Brazil's telenovela industry is the secret agent behind powerful films at the Oscars

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Hollywood actors might rule the silver screen — as Sunday’s Academy Awards are poised to prove — but Brazil’s path to stardom often starts under the bright lights of a TV studio rather than a sprawling movie set.

Since at least the 1960s, the telenovelas, Latin American TV series often compared to soap operas, produced by Brazil's leading broadcaster TV Globo have evolved from simple daily dramas into a multi-million-dollar industry with 13 studios, three set towns, 122 edit bays and reaching up to 60 million of Brazil's 213 million people every week.

Many Brazilian actors associated with Oscar-contending films — such as “Central Station” (1998), “I’m Still Here” (2024) and this year’s four-category nominee “The Secret Agent” — first became household names via TV Globo. Actors like Wagner Moura and Fernanda Torres gained broad national visibility through telenovelas.

In contrast, Brazil only has about 3,500 movie theaters, mostly located in major cities and where U.S. blockbusters feature prominently. This creates an ecosystem where success on TV may lead to big cinema roles, which then circle back to popular telenovelas, and then on to movies again.

Moura, the lead actor in “The Secret Agent," starred in the telenovela “A Lua Me Disse” (The Moon told Me) 21 years ago. Similarly, Fernanda Torres, the star of “I’m Still Here,” which won Brazil’s first best international feature Oscar, was already a beloved actor due to two major TV Globo comedic series that many in the public see as telenovelas.

“Globo’s telenovelas are key for Brazil’s audiovisual production," said Amauri Soares, director of TV Globo and Globo Studios, hailing them as “a continuous platform of creation and production of content.”

"‘The Secret Agent’ has actors and staffers who worked at Globo, who will work at Globo again and the film itself has Globo investment despite being independent,” Soares said.

TV Globo broadcasts three telenovelas simultaneously from early evening to prime-time. They are produced at studios in Rio de Janeiro and often run for six months from Mondays to Saturdays, involving more than 1,000 people. A finale can turn into a national viewing event, with bars, restaurants and gyms airing main episodes.

The industry requires adaptability. With some episodes written only days in advance based on audience ratings, telenovelas allow viewers to indirectly co-create the narrative. And their economic impact is powerful: a remake of the hit “Vale Tudo” (Anything Goes) reportedly generated over 200 million reais ($38 million) in advertising — fourfold the global box office of “The Secret Agent.”

Each year, TV Globo recruits up to 70 new actors from theater, film and regional productions. Soares says they hone their skills with high-end equipment and new techniques for a year. Then many leave for other productions, some just stay at the broadcaster for more short series.

Dira Paes, a veteran actor and one of TV Globo’s frequent pundits during Oscars’ night, notes that Brazil’s telenovelas and cinema industries are increasingly intertwined, as professionals can move from one to the other to create and also make more money. She was recently in another popular series,“Pantanal” (Wetlands), and in “Manas,” a film praised by Julia Roberts and Sean Penn.

“Telenovelas are not only about ratings, but also heart and affection. When you do it on prime-time, you experience the power of an entire nation watching you. When the public loves your character ... it is a very special popularity,” said Paes, the star of “Tres Gracas” (Three Gracas), a show filmed in Rio but set in an impoverished area of Sao Paulo.

Mauricio Stycer, an author and critic of TV culture, says Brazil's inequality boosted free TV channels like Globo in a way that reduced the general public's interest in cinema. Ultimately, he argues, that led to “Brazilian cinema holding a grudge for not having the same reach of telenovelas.”

Stycer added that many actors have a Hamletian dilemma whenever recruited for a telenovela.

“To be popular and have a sure income every month or to take risks in a career that involves theater and cinema? TV was always a safe haven for most actors,” he said.

While rival Brazilian TV networks have tried to challenge Globo’s supremacy in the genre, few have achieved success. But even TV Globo productions are no longer as dominant as they were up until the early 2010s. And company executives have acknowledged they face growing competition from streaming video.

Even so, “Globo is still Brazil’s biggest company for actors,” Stycer said. “Up until the year 2000, Globo alone was responsible for about 50% of TV ratings in Brazil."

Actor and director Lázaro Ramos first appeared in telenovelas after he had kicked off his career in theater and cinema. He says Brazilians have learned to love both telenovelas and films with the same intensity when they succeed in portraying the country’s joyful and sometimes dark personality.

