La Séptima signs Quequé to take on El Intermedio

La Séptima secures Quequé for a show set to rival El Intermedio
The new channel La Séptima is determined to leave no loose ends. After putting Javier Ruiz in charge of its news output and hiring a journalist linked to Jesús Cintora, it is now negotiating with Héctor de Miguel, known as 'Quequé', for a satirical show modelled on 'El Intermedio'. The move, first reported by El HuffPost, confirms the strategy: turning the channel into the private alternative to the official narrative.

A newsroom that smells of Moncloa
The project, launching under the direction of Contreras — the same man who founded La Sens — is assembling figures who move between networks like pieces on the same board. Javier Ruiz, formerly of TVE, is head of news. Beside him, a journalist who came out of Jesús Cintora's orbit. The coincidence is no accident: with public television subject to quotas, the goal is to create a private but ideologically aligned outlet. Nobody misses the irony: the channel is called La Séptima, but on social media it has already been dubbed la Séptica or TPS7, Tele Pedro Sánchez 7.

Quequé: talent or provocation
The signing of Quequé is not neutral either. The comedian has spent years skewering the right, with a style that swings between sharp analysis and farce. His supporters celebrate the return of a platform for political satire; his critics point to a past of controversial gestures with the Spanish flag and place him on the 'Leire list of 61', a list circulating on social media naming alleged collaborators of the government. True or not, the controversy is already served: in a channel born under suspicion, a comedian with that profile does not put out the fire — he fuels it.

Business scepticism
The deeper question remains: who is going to watch this? Linear television loses audience year after year, and launching a seventh generalist channel hardly seems logical. Sceptics suggest the aim is not profitability but influence. If private advertisers shy away from a politically marked channel, the State can always lend a hand, whether through institutional advertising or paying for football rights. The story is a familiar one: channels are born with a purpose and end up sold to the highest bidder.

The fable of the fox and the fleas, which someone recalled when the news broke, sums up the cycle well: the animal enters the water to shake off the bugs, but they climb up to its snout and the last tuft of fur. At the critical moment, the fox lets go of the fur and the fleas drown. La Séptima is gathering fleas at full estimulante ilegal. All that remains is to find out who will let them go, and in which river.