamers hispanohablantes. Teknokultura,” Revista de Cultura Digital y Movimientos Sociales 22, no. 2 (2024): 211–222, https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/tekn.89203.
[37] Stuart Hall, ed., Representation. Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (London: Sage Publications, 1997).
[38] In fact, it is interesting to note that several final projects related to Degrees in Journalism or Audiovisual Communication in Spanish universities can be found on Google Scholar dealing with this TV programme. This demonstrates the interest it holds for Journalism and Audiovisual Communication students, but at the same time evinces that such interest has not extended to the academic sphere.
[39] Rodrigo Terrasa and Esther Mucientes, “Adiós a la telebasura. Mediaset pone fin a Sálvame el 16 de junio y entrega las tardes de Telecinco a Ana Rosa Quintana,” El País, May 6, 2023, https://www.elmundo.es/papel/historias/2023/05/05/6452a24ffdddff50688b459c.html.
[40] Gustavo Bueno, Telebasura y democracia (Madrid: Ediciones B, 2002); Lorenzo Díaz, La caja sucia. Telebasura en España (Madrid: La esfera de los libros, 2004).
[44] Brigitte Vasallo, “El Fary que llevamos dentro”, La Marea, June 6, 2020, https://www.lamarea.com/2020/06/06/el-fary-que-llevamos-dentro/.
[45] María Lamuedra-Graván, “Bases teóricas para la reflexión sobre el significado social de la presencia de los famosos en televisión”, Comunicar. Revista Científica de Comunicación y Educación 25 (2005), https://doi.org/10.3916/C25-2005-094; “Formatos híbridos y melodrama en televisión: El caso de Belén Esteban como heroína postmoderna. Estudio de Recepción”, Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico 11 (2005): 349–374, https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/ESMP/article/view/ESMP0505110349A.
[46] These changes led to a huge drop in ratings, repositioning Telecinco as the third most watched channel in Spain after many years as the leader.
[47] Marco Sánchez Sequera, “‘¡Sálvese quien pueda!’- estreno 10 de noviembre,” Audiovisual 451, November 7, 2023, https://www.audiovisual451.com/salvese-quien-pueda-estreno-10-de-noviembre-en-netflix/.
[48] Randy Meeks, “¡Sálvese quien pueda! se ha hundido en las audiencias de Netflix en su parte 2, pero merecía una segunda oportunidad,” Espinof, February 8, 2024, https://www.espinof.com/criticas/salvese-quien-pueda-mejora-levemente-su-segunda-temporada-demuestra-que-a-netflix-no-le-queda-exprimir-extinto-salvame.
[49] Nerea Parraga Frutos, “Mediaset obliga a ‘Ni que fuéramos Sálvame’ a cambiar su nombre horas antes de su estreno,” La Vanguardia, March 14, 2024, https://www.lavanguardia.com/television/20240514/9642909/mediaset-torpedea-fueramos-salvame-horas-estreno-obliga-cambiar-nombre-mmn.html.
[50] Héctor Llanos Martínez, “Los creadores de ‘Sálvame’ fundan La OSA Producciones, con la mirada puesta en las tardes de La 1 y cuatro proyectos ya en marcha,” El País, February 25, 2025, https://elpais.com/television/2025-02-25/los-creadores-de-salvame-fundan-la-osa-producciones-con-la-mirada-puesta-en-las-tardes-de-la-1.html.
[54] María Garzón, “Alerta en Mediaset: ‘Ni que fuéramos Shhh’ ya le pisa los talones a Cuatro y suspera a ‘TardeAR’ entre los adultos jóvenes,” Sensacine, June 5, 2024, https://www.sensacine.com/television/noticias/noticia-1000084958.html.
[55] Franc Recio Martínez, “Los datos de ‘Sonsoles’ más allá de su liderazgo: De su estrategia publicitaria a su audiencia por edades”, FórmulaTV.com, April 17, 2013: https://www.formulatv.com/noticias/datos-sosnoles-liderazgo-estrategia-publicitaria-122087/.
[56] All audience data cited in this article has been consulted on Fórmulatv.com, which provides daily Spanish television audience figures (), and on Canal Quickie on YouTube.
[57] verTele!, “Los fabricantes de la ‘fast tv’ de Telecinco cuentan sus secretos: ‘Vasile sabe darnos donde más nos duele’,” verTele!, November 3, 2014, https://www.eldiario.es/vertele/videos/actualidad/fabricantes-telecinco-cuentan-secretos-vasile_1_7633761.html
[58] Adrián Ruiz and Laura Pérez, “RTVE presenta ‘La familia de la tele’, que desvela su doble día de estreno y mantiene misterios para su debut,” verTele!, April 9, 2025, https://www.eldiario.es/vertele/noticias/rtve-presenta-familia-tele-desvela-doble-dia-estreno-mantiene-misterios-debut_1_12204859.html.
[59] Rafa Sanz del Río, “Más de 3,4 millones de TVE para ‘La familia de la tele,’ Ondacero.es, May 29, 2025, https://www.ondacero.es/noticias/economia/mas-34-millones-tve-familia-tele-cada-presentador-cobra-mas-1600-euros-programa_20250529683837133407f96812b1bf2e.html; Esther Mucientes, “¿Por qué ha fallado La familia de la tele? Aciertos y errores de un estropicio que pocos esperaban”, El Mundo, June 6, 2025, https://www.elmundo.es/television/2025/06/05/683d6f0afc6c83d62e8b45a2.html.
[60] For further information, see the daily ratings section on FórmulaTV.com, https://www.formulatv.com/audiencias/tdt/.
[62] Esther Mucientes, “La Casa de los Gemelos rebasa todos los límites de lo permitido,” El Mundo, December 9, 2025, https://www.elmundo.es/television/momentvs/2025/12/09/6937e7e8e4d4d8ff6a8b4584.html.