Last August, Telecinco closed the month with an 8% audience share, the worst monthly figure in its history. In May 2026 it averages 9.2%: somewhat better, but it certainly does not provide a much better diagnosis of the state of suspended animation that the channel lives. Mediaset has been setting annual historical lows for four consecutive years, and the response for this summer has a name and surname: old acquaintances such as Carlos Lozano or Paz Padilla return to the channel, in a decision that makes it clear that Mediaset’s bet is not based on risk.
Four years in free fall. The channel signed its historic low audience for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, with a 9.5% annual feeafter 2024 had already been the first below 10%. The problem is not only with the public, but with everything that comes with it: the net advertising income of Mediaset España fell 8% in 2025. For the first time, the group was surpassed in advertising billing by Atresmedia. To this we can add a structural crisis of the environment: Daily linear television consumption time fell by 7.7% in 2025, with an especially pronounced contraction among viewers aged 14 to 49. Telecinco competes, like all of them, against the changing habits of a generation more attentive to streamingTikTok and video games.
Lozano, Padilla and other old acquaintances. Under the motto “Open for holidays”, Telecinco has presented its summer strategywhich includes the dating show ‘Love or whatever arises’ (with Carlos Lozano returning to the channel eight years after leaving it, reviving the spirit of ‘Women and men and vice versa’ in the same afternoon slot) or the daily version of ‘De friday’ called ‘Monday to Friday’with Santi Acosta and Beatriz Archidona.
Finally, the entertainment format ‘The Peace Show’ with Paz Padilla at the helm, the weekend afternoons and reducing the ‘Party’ time. The presenter was fired by the channel in 2021 in quite tense circumstances, which says a lot about how both parties need each other, in a cessation of hostilities pact that must not have been easy. The changes will start in the second half of June.
What goes away and what resists. To adjust this whole grid, there are programs that go on vacation. ‘Jorge’s Diary’ takes a break until September, coinciding with Jorge Javier Vázquez’s vacation. Hold ‘Allá tú’ with Juanra Bonet in the afternoons from Monday to Friday thanks to its good audience of close to 10% of share. The same thing happens with ‘The Fair Price’ by Carlos Sobera, which will also try out on the weekends, filling the gap left by the resounding failure of ‘Seen what has been seen‘.
The goldmine of dating programs. Along with the realitiesand sometimes incurring almost unnatural matings between both variants, the dating shows They are the only thing that now invariably works for Telecinco. ‘The island of temptations‘has maintained competitive audiences during this four-year crisis; ‘Married at first sight’ was last season’s surprise. ‘Love or whatever arises’ tries to get away from this trend, and also with a specific format that has been tested previously with success.
However, even if all these proposals work, they will be nothing more than mere patches to liven up the summer of a chain that needs a deeper reinvention. The return of Lozano or Padilla are symptomatic of the lack of originality of the resources of a Telecinco that survives on the basis of patches and proper names that drag audiences down. Because an ‘Island of Temptations’ is something that only happens from time to time: to get there you have to keep taking risks and, possibly, try formats that don’t smell like you’ve already seen them.
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