After nine years off the air, Crackòvia will return to the screen with a new season that will combine the characters that turned the program into a benchmark for Catalan sports humor with new additions linked to current football events. 3Cat is bringing back the format with a new distribution strategy that places the digital platform at the center, but also maintains conventional broadcasting on TV3. The first episode will premiere on Monday, October 26th at 8:30 PM on the 3Cat platform and can be seen on Thursday on television, after Polònia.

Assisted reproduction, the limits of science, and social expectations surrounding motherhood are some of the topics addressed by In vitro, the new series from 3Cat and HBO Max. The production, created by Alejandra Guimerà and Marc Crehuet, premieres this Monday, October 19, on TV3, on the 3Cat platform, and on HBO Max, coinciding with the opening of the Serielizados Fest. Starring Bruna Cusí and David Verdaguer, the fiction explores the experiences of people who turn to fertility treatments and the professionals who accompany them.

On Monday, Salvador Illa posted a tweet on the X network to protest against the approach of the program Vèrtex for having given a voice to anti-vaxxers and demanding responsibility for not putting public health at risk. The day before, Ramon Pellicer had introduced the debate on vaccination with a very fragile premise: “This week the flu and COVID vaccination campaign has begun, and we wanted to focus on the other side of this reality: that of the people who distrust vaccines.” The program turns a minority position into a counterpart to the vaccination campaign, endorsed by the journalistic cliché of “the other side of reality.” This other side perhaps does not justify so much attention. In any case, the video of the anti-vax couple they interviewed did not last more than three minutes, and they used very vague arguments. The man said that for him, smiles and hugs were more important for maintaining good health. They were not presented as experts, nor did they use a falsely scientific discourse. The program then dedicated four times as much time, twelve minutes, to refuting the anti-vaxxers' arguments with two expert professionals: Gemma Moncunill, lead researcher of the Caixa Research Institute group, and Judit Vall, professor of applied economics at the UB, to clarify aspects linked to the interests of pharmaceutical companies. Both insisted on the benefits of vaccines, and Moncunill stressed that it was advisable to get “all the vaccines recommended by the Generalitat.” A reporter provided statistical data that consolidated their explanations, including figures on the lives that vaccines save.

3Cat wants to expand its presence on YouTube with a strategy that seeks to adapt to new audiovisual consumption habits, reach audiences that go beyond traditional television, and strengthen the presence of Catalan in the digital environment. The project is structured around three axes: creating content designed specifically for the platform, promoting Catalan creators, and implementing a new offer of channels reorganized by themes. Today, at the Torre Glòries Auditorium, the roadmap was presented by Rosa Romà, president of the Catalan Broadcasting Corporation (CCMA), Cristina Villà, director of innovation, research, and digital strategy, Judith de Argila, director of digital audience development, and Vicky Cazalla, head of strategic media partnerships at YouTube.

On Saturday afternoon, on TV3, the tension of the storm was already felt during the broadcast of the film Escape room by Joel Joan and the series Tàndem that followed. A banner was scrolling along the bottom of the screen announcing that President Salvador Illa would soon appear live due to the weather alert. An unsettling countdown for viewers, eager to discover what the sky had in store for us. At that moment, in the top left corner of the screen, they were still advertising Col·lapse for prime time. At seven-thirty, they cut the episode to connect with 3CatInfo presenter Anna Barreda, who had been on air live since seven in the evening. The journalist introduced the appearance of Minister Parlon.

Carolina Ferre (Cocentaina, 1974) has been a familiar face on television for more than thirty years. She began her career at the now-defunct Canal 9 and has worked for Telecinco, Antena 3, La Sexta, and À Punt, where until 2023 she presented the Valencian version ofCatch me if you can. She has also been a collaborator on various TV3 programs, which selected her as one of the contestants vips of the new edition of The crossing, which this week has landed on 3Cat.

