New Year's Eve TV: Politicized clips and reruns dominate

New Year's Eve on TV: Politicized clips, reruns, and few exceptions

The New Year's Eve that ushered in 2024 left a similar impression across most Spanish networks: nothing to write home about. The public offering combined, according to repeated complaints, an empowerment-focused speech during the countdown with a special edition of «Cachitos de hierro y cromo» (a nostalgic music clip show) that replaced witty captions with current affairs commentary. Meanwhile, there were no decent alternatives: reruns of music programs, catalog movies, and late-night prime time slots.

What did TVE broadcast on New Year's Eve 2023?

TVE's countdown was hosted by Ana Mena, antiestéticaturing references to women's empowerment and frequent mentions of the national women's football team, as noted in online discussions. Later, La 2 aired the New Year's Eve edition of «Cachitos de hierro y cromo», a program built from archival musical footage and captions that this year—critics argue—moved away from harmless humor toward political commentary. Before that, José Mota occupied the preceding slot with a special that also drew complaints. The word summarizing the diagnosis is decline: not due to lack of resources, but how they are used.

Cachitos de hierro y cromo: when captions become rallies

The most specific criticism targets the captions. According to viewers, jokes were directed at Abascal, Vox, and Bertín Osborne, while Yolanda Díaz received what one user described as extremely favorable treatment. A frequently cited caption suggested that protesting against the amnesty law makes one an extremist and that the issue matters less than suffering from cancer. Shared as evidence of bias, this text encapsulates the complaint: it wasn't humor, but taking sides. The program itself was also judged weak, even as comedy.

The countdown: empowerment on public TV vs. the competitor's star

One viewer admitted watching Antena 3's countdown with Cristina Pedroche because they tuned in at 23:58 with no time to switch channels. However, the empowerment message generated backlash regardless of the network, and audience data released for the night pointed in an uncomfortable direction: an alternative internet stream failed, while the athlete's appearance performed well.

The rest of the lineup: reruns, lip-syncs, and catalog cinema

Outside the public broadcaster, the situation didn't improve. Antena 3 relied on reruns of song-based shows with pre-recorded lip-syncs; Cuatro aired «Ocho apellidos vascos»; Telecinco antiestéticatured two singers covering «Boys», Sabrina Salerno's 1987 hit, alongside a chained-up extra dressed as a prisoner; lasensla scheduled «Ready Player One». Some networks placed a three-hour movie, «Babylon», in prime time, leaving many confused when midnight struck. Catalog cinema thus became the least bad option by elimination.

Telemadrid and nostalgia: Doris Day against prime time

The only segment worth saving, albeit with reservations, was on Telemadrid: its second channel aired a classic Doris Day and Jack Lemmon comedy trinc by «Préstame a tu marido». This detail highlights what has been lost. There was a time when the second public channel reserved New Year's Eve for titles like «MASH», «Spies Like Us», or «Airplane!», cutting them only briefly for the twelve grapes. Today, that same slot is filled with propaganda, according to the majority complaint, or filler material.

The verdict: complaints with the TV on

The deadlock is evident here. No one in the discussion defended the lineup; the most repeated grievance points to the ideology permeating the public channel and a model that now only produces lip-syncs and catalog films. Among the messages was also a calculation made by one participant: 99% of the population watches the countdown. With that baseline, the annual complaint remains unresolved.