The success of TV hosts has created a new class of nouveaux riches in Brazil. Besides considerable paychecks these hosting
stars fatten their bank accounts with merchandising and getting a percentage from the ads sold during their programs. Maria da Graça
Meneghel, better known as Xuxa, the Queen of the Shorties, working at Globo, has become a multimillionaire industry and the richest of them
all. But other emerging names are catching up fast.
In the same area as Xuxa, TV program for kids, there is Angélica and Eliana. Angélica, who also is a hostess at Globo, has
become the leader in products licensing in all of Brazil. There are already more than 400 products bearing her likeness or her name. She
makes $4 million a year. Working at SBT, Eliana gets a $70,000 monthly salary. She also has licensed more than 100 products, does other
shows and has CDs with her songs. Annual income: $4 million.
Gugu Liberato ($14 million a year) is the wealthiest of the emerging stars. He has 41 products licensed and is the owner of
Gugu Produções, a company that promotes entertainment events. Gugu, who presents
Domingo Legal (Cool Sunday) on SBT, the number
one program on Sunday afternoons, would like to have his own TV station and has been trying to buy one for some time. A big chunk
of his earnings comes from the 12 minutes he gets in the show to sell as he pleases. A 30-second spot on
Domingo Legal costs $90,000, just a little less than on the
Jornal Nacional, Globo’s daily prime-time news show, where the same ad would cost $110 thousand.
Competing with Gugu at Globo on the same Sunday time slot is Fausto Silva, the host for
Domingão do Faustão (Big Fausto’s
Big Sunday). Faustão also derives his money from a salary plus merchandising added to his program. He is worth $4.5 million a year.
The competition among Gugu and Faustão last year ended up in an all-out war that only finished when Faustão provoked a national
scandal
by showing in his program a sushi bar where the food was served on the bodies of naked women. The long live scenes shot from
every angle while three actors ate and talked about the experience was shown on a Sunday afternoon and provoked a deluge of indignant
letters to the editor, comments and editorials. The top brass at Globo—so much for the highly touted Globo standard of quality—had to
intervene and demand some cleaning up. Since then, at least at Globo, the titillation decibels have lowered on live shows.
A lesser-known character, but who is already earning $6 million at SBT, is Celso Portiolli. The 30-year-old show host has just
signed a contract for three years guaranteeing him a $100,000 monthly salary. If he is already earning an estimated $6 million a year is due
to a clause that allows him to sell every day 1 minute and a half of publicity in the show he presents. On Sundays he hosts
Tempo de Alegria (Joy Time). Earlier this year Portiolli’s salary was a mere $8,000. His value shot up, however, when Globo showed interest in
getting him. SBT is so fearful of losing the rising star that the network introduced a $30 million penalty to be paid in case he wants to jump
the boat.
Thriving in mondo cane, Ratinho (Little Mouse) has become a media phenomenon disputed by different TV networks, including
Globo, which reportedly wanted to tame him a little. Now at Record but with a serious offer to jump to number-two SBT, host Carlos
Massa, gets a salary of $200,000 and earns some $6 million a year. He arrives at this amount by getting 5% of all the 900 toll calls dialed
during his programs. For the networks these crowd-pleasing shows are a cash cow. While a
novela might cost about $100,000 per
chapter, Ratinho’s program, for example doesn’t cost more than $25,000.
Colleague of Ratinho at Record, and also appealing to some lower instincts, hostess Ana Maria Braga makes $3 million a year.
Among other items bearing her name, Braga has already released a recipe book, an engagement book, and a Christmas CD.
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Despite the moralistic streak at Globo, the network is not abandoning its lewd characters. Already on the air or waiting in the
wings there are four roles for prostitutes, for example. It is a hooker the woman who lends its name to
Hilda Furacão (Hurricane Hilda), a
very successful miniseries that has just had its run. For novice actress Ana Paula Arósio it was a chance of a lifetime to play Hilda, a
married socialite from Minas Gerais, who makes some pocket money in a whorehouse. As a whore, gorgeous model Arósio has become the
toast of the country and proved to have the right interpreting stuff.
The next Globo miniseries, Labirinto (Labyrinth), to première on October 20, will have three girls selling their bodies for a
living. Once again, two beauties expect the role to work wonders for their careers, even though they are already two global—who work for
Globo—high-magnitude stars. They are Malu Mader, who will play Paula, and Christine Fernandes, who will be Dora. Paula will be one of
the few to defend a businessman accused of a crime he did not commit. A third lady of the night will be interpreted by Brazilian
sweetheart Cláudia Abreu on a cameo appearance.
Labirinto is inspired by the Yankee TV series
The Fugitive. In the Brazilian version, André (Fábio Assunção), a man unjustly
accused of murdering a businessman during a New Year’s Eve party decides to go on the run. He will be helped by a prostitute (Paula) with
whom he will fall in love. Hollywood is the clear inspiration for the series, which will have plenty of car chases and car crashes.