The Sense ficció this Tuesday on TV3 was a good comparative exercise of the economic models of Catalonia and Madrid. It did not claim anything more and the title did not deceive. A brave documentary because in prime time it dared to delve into an area that can be dense and cumbersome for the audience. On the other hand, it had the virtue of being clear and enjoyable despite the attention to the screen that it required. In an era where television increasingly trains the audience in infantilization and content based on short messages, Catalonia-Madrid: the truth of the two economic models raised the bar. There are still professionals who trust the viewers. However, the title had a pretentious veneer. Selling the thesis of "the truth" as the definitive achievement of an absolute fact is a bit bold. The Sense ficció was also ambitious, and the proof is that the following day the news programs recovered fragments of the broadcast. In a metaphorical sense, the documentary was a kind of Barça-Madrid transferred to the economic sphere. Taking into account the historical and political rivalry of the two communities, the economic models of Catalonia and Madrid presented an alluring narrative with narrative tension. The participation of the two presidents, Salvador Illa and Isabel Díaz Ayuso, accentuated this, especially considering that Ayuso's cynicism is always morbid to listen to. Even more so if she puts herself for the first time in front of TV3's microphones. Her condescension and moral superiority in the analysis showed her in her essence. The Illa-Ayuso confrontation also emphasized another dichotomy: that of left and right. The PSOE-PP axis built the mental framework of the bipartisanship that always limits reflection. On the other hand, the testimonies were well chosen and the selection of experts in economics added a more choral argument. The dossiers full of data that they shared on the table served to define the topics and the rigor.Another strong point of Sense ficció was the direction, editing, and post-production. It was what gave structure to the narrative, and it did so, furthermore, with an exquisite visual quality. An audiovisual production of reference thanks to the attention to detail and the treatment of the image, which was noted in symbiosis with the analysis. The image listened to the content. At a time when television operates by inertia and with the most conventional resources, this Sense ficció demonstrated much higher demands. The documentary had the virtue of developing a serene discourse, but one that did not confuse a good tone with equidistance. It posed concrete questions and offered arguments with very clear answers. Mind you, where they were most ambiguous was when it came to resolving whether the 'Procés' had harmed the economy of Catalonia. The comparison between Madrid and Catalonia has always generated a lot of noise and tension. But, for once, arguments and figures took precedence over demagoguery and cunyadisme.

Miquel Fernández (Barcelona, 1980) has a long career in theater, cinema, and television. He has appeared in series such as Nit i dia, La Riera, Cites, Benvinguts a la família and Fariña and has demonstrated his talent as a singer in various musicals and the contest Tu cara me suena, which he won. Now, however, he takes on one of the biggest challenges of his career: playing Ferran Adrià inGènesi, the series about the gastronomic revolution that El Bulli represented. In addition to Fernández's performance, another of the production's assets is around seventy of El Bulli's most iconic dishes, which were cooked specifically for the filming. This Monday, the fiction, which Adrià wants to be "the best culinary series in history," premieres at the San Sebastián Festival and is released on TV3 and 3Cat. Later, Netflix will distribute it in Spain, Latin America, and the United States.

This week Jordi Basté denounced, in his opening segment of El món a RAC1, the manipulation of the text of the play Dones de ràdio which was broadcast on Monday evening on TV3. At the beginning of the performance, the character of Rosa, played by actress Àngels Gonyalons, mentions that she works at RAC1. Basté's team, knowing the public television's historical reservations regarding the rival station, checked whether that reference to RAC1 had been respected. And they hit the mark. Gonyalons' intervention was mutilated. At the time of writing this article, the censored version can still be found on the 3Cat platform. If you retrieve it, you will be able to observe how, at the beginning of the play, just after Gonyalons' character explains that she hosts a radio program on one of the country's main stations, there is a cutaway shot of actress Sara Diego listening to her colleague that serves to make the cut go unnoticed.

On Tuesday, Sense ficció premiered The Survivor, a documentary by Kike Maíllo and Markos Goikolea about Alícia Esteve, the woman who posed as a 9/11 victim under the fake name Tania Head and ended up managing one of the most important survivors' associations in New York. A story that, like Enric Marco's, provokes fascination. These are such extraordinary cases that it is inevitable for the viewer to be hooked with absolute predisposition, especially after the magnificent Oswald. The Forger,, by the same director.But La supervivent causes disappointment, both in terms of the research work and the narrative approach. The fact that the documentary begins with the director's voice talking about himself already anticipates a presence that will become invasive. The device of recreating the protagonist through the figure of an actress is understandable to complete the missing voice, but it ends up seeming like a method to disguise lame and timid research. La supervivent has an excess of theatricality and not just because of the actress who plays Tania Head. Maíllo's voice-over is too rehearsed. His presence is affected and artificial: with his coat on and collar turned up, he has an almost police-like and intimidating attitude. This demeanor does not fit with a story that, as it progresses, lowers the pretensions of its objective. No witness from Alícia Esteve's past shows their face. Not one. And the recreations of her statements lose authenticity. The stock footage of Barcelona hints instead of explaining.The chronology of the events and the New York stage provide few new details compared to previous productions such as The woman who wasn’t there by Angelo J. Guglielmo Jr. (2012). Furthermore, there is a certain informational regression when facing the dilemma of the right to privacy. In La supervivent, it is disconcerting that Alícia Esteve’s face is pixelated in images that have already been published and that her real surname is censored in the newspaper archives. Even that a beep is added when someone pronounces it. As the investigation evolves, we discover that, in reality, there is no investigation: “I think it is better to leave her alone,” says her mysterious boss. And the documentary obeys. Then, the only way out is to turn the production into a kind of philosophical reflection on lies and the need to invent a life for oneself, with conclusions as weak as “what makes a lie work is our willingness to believe it.” They throw in the towel and all that remains is to justify themselves by taking refuge in compassion for the protagonist: “We have reached the end of our search and, almost without realizing it, we have left behind the need to judge her.” It is inevitable to wonder if this prudence and extreme care to protect the fraudster would have also been applied to Enric Marco. If they were so concerned about her privacy, they should not have started looking for her. The viewer reaches the end with the feeling that the directors knew much more than they wanted to tell us and, therefore, as an investigation, it turns out to be another hoax.

Although 3Cat's daily programs have already started the season this week, the public television station presented some of its main bets for this season this Tuesday. This year, the common thread is fiction, represented among others by three premiere titles, and entertainment, with novelties such as the return of Crackòvia, the sports parody program, which will return to the platform starting in October.

On Monday at noon, the two quintessential weathermen at TV3, the most veteran of the channel, did not fully share the forecast for the week. Tomàs Molina and Francesc Mauri agreed on the drop in temperatures and the change in weather, but not on the day the rains would arrive. With an hour and a half difference, both used different graphics to inform the audience. On Tot es mou, when Helena Garcia Melero hinted to Molina that his forecasts did not coincide with Mauri's, he acknowledged it: “I don't know who of the two will be right, whether Mauri or I. But from here on [pointing to Friday] we agree,” he justified himself. Melero asked him to specify what they disagreed on. Molina pointed out that he believed the rains would arrive sooner on Wednesday and Mauri, more towards Thursday. But, paradoxically, the graph of the week he had behind him represented it the other way around. On Wednesday, the map of Catalonia appeared quite sunny, with showers only in the Lleida Pyrenees and with temperatures quite high. On Thursday, on the other hand, the map was already packed with clouds, lightning, and rain, and the temperature line took a significant drop. That is to say, the graphic did not align with the conviction expressed by Molina. This happened when there were four minutes left until two in the afternoon.An hour and a half later, after the Telenotícies, it was Francesc Mauri's turn. At half past three in the afternoon, the map had already changed. In the weekly progression chart, Wednesday appeared full of clouds, most of which were dumping rain and lightning over Catalonia. A drastic drop in the temperature line was also indicated, which went from orange to blue. Thursday, on the other hand, unlike the Tot es mou map, the country appeared sunny again, beyond a few clouds in the Lleida Pyrenees.It is very disconcerting. Minister Espadaler already justified it by arguing that meteorology is not an exact science. We can understand that meteorological evolution is constant, that maps are open to interpretation, and that experts do not have to agree on forecasts. But he who has two watches does not know what time it is. And there are times when, instead of clarifying what the weather will be like, it seems they play at confusing people. At the very least, this way there is always someone who gets it right.Another bewildering broadcast was that of the twenty-fifth anniversary musical gala of Catalonia raises the curtain. The common thread was the supposed trajectory of an amateur who, over the course of a quarter of a century, became a professional actress and a successful protagonist. The show kept improving, but it made one suffer. The theater inside the theater it is already hard to swallow, but if it is also broadcast on television it can become a torture. Anyway, break a leg...

Wednesday, finally, we saw the season finale special of Com si fos ahir. An broadcast scheduled for Monday, after being announced in multiple promotions. The broadcast on La 1 of the celebration of the Spanish national team's victory in the World Cup caused a sudden change in programming. TV3 resigned itself to subordinating itself to the grandiose television spectacle of la roja} for fear of losing viewers.

For a couple of years now, TV3 has found the key to surviving summers: British series. When the holidays arrive and Com si fos ahir says goodbye until the new term – this year the final episode will be broadcast this Monday in prime time – the public television's schedule is filled with English fictions. They are not strictly new, as most of them premiered years ago in their country of origin, but they usually yield good audience results, as demonstrated at the time by Dr. Martin or The Durrells. This summer TV3 is repeating the strategy with the following series:

