TELENOVELA WATCH: 'Antes Muerta Que Lichita' and 'Señora Acero' Premiere Tonight, Plus a Summer Roundup

Antes Muerta Que Lichita premieres September 22 on Univision.
Photo Credit: Televisa

Is the telenovela in decline? There has not been a single hit telenovela in the US this year. Only two years ago, AMORES VERDADEROS averaged 4.5 million viewers a night; this year, only two telenovelas, MI CORAZÓN ES TUYO and HASTA EL FIN DEL MUNDO, have averaged even 3 million viewers and they concluded way back in May. A pair of telenovelas that concluded Monday, AMORES CON TRAMPA and EL SEÑOR DE LOS CIELOS, failed to garner the usual final weeks ratings bump, limping to the finish line. The telenovelas replacing them: an apparent BETTY LA FEA rehash and the second season of maybe the worst narco-novela ever made are hardly propitious.

ANTES MUERTA QUE LICHITA (weeknights at 8 p.m. ET on Univision)
Telenovelas based on original scripts are all but extinct at Televisa. The largest producer of Spanish language telenovelas in the world averages a paltry one original telenovela a year, or about a one to seven ratio of original to remake/adaptation. This depressing reality is aggravated when their newest original telenovela, ANTES MUERTA QUE LICHITA, on the surface, looks so derivative of YO SOY BETTY, LA FEA, the most adapted, remade, and ripped-off telenovela of the past decade: an ugly duckling heroine in a bustling office setting. Even the vibrant colors of the sets shown in the promos for LICHITA recall the Tashlinesque interiors of the ABC version UGLY BETTY.

What ANTES MUERTA QUE LICHITA has in its favor is it is from a clever producer, Rosy Ocampo, all but ensuring LICHITA will be more palatable than the last two comedies Univision has aired in this time slot: the occasionally bearable MI CORAZÓN ES TUYO and the wretched AMORES CON TRAMPA. The worlds Ocampo creates in her comedies are stylized and cartoonish, but the acting is kept reasonably grounded. The vulgarity and mugging that plague Televisa comedies is usually kept in check in Ocampo productions, and she relies far less on dumb sound and visual effects.

Telenovela 'Antes Muerta Que Lichita' Premieres Tonight on Univision

Antes Muerta Que Lichita premieres September 22 on Univision.
Photo Credit: Televisa

Univision Network brings viewers an original telenovela about self-empowerment with Antes Muerta Que Lichita (I’d Rather Be Dead than Ordinary), premiering Tuesday, September 22 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Lichita (Maite Perroni) is a hardworking young woman who has been struggling to advance professionally in an advertising agency. After working there for eight years, she feels underappreciated and invisible. When the handsome Roberto (Arath de la Torre) arrives at the agency, he steals her heart and her ideas, using them for his own advancement at an important business presentation. This finally prompts Lichita to make changes and she decides to no longer be a victim at work. Instead, she will transform herself into the powerful Alicia. But the climb to the top is never easy and along the way she is faced with difficult decisions that puts her character to the test. Meanwhile, her mother, who raised her on her own is faced with similar struggles on the road to entrepreneurship. Ultimately, Lichita finds herself at a crossroads between her values and the road to success.

Watch the English-narrated trailer below: