La Doña (2016 TV series)

La Doña is an American drama television series filmed entirely in Mexico, and created by José Vicente Spataro for Telemundo. The series is based on the 1929 novel of Venezuelan writer Rómulo Gallegos titled Doña Bárbara, which most recent version was, Doña Bárbara, starred Edith González. It is a production of Argos Comunicación and Telemundo Studios (known now as Telemundo Global Studios), and distributed by Telemundo Internacional.[2] The series premiered on 29 November 2016, and revolves around of Altagracia Sandoval (Aracely Arámbula) a beautiful, elegant, successful woman, recognized in society and owner of an emporium in the construction world. Just as a young girl, she suffered two very strong traumas that marked her and made her the unforgiving "Doña" she is now.

La Doña
Season 1 title card
Genre	Telenovela
Created by	José Vicente Spataro
Based on	Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos
Written by	Basilio Álvarez Gerardo Cadena Illay Eskinazi José Vicente Spataro Yutzil Martínez
Screenplay by	Perla Farías
Story by	Rómulo Gallegos
Directed by	Carlos Villegas Rosales Carlos Santos
Creative director(s)	Maru González
Starring	See list
Theme music composer	Samo Edgar Barrera Gianko Gómez Andrés Castro
Opening theme	"La Doña" by Aracely Arámbula[1]
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	Spanish
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	198 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mariana Iskandariani Carmen Cecilia Urbaneja Gabriela Valentán
Producer(s)	Héctor Sotelo Blancas
Cinematography	Juan Pablo Ambris Marc Bellver Mariano Diluch Consuelo Saldaña
Editor(s)	Carlos Leal Nectario Márquez Horacio Valle
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Production company(s)	Argos Comunicación Telemundo Studios
Distributor	Telemundo Internacional
Release
Original network	Telemundo
Picture format	HDTV 1080i
Audio format	Stereophonic sound
Original release	29 November 2016 (2016-11-29) – 27 April 2020 (2020-04-27)
Chronology
Related shows	El Señor de los Cielos
External links
Website

On 9 May 2019, Telemundo confirmed through its upfront for the 2019-2020 television season that the series has been renewed for a second season.[3][4]

Seasons

See also: List of La Doña cast members

Series		Episodes		Originally aired
				First aired	Last aired
	1	120		29 November 2016 (2016-11-29)	1 May 2017 (2017-05-01)
	2	75		13 January 2020 (2020-01-13)[5]	27 April 2020 (2020-04-27)[6]

Season 1 (2016–17)

The plot revolves around Altagracia Sandoval (Aracely Arámbula), a woman who since her teenage years had to take care of her little sister and get ahead without her parents' help; who were brutally murdered along with her boyfriend by a group of 5 men called the Monkeys, who also raped her. As a young woman, after the death of her parents, Altagracia was under the care of her aunt Yesenia Sandoval (Rebecca Jones), who taught her to manipulate men and witchcraft. Thanks to her aunt, Altagracia meets Lázaro Hernández (Odiseo Bichir), the owner of a construction company, whom she seduces and manipulates with the help of her aunt. Subsequently Altagracia realizes that she is pregnant, and with the help of her aunt, manages to deceive Lázaro by making him believe that Altagracia's baby is his. And with more guidance from Yesenia, Altagracia makes Lázaro become an alcoholic and thus manages to take away his company and all his money, and then abandons him and her daughter.

Several years later, Altagracia is now a recognized and powerful businesswoman who owns the construction company Sandoval, formerly called Hernández. And now she has a family made up of her sister Regina Sandoval (Andrea Martí), and her niece Isabela Sandoval (Michelle Olvera). Thanks to all her power, Altagracia is now a very bad and vindictive woman, and she doesn't mind hurting anyone in order to get what she wants, and for that she has Braulio Padilla (José María Galeano), her lawyer and Matamoros (Aquiles Cervantes), her faithful bodyguard, who help her in all her illicit businesses. The only reason for Altagracia's vindictiveness, anger and lust for power is to take revenge on the 5 men who abused her and ruined her life. But her way to vengeance and ambition, she meets Saúl Aguirre (David Chocarro), a lawyer, whom she falls in love with. And thanks to him, changes her way of thinking towards men.

