Videomatch was a late-night 120-minute Argentine comedy show hosted by Marcelo Tinelli and broadcast on Telefe that first aired in March 1, 1990 in the midnight time slot. Currently the show still airs under the name of Showmatch (changing its name after switching to channel 9). A late-night talk show is a type of talk show that first became popular in the United States. It's mostly made up of comedic monologues regarding the news of the day, guest interviews, comic sketches, and musical performances. It is distinguished by spontaneous discussion and an impression of immediacy and intimacy, as if the host were addressing to everyone of the millions of viewers individually.

History

Videomatch began as a sports show. Since its second year, sports were replaced with bloopers, and then comedy sketches, increasing its success to a large extent. According to Tinelli: "'The humorous spin began when the ratings dropped as low as 0 points, and due to the lack of budget we, along with the team, decided to bring every sports video available, even if they were of very poor quality or pathetic. Then, when we showed the clips, we made fun of the images, saying 'what the hell is this?'. That's when the show took off.'" In this way, Tinelli got a second show, Ritmo de la noche, comprising the same cast of Videomatch but airing Sundays on primetime. Videomatch continued on Telefe until 2004, with excellent ratings, being the most-watched show in all its years and becoming a "classic"; until an argument between Marcelo Tinelli and Claudio Villaruel (Director of Programming for Telefe) led to Tinelli leaving the channel. The show then switched to Channel 9, changing its name to Showmatch.

Characters and skits

The program was broadcast by Telefe for more than 15 years, and was composed of a team that was changed over the years, starting with sports commentators Gonzalo Bonadeo, Osvaldo Príncipi, Felipe Mc Gough, Henry de Ridder, Daniel Jacubovich, Marcelo "Teto" Medina, Ricardo "Lanchita" Bissio, Alejandro Coccia and others. And then it switched to comedians such as Leo Rosenwasser, Hugo Varela, Pablo Granados, Pachu Peña, Freddy Villareal, José María Listorti, Campi, Naim Sibara (El Turco Naim), Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Diego Korol, Marcelo De Bellis, Larry de Clay, Rodrigo Rodríguez, Roberto Peña, Sergio Gonal, Waldo (Álvaro Navia), Yayo (José Carlos Guridi), Toti Ciliberto, Sebastián Almada and Pichu (Fernando Straneo). Among its best remembered sketches are:

Segments

Musical themes

Among the most remembered opening themes are songs like "Twist and Shout" (by The Beatles), 19-2000 (by Gorillaz), "Vicio" (by Los Ratones Paranoicos), Pink (by Aerosmith) and more.

Comic book adaptation

Walter Carzon created a comic strip based on El Oso Arturo, a mascot character who frequently appeared in VideoMatch.

International versions

Awards

Marcelo Tinelli received the Golden Martín Fierro Award in 1998, and his show won more than 20 statuettes since.

Sources