“Brazilians see themselves in telenovelas, more and more. Our acclaimed writers created many of them based on literature classics,” Ramos said. “They are an investment in a national voice through characters, language and esthetics that viewers greatly identify with."

Ramos — a lifelong friend of Moura — will attend the Academy Awards but will fly back to Brazil soon after to continue working on his new show, “A Nobreza do Amor” (Love's Nobility).

For him, the ability to transition between theater, cinema and TV is what keeps Brazilian performers afloat.

“An American actor could get $10 million for a film. That’s not the Brazilian reality,” he said. “But telenovelas are not a lesser product; they are a product of the highest quality.”

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

Actor Bukassa Kabengele, right, takes part in the filming of the soap opera "A Nobreza do Amor" at a TV Globo set in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Actors Alana Cabral, behind left, Dira Paes, center, Sophie Charlotte, behind right, and Paulo Mendes, behind everyone, take part in the filming of the soap opera "Três Garças" at a TV Globo set in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Brazilian actor Dira Paes smiles before an interview at the TV Globo studio in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Actors film a scene of the soap opera "A Nobreza do Amor," at a TV Globo set in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Actors Danton Mello, left, and Theresa Fonseca, second from right, prepare to film a scene of the soap opera "A Nobreza do Amor," at a TV Globo set in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

The NCAA men's and women's tennis tournaments opened Friday, and what should be a time of celebration for the sport has had a pall cast over it with more Division I schools announcing this week they would be dropping their programs because of the new financial realities in college athletics.

Arkansas announced a week ago it would drop its men's and women's programs and Saint Louis followed Monday with the same announcement. Illinois State said Tuesday it would end its men's program, and North Dakota said Thursday it would shut down its men's and women's teams. Gardner-Webb announced in February this would be the last season for the men's and women's programs.

Arkansas and Gardner-Webb are among the 64 teams in the men's NCAA Tournament.

The number of Division I schools sponsoring tennis in 2024-25 was 237 for men and 304 for women. An NCAA spokeswoman said Friday that numbers for 2025-26 were unavailable.

Dozens of schools across all divisions shut down programs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since revenue sharing with athletes started last year, Division I schools have chosen to redirect resources to fund direct payments to athletes in football, basketball and a few other sports.

Brian Vahaly, chairman of the board and president and interim co-CEO of the U.S. Tennis Association, said in a statement to The Associated Press on Friday that visibility of the college game needs to be elevated, the pathway for players to continue competing beyond juniors needs to be strengthened and tennis leaders need to work more directly with athletic departments.

“A strong collegiate tennis landscape is fundamental to the future of our sport,” Vahaly said, “and we will continue to look for ways to support its growth and long-term sustainability.”

Arkansas' decision to drop the sport caught the tennis community off guard.

“We in the tennis world have sort of been battling this at the lower levels of college tennis, but not the big, bad SEC,” ESPN tennis analyst and former college and pro player Patrick McEnroe said on the WholeHogSports podcast. "The Division II schools and some of the smaller Division I programs over the years, you're always sort of on the lookout in the tennis community to fight and protect as many programs as possible."

Tennis has been targeted as youth participation for American boys and girls has declined and the ratio of international players at U.S. colleges has continued to grow.

In 2006, the number of boys and girls ages 12-17 playing tennis was equal, at 1.1 million, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Over the last 20 years, participation has dropped 23% for boys in that age group (849,000) and 26% for girls (811,000).

The most recent NCAA data showed that among first-year college players in 2022, 64% of men and 61% of women were international students. At Arkansas, seven of the nine men and seven of the 11 women on the 2025-26 rosters are international students.

The math didn't work for the Razorbacks anymore. They spent a combined $2.35 million on the two teams in the 2025 fiscal year; the men's team generated $3,202 in revenue and the women $82.

Arkansas' operating expense per player in 2025 was $41,772 for the men and $41,582 for the women, among the highest in the athletic department.

Tennis also ranked among the most expensive sports per player at North Dakota and Gardner-Webb, and at Illinois State the $10,224 cost per men's player was more than football and baseball. At Saint Louis, cost per player ranked third out of six men's sports and sixth out of eight on the women's side.

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

FILE - Patrick McEnroe speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, Sept. 3, 2014. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

FILE - Spectators crowd center court at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex during the UCLA and North Carolina women's doubles match in the NCAA Division I tennis championships, May 20, 2014, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/David Tulis, File)