On the other hand, there is Mónica Hernández (Danna Paola), the daughter of Altagracia and Lázaro. Mónica is a young and sweet woman totally different from Altagracia, she seeks to make a living selling ham cakes. But the only problem between Mónica and Altagracia is that the two fall in love with the same man; without knowing that they are mother and daughter. After Altagracia finding out that Monica is Saul's lover, she tries to hurt her, even without knowing that she is her own daughter. After learning that Mónica is her daughter, Altagracia decides to leave her alone and help her financially. Despite changing her attitude with everyone who knows her, her desire for revenge towards the Monkeys remains intact. Since after killing Miguel Preciado, Alejandro Céspedes and Francisco Vega, she has two Monkeys left to kill. But the only problem with the last two is that one is Daniel Llamas (Diego Soldano), who is now a good man who helps women who are victims of rape and domestic abuse. And the other is Rafael Cabral (Juan Ríos), who is her right hand in all her illicit businesses and who she's known all her life. But on her way to revenge, Altagracia has only one big problem, Saul's love, which makes the love for her daughter fade away, creating conflict between them for the love of a man.

Season 2 (2020)

Main article: La Doña (season 2)

At the end of the previous season, Altagracia Sandoval decided to retire to start a new life after her daughter Mónica Hernández married Saúl Aguirre. Two years later, Mónica and Saúl Aguirre continue together, he as a lawyer at the head of the Renacer Foundation and she as a law student, and together with his aunt Regina fight to eradicate gender violence. This is not to the liking of those responsible for the crimes, including Los Arcoiris, a gang known for killing women after torturing them with paint bullets. Saúl thus becomes a victim by mysteriously disappearing. Concerned about the safety of her daughter, La Doña makes the decision to return to Mexico to look for her without caring that she has to face justice and meet up with José Luis Navarrete (David Zepeda), a businessman with whom she has many pending issues.

Everything becomes even more dangerous when Mónica also disappears and agent León Contreras (Carlos Ponce) links this fact with the band Los Arcoiris. Altagracia, however, resists believing this and suspects his enemies. Altagracia is not the only one who will fight for justice. She will also be accompanied by Noelia Molina (Paola Fernández), a young woman of humble origin who is also looking for her own culprits to blame her sister's death. Both, together with León, will form a team with a common goal: to avenge the death and aggression of their loved ones.

Crossover with El Señor de los Cielos

In the sixth season of El Señor de los Cielos, there is a crossover with La Doña, when the protagonist and main character of La Doña, Altagracia Sandoval or La Doña (Aracely Arámbula) becomes an unexpected ally of the main character and protagonist of El Señor de los Cielos, Aurelio Casillas or Señor de los Cielos (Rafael Amaya) after returning to Mexico after fleeing to France after the events in La Doña[7].

Another crossover between El Señor de los Cielos and La Doña occurs in the second season of La Doña when the characters Eunice Lara "La Felina" (Maricela González), and Amado Casillas "El Águila Azul" (Matías Novoa), two of the main characters of El Señor de los Cielos become recurring characters in La Doña.[8]

Ratings

Viewership and ratings per season of La Doña

Season	Timeslot (ET)	Episodes	First aired		Last aired		Avg. viewers (millions)	18–49 rank
			Date	Viewers (millions)	Date	Viewers (millions)
1	Mon–Fri 9pm/8c	120	29 November 2016 (2016-11-29)	1.85[9]	1 May 2017 (2017-05-01)	1.71[10]	TBD	TBD
2		48	13 January 2020 (2020-01-13)	1.03[11]	27 April 2020 (2020-04-27)	TBD	0.98	TBD

Production

The telenovela was presented in Telemundo's upfront for the 2015-2016 television season.[12] On June 6, 2016 Telemundo announced the start of the production of the telenovela and concluded their production in December 2016.[13][14] It was filmed mostly in Mexico and several locations.[15]

