Nick nabs Televisa novela

US kidscaster Nickelodeon will follow hit teen dramas Degrassi and House of Anubis with a local version of a classic Televisa telenovela.

Nick has ordered an 80×60’ English-language adaptation of Televisa’s Reach for the Stars (aka Alcanzar una Estrella), which the Mexican media giant created for Hispanic audiences two decades ago.

The new series will be produced in association with Sony Pictures Television and broadcast daily on Nick’s family-skewed Nick at Nite programming block later this year. Nick claims it’s the first telenovela adapted for the US market. Televisa and Sony signed a major copro pact earlier this week.

The single-camera series will tell the story of a high school girl whose life is turned upside down when she becomes a star and wins the love of her teen idol. The original ran on Televisa network Canal de las Estrellas and Univision in the US in 1990 and lead to a film and sequel novella that starred pop act Ricky Martin.

Shooting begins in LA in March. Jill Farren Phelps (General Hospital) executive produces with Hisham Abed (The Hills and the City). Josh Griffith (The Young and the Restless, As the World Turns) will pen the scripts.

The order follows Nick’s success with it serialised live-action dramas Degrassi: The Next Generation and the House of Anubis, the latter of which was the US company’s first internationally coproduced show of its kind.

“We have experienced first-hand the popularity of the daily scripted format with our kid audience through the success of House of Anubis and our teen audience with DeGrassi, and our Nick Latin American channel has already had great success in producing telenovelas with Televisa,” said Nickelodeon president Cyma Zarghami.

“This partnership brings together Televisa’s unmatched leadership in the telenovela genre with our expertise in making content, and we’re looking forward to introducing this first true English-language telenovela to Nick at Nite’s family audience.”

Televisa’s president of television and content Jose Baston added the production was “part of the steps toward building a strong presence in the Anglo television market” and that he saw it as the “first of many joint projects between his company and Nick.