Christine is not worried that she will be often seen in bras and panties or even less. Curiously, however, she declined the title
role on Brida, a novela premiering August on Manchete network and that is based in the work of worldwide bestseller Brazilian author
Paulo Coelho. She refused the role, the actress said, because she did not want to appear naked. And she explains: "It doesn’t make any
sense to take my clothes off in that plot. I have no problem with nudity, but it seemed gratuitous in the scenes I read. Yet as Dora,
everything would fit."
Used to play fairy-like characters, Luana Piovani is all fired up since she was given the opportunity to be Patrícia in "A
Professional" (The Professional), an episode of the
Mulher (Woman) series. "This role was a gift," she said recently and explained where she was
getting the inspiration to compose its character: "Every woman has a prostitute inside herself." Patrícia, a 22-year-old communications
college student, sells her body to pay the school. She has seven fixed johns. "It’s as if she had seven sweethearts," said Piovani.
Why are prostitutes recurring characters in Brazilian TV shows? "The idea is to show the prejudice society holds against these
girls," says author Sérgio Marques, who is writing
Labirinto together with Leonor Bassères and Gilberto Braga. In an interview with Rio’s
daily, O Globo, Marques declared: "We are not taking a deep dive in social problems, but we want to show how people condemned by
society may have a stronger and more righteous character than others who are more respected."
The
Auditorium
Wars
The success of TV hosts has created a new class of nouveaux riches in Brazil. Besides considerable paychecks these hosting
stars fatten their bank accounts with merchandising and getting a percentage from the ads sold during their programs. Maria da Graça
Meneghel, better known as Xuxa, the Queen of the Shorties, working at Globo, has become a multimillionaire industry and the richest of them
all. But other emerging names are catching up fast.
In the same area as Xuxa, TV program for kids, there is Angélica and Eliana. Angélica, who also is a hostess at Globo, has
become the leader in products licensing in all of Brazil. There are already more than 400 products bearing her likeness or her name. She
makes $4 million a year. Working at SBT, Eliana gets a $70,000 monthly salary. She also has licensed more than 100 products, does other
shows and has CDs with her songs. Annual income: $4 million.
Gugu Liberato ($14 million a year) is the wealthiest of the emerging stars. He has 41 products licensed and is the owner of
Gugu Produções, a company that promotes entertainment events. Gugu, who presents
Domingo Legal (Cool Sunday) on SBT, the number
one program on Sunday afternoons, would like to have his own TV station and has been trying to buy one for some time. A big chunk
of his earnings comes from the 12 minutes he gets in the show to sell as he pleases. A 30-second spot on
Domingo Legal costs $90,000, just a little less than on the
Jornal Nacional, Globo’s daily prime-time news show, where the same ad would cost $110 thousand.
Competing with Gugu at Globo on the same Sunday time slot is Fausto Silva, the host for
Domingão do Faustão (Big Fausto’s
Big Sunday). Faustão also derives his money from a salary plus merchandising added to his program. He is worth $4.5 million a year.
The competition among Gugu and Faustão last year ended up in an all-out war that only finished when Faustão provoked a national
scandal
by showing in his program a sushi bar where the food was served on the bodies of naked women. The long live scenes shot from
every angle while three actors ate and talked about the experience was shown on a Sunday afternoon and provoked a deluge of indignant
letters to the editor, comments and editorials. The top brass at Globo—so much for the highly touted Globo standard of quality—had to
intervene and demand some cleaning up. Since then, at least at Globo, the titillation decibels have lowered on live shows.
A lesser-known character, but who is already earning $6 million at SBT, is Celso Portiolli. The 30-year-old show host has just
signed a contract for three years guaranteeing him a $100,000 monthly salary. If he is already earning an estimated $6 million a year is due
to a clause that allows him to sell every day 1 minute and a half of publicity in the show he presents. On Sundays he hosts
Tempo de Alegria (Joy Time). Earlier this year Portiolli’s salary was a mere $8,000. His value shot up, however, when Globo showed interest in
getting him. SBT is so fearful of losing the rising star that the network introduced a $30 million penalty to be paid in case he wants to jump
the boat.
Thriving in mondo cane, Ratinho (Little Mouse) has become a media phenomenon disputed by different TV networks, including
Globo, which reportedly wanted to tame him a little. Now at Record but with a serious offer to jump to number-two SBT, host Carlos
Massa, gets a salary of $200,000 and earns some $6 million a year. He arrives at this amount by getting 5% of all the 900 toll calls dialed
during his programs. For the networks these crowd-pleasing shows are a cash cow. While a
novela might cost about $100,000 per
chapter, Ratinho’s program, for example doesn’t cost more than $25,000.
Colleague of Ratinho at Record, and also appealing to some lower instincts, hostess Ana Maria Braga makes $3 million a year.
Among other items bearing her name, Braga has already released a recipe book, an engagement book, and a Christmas CD.
Send your
comments to
Brazzil
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