“At Atresmedia they had never held a press conference for me,” confessed Josep Pedrerol at the end of the event where Mediaset presented what they announce as “the great signing of the summer.” Perhaps the fact that he had never starred in a press conference is the reason why Pedrerol fired off headlines in the one he gave this Thursday in what will be the set of El chiringuito on Mediaset. The broadcaster and the program, which aired for 13 years on Atresmedia, are joining a group that is not overflowing with joy and has had few reasons to celebrate lately, so they have taken the opportunity to celebrate this as if it were Ferran Torres’ goal in the World Cup final.
Sitting next to Jaime Guerra, Content Production Director of Mediaset Spain, Pedrerol commented on details of his signing and even dreamed of signings of other Mediaset faces as possible collaborators of Chiringuito. Mediaset also revealed how and where the program will be broadcast starting August 17. From Monday to Thursday, Energy will be its home from midnight. And on Sundays, the show moves to Cuatro to take over from Cuarto milenio starting at midnight. Additionally, Guerra assured that Pedrerol’s presence in the group could go beyond Chiringuito in the future.
While imagining what the set will be like, still without grass and without the characteristic look of the program, Pedrerol highlighted the “affection” with which his arrival at his new television home has been received. “To the Mediaset technicians, I say don’t worry, stay calm, because I am very special, it must be said. I can’t prepare a caption in the afternoon because everything changes on the fly. The rundown is a reference, but everything changes with the live broadcast, in this house you know well what that is, that the program is alive, that things happen…” “El chiringuito is very Mediaset gen,” agrees Guerra, “it is the most alive, most live television, and we were missing that part, the early morning.”
Pedrerol explained that his signing with Mediaset was already closed at the beginning of April. A meeting with Alessandro Salem, the group’s CEO, was decisive to close the deal. “We had lunch and when the meal ended, we shook hands and I was already signed. In April I was already signed. With Salem it was love at first sight,” he explained. “But the next step was to get the 30 journalists who are with me to come here, the marketing team and the 40 panelists. We have managed to move more than 70 people,” he continued.
He also clarified that leaving Atresmedia was something he had “intuited” for some time. “There is no need to look for scandal in the departure, because it was a marriage that decided to break up, and we broke up with a hug.” He received several offers to host El chiringuito. “There were very important offers, one of them with considerable effort, even with a contract on the table. But my dream was to be here, Mediaset was my pending subject,” says Pedrerol.
Although his signing was already closed in April, the transfer of the rest of the team from one group to another remained to be fixed. “I couldn’t tell them anything, only the closest knew. I told them to stay calm and that I thought there would be a change, that I wanted a change.” He announced the move at the lunch where the program was saying goodbye to the season. “At that moment they told me the contract was already there, so in the middle of the lunch I announced, ‘you know we are going to Mediaset.’ And there were jumps of joy, celebration. Now they are very excited, the Energy and Cuatro thing excites them a lot.”
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El chiringuito arrives at a group that already has a team focused on sports information, with the brand El desmarque giving it unity. So another question is how both teams will fit together. Jaime Guerra explained that El chiringuito will belong to the Program Production division, while Sports “has its own microcosm and will continue working the same. But at certain times Josep may collaborate on some other program.” Pedrerol also does not rule out that some member of the El desmarque team fits into El chiringuito. “There is at least one person we like, although he doesn’t know it yet.”
Pedrerol even joked, or dreamed, about signings for El chiringuito from other faces of the group. “Iker Jiménez could be a collaborator. He is very football-loving, he has always believed a lot in El chiringuito, he even sent messages, he is a big fan. And Ana Rosa Quintana was the first to send me a congratulatory message, and she told me ‘take care of my Atleti.’”
The first goal the broadcaster has set is to get the viewers who followed them daily on Atresmedia to now move to Mediaset. “The goal is to maintain the essence and renew. We have three very cool signings that will be very liked, but we can’t announce them,” he revealed.
He also tried to define the reason for the success of El chiringuito, a format that, as Jaime Guerra described, is a genre in itself, combining sport and entertainment. “The success is not knowing exactly what it is,” says Pedrerol. “I am the best at doing castings. And I have the best team of journalists and panelists. That is the key to the program, that whoever presents it has fun with what is around. It is unpredictable, I never know what is going to happen. I am just another viewer, and I control the zapping. If I get bored, I change.”
Pedrerol insisted: “What is happening is the biggest revolution in sports journalism on television. Moving 70 people from one channel to another is historic in sports television.” From August 17, it is time to prove if that revolution bears fruit.