El Show de Cristina “too old for what they want to do” at Univisión
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Spanish-language talk show host Cristina Saralegui indicated Univisión cancelled her show because of her age.
“They want to change the image of the network and get rid of the older people and put young people there,” Saralegui said in an interview with The Miami Herald. “I am too old for what they want to do.”
Saralegui, known as the Spanish-language Oprah, has been a talk show host on Univisión for 20 years. The network announced last summer it was ending her show.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The talk show host had stayed quiet about the cancellation but unleashed her fury to the paper Thursday, saying she was sad she could not “retire with respect.”
“It was so unexpected the way it was handled,” she told the Herald. “It was so nasty.”
Saralegui's ratings were down 13 percent last season. She said the program no longer fit Univisión’s agenda: to target the 18-to-49 age demographic that the network highly covets.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She said she felt Univisión was bothered because she “calls her shots” and new staff members “don’t want that.
“I decided when and what I was going to put on air, because as a woman, that’s really important in a world dominated by male television executives,” she told the paper.
What will the 12-time Emmy Award winning television host and producer miss the most about “El show de Cristina”? The daily stress of it all.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“It keeps you skinny.”