A year ago, TV3 reacted late and badly with the coverage of the Paüls fire that affected different municipalities in Baix Ebre. With more than 2,800 hectares burned, nine municipalities confined and with the fire out of control, the public television did not pay enough attention to the fire, especially during the most critical night. In an exercise of cynicism, the channel premiered that evening the series Delta Aquaterra, a suspense thriller that showed the landscapes of that territory, covering up the most tragic reality that was being suffered in those regions. One year later, we cannot say that the network has learned its lesson or has demonstrated informational action protocols in cases like this, unfortunately predictable at this time of year. At midday, there were still 1,200 hectares burned in the Gavarres massif and more than fifty thousand people confined in seven towns, but after Telenotícies, the recipe for Cuines's rice dish was not missing. We also didn't miss Com si fos ahir and, even less so, El paradís de les senyores, because the country is burning, but we need to know about the fashion department store's troubles in Milan.The monitoring of the fires fell to 3CatInfo, which split the screen to keep the images of the fire on the left side to offer the sensation of continuous information. At all times, live connections were made with the dispatched teams, interviews with the mayors, and statements from the authorities. Of course, incorporating the latest information on the Andic case. At quarter past seven in the evening, a caption warned on screen that there was a detainee related to the fire. With the start of La selva, in the afternoon, TV3 reactivated the information on the fires and extended the program's broadcast until the time of the Telenotícies. Atrapa’m si pots and Està passant were cancelled to prioritize last-minute live information. The format of the afternoon magazine was maintained and Xavier Grasset, mobile in hand, strengthened the connections with the different critical points, and interviews with mayors and experts to analyze the context. All this was enlivened by the usual collaborators of the round tables to fill in the service information. But they did not give up some of the planned content. In the midst of this scenario, some pastry chefs still presented us with cakes to welcome the Tour de France and did a bit of gossip with the Andic case. On La2 Cat, L’Altaveu by Danae Boronat offered a few connections from Empordà, without spoiling the celebration of the last day of the program. Between fire and fire, they explained to us how to care for plants when we go on vacation, how to prepare the car for the heat, and the team had a great time dancing to Sonia Madoc's summer song: they sang Voy a portarme mal with a shark and a penguin doing the choreographies. A little sense of seriousness doesn't hurt. On TV3, the Telenotíciesvespre had to arrive for it to seem like a first-division television.

Monday evening, Canal 33 offers us the opportunity to travel around the world accompanying Tom Waes, one of the most popular television figures in Belgium. You can catch up on some of his Unusual Trips on the 3Cat platform. Season 7 is complete, with episodes dedicated to Dubai, São Paulo, Bombay, Nairobi, London, or Los Angeles, among others. And from season 5, you can still catch the three magnificent episodes of a long journey that crosses Japan from south to north over three weeks. It's worth it. If you're not flying anywhere this summer, it's an excuse to discover the world. And if you happen to be in one of his destinations, you'll find options not listed in the usual guides.

Sunday, 30 Minuts provided a diagnosis of the AP-7 situation. The title, AP-7, on the edge, fell short of defining how the experience of driving on it has transformed since the road became free. As they sarcastically say on Toni Clapés' Versió RAC1, driving on it has become an experience akin to the movie Mad Max. It was about time journalism paid specific attention to this highway, because the degeneration it suffers is not being denounced as it should be, beyond simply reporting the traffic jams and accidents that occur there day in and day out. We are normalizing a disaster. 30 Minuts warned that the ministry had not wanted to participate in the report, a fact that betrays the neglect the AP-7 receives and the discomfort caused by the lack of investment.

The 3Cat platform has premiered two new episodes of the documentary shorts "Point of no return, by Raül Gallego. Winner of an international Emmy last year, the first episode of this season, Europe: young people and the far-right tide, transports us to the core of the ultra wave that has been so talked about in recent years. And here comes into play the second chapter: Europe: young and anti-fascist, which delves into the youth movements that have organized to confront it. The search for these realities goes beyond Catalonia and is taken to Spain, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Belgium to highlight shared circumstances that are progressively expanding.

Alexis, one of the participants of La gran cita, the reality show from 3Cat to find a partner presented by Dulceida, confessed on El suplement on Catalunya Ràdio that he works as a gigolo. "I tried it and I loved it. I haven't talked about it because people can't imagine what it's like, the people you meet and the experiences you have. And I'll do it again, because it has taught me a lot of things," he defended.

The award-winning documentary series by Raül Gallego, Punt de no retorn, premieres its third season on June 22. It will be available on the 3Cat platform from Monday. Each episode will be forty minutes long and will continue to give visibility to current conflicts. L'ARA spoke with Gallego at the beginning of last year and, in the interview, the director explained the origin of the series, the choice of topics for the episodes, or the author's ability to approach extreme situations and people suffering the consequences of conflicts. But one of the achievements that the Catalan director probably did not imagine reaching at the beginning of the production was winning the International Emmy for Best Short-Form Series in 2024 and the Online Journalism Awards, in the digital short-form video storytelling category.