Concept

The series is only inspired by some moments of the life of Bárbara Guaymarán, the rest of the story was updated to the present time for the season of 2016.[16] This adaptation, instead of being developed in a hacienda and in the countryside, takes place in Mexico City and the protagonist is in charge of running a construction company.[17] Written by José Vicente Spataro and directed by Carlos Villegas, the series deals with issues such as corruption of the judicial system and the media, gangs and kidnappings, among other crimes.[18]

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2017	Your World Awards[19][20]	Favorite Series	La Doña	Won[19][20]
		Favorite Lead Actor	David Chocarro	Nominated[19][20]
		Favorite Lead Actress	Aracely Arámbula	Won[19][20]
		The Best Bad Boy	José María Galeano	Won[19][20]
		Favorite Actor	Odiseo Bichir	Nominated[19][20]
		Favorite Actress	Danna Paola	Nominated[19][20]
		The Perfect Couple	David Chocarro and Aracely Arámbula	Won[19][20]
		The Best Actor with Bad Luck	David Chocarro	Nominated[19][20]

References

1. "Aracely Arámbula canta el tema central de "La Doña" en Don Francisco Te Invita" (VIDEO)". telemundo.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 8 March 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
2. "'La Doña' se estrenará en Nova". teleprograma.diezminutos.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 June 2017.
3. "NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises Leads Hispanic Media Upfront With Over 900 Hours Of Groundbreaking Contemporary Content For Today's Latinos". prnewswire.com. PR Newswire. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
4. "Telemundo anuncia nueva súper serie y spinoff de Sin senos sí hay paraíso". todotvnews.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 9 May 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
5. "La Doña 2 | Mira el trailer de la nueva temporada de La Doña | Telemundo". YouTube (in Spanish). Telemundo. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
6. González, Moisés. "100 días para enamorarnos ya tiene fecha de estreno". People en Español (in Spanish). Retrieved 19 April 2020.
7. https://vidamoderna.com/asi-de-imponente-llega-la-dona-a-el-senor-de-los-cielos-video/
8. https://peopleenespanol.com/telenovelas/elenco-segunda-temporada-la-dona-aracely-arambula/
9. Pucci, Douglas. "Tuesday Final Nationals: 'The Flash' on The CW Zooms to 2-Year High as Part of 'Heroes vs. Aliens' Week-Long Crossover". programminginsider.com. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
10. Pucci, Douglas. "Monday Final Nationals: ABC, NBC and TNT Spilt Prime Time Victory for Third Straight Monday". programminginsider.com. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
11. Pucci, Douglas. "Monday Final Ratings: Slight Year-Over-Year Growth for College Football Playoff National Championship Across ESPN Platforms". programminginsider.com. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
12. Petski, Denise. "NBCUniversal Hispanic Group Unveils CultureFirst, NBC Deportes, Telemundo & NBC Universo 2015-16 Lineup, More — Upfronts". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
13. "Inician grabaciones de "La Doña"". telemundo47.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 June 2017.
14. Rubio, Flor. "Concluí grabaciones de "La Doña", ahora me dedicaré a mis hijos: Arámbula". radioformula.com.mx (in Spanish). Grupo Fórmula. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
15. "Aracely Arámbula será la nueva Doña Bárbara". farandula.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 8 February 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
16. González, Moisés. "Aracely Arámbula se prepara para protagonizar la telenovela La doña". peopleenespanol.com (in Spanish). People en Español. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
17. "De "Doña Bárbara" a "La doña"". elnuevodiario.com.ni (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 June 2017.
18. González, Moisés. "Así será el final de La doña". peopleenespanol.com (in Spanish). People en Español. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
19. "Lista completa de nominados a Premios Tu Mundo 2017". laopinion.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 19 July 2017.
20. "Lista de todos los ganadores de Premios Tu Mundo 2017". laopinion.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 August 2017.

External links

• La Doña on IMDb