The Brazilian telenovela is travelling north for a big break with english-speaking streaming audiences
Latin American soap operas are being reimagined for an American audience through a cross-border partnership between Globo and MFF & Co. Plus: Three classic telenovelas to watch this winter.
The Brazilian telenovela – with its melodrama, suspense and hairspray – will keep a new cohort of viewers gripped in 2026, thanks to an unexpected twist: international expansion. In recent years, many have dismissed the format as outdated in the age of streaming. It turns out, however, that there’s a market for the shows’ endless intrigue.
Globo is Latin America’s largest communications and media company and turned over BRLI6.4bn (€2.6bn) in 2024. Now it has set its sights beyond its borders. Though telenovelas have long been exported in their original form to Latin America and Europe, a new idea is being pursued in a bid to tempt the vast US market. Brazil’s telenovelas will be adapted into English with new actors through a partnership with Los Angeles-based studio MFF & Co. The studio has bought the rights to a string of Globo hits, including Todas as Flores and Belíssima.
“Brazilian telenovelas have been watched not only in their home country but in many other parts of the world for years,” Miura Kite, MFF & Co’s president of global content, tells Monocle. “Telenovelas are also written in near real-time, adapting to daily audience feedback, so it’s a unique process.”
Changes will be made for the North American market. While Brazilian telenovelas average at a whopping 150 episodes, they will be broken into seasons for the US audience. “By reimagining these narratives, we’re not only tapping into an extraordinary creative legacy and a proven track record in terms of ratings, but also inviting new audiences to experience the imagination, emotion and diversity that define these stories,” says Kite.
Three classic Brazilian telenovelas to watch
1.
Roque Santeiro, 1985.
Set in the fictional town of Asa Branca, this show mixes humour, social critique and, perhaps less obviously, magical realism.
2.
Vale Tudo, 1988.
Considered the pre-eminent telenovela by many, this show asks the difficult question of whether it’s worth being honest in a corrupt society.
3.
Laços de Família, 2000.
Using plenty of bossa nova and beautiful imagery of Rio, creator Manuel Carlos depicts the Carioca middle classes – sometimes with sympathy, sometimes with scorn – like no one before or since.
Comment:
Actors and studios are worried about how AI will upend the industry but people remain interested in human drama – and there’s lots of that in the humble telenovela. While 2025 has been eventful, here’s hoping that 2026 is dramatic for the right reasons.
