A visiting beauty queen is goaded into giving the weather report. Cosita, the show's canine mascot, relieves herself in the lap of an unsuspecting guest. And co-host Fernando Arau does a regular mime routine that is the best thing this side of Marcel Marceau.
Welcome to "Despierta America," a largely improvisational weekday morning program on the Spanish-language Univision network. Here the serious and interesting share time with the silly and inane, while the unpredictable has become so commonplace that even the people who write the show are often surprised by what unfolds before the cameras.
"You never know what's going to happen," says Ana Maria Canseco, one of the show's five co-hosts. "I guess that's why people watch us. They were trying to discover a new formula for a morning show. And right now, it's like they found a very good [one]."
In fact, it's become a formula for success because "Despierta America" ("Wake Up America"), which celebrates its first anniversary today, has quickly carved out a niche for itself in the morning market. The show has boosted Univision's national morning ratings by more than 46%. Like the national morning shows on ABC, CBS and NBC, "Despierta America" features a mix of news and weather reports, in-studio interviews and regular segments on topics such as personal finance, entertainment and family issues.
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In Los Angeles, where the show is seen on KMEX-TV Channel 34, the network's flagship affiliate, "Despierta America" is the third-most-watched morning program in the market, ranking just a fraction of a ratings point behind ABC's "Good Morning America."
"It was a time slot that was dead," says cohost Rafael Jose, who, in keeping with the show's eclectic theme, holds a doctorate in dental medicine but was a top-rated radio deejay and television game-show host in Puerto Rico before joining Univision. "But [the network] said, 'Hey, we can sell this time period. We can compete.' "
It's who they're competing with, however, that's significant. Even before "Despierta America" went on the air, Univision had built a sizable ratings lead over Telemundo, its only Spanish-language network rival. In the last five years, the company's share of the Spanish television audience in the U.S. grew from 57% to more than 80% while, overall, Univision's viewership has grown 14% annually--more than any other U.S. network, English or Spanish, broadcast or cable--since A. Jerrold Perenchio took over the company in 1992.
