Caiga Quien Caiga

Caiga Quien Caiga (Whoever may fall), also known as CQC, is an Argentine television show. Under the format of the production company Cuatro Cabezas, CQC has also been adapted in Spain, France, Chile, Italy, Brazil, Portugal and briefly in Israel and the Netherlands.

It won an International Emmy for Best Non-Scripted Entertainment in 2010.

Overview

CQC is a weekly news roundup that takes a humorous and ironic approach to reporting current affairs, show business and sports. CQC's reporters are known for asking politically incorrect questions to celebrities, which in some cases leads to visible discomfort in the interviewees.

One of the trademarks of the show is the heavy editing of the interviews to add cartoons and sound effects with the goal of highlighting (by ridicule) the interviewee's reactions. Reporters sometimes give controversial gifts to celebrities.

Hosts and reporters all dress in black suits and wear black glasses, inspired by the characters in Quentin Tarantino’s movie Reservoir Dogs.

The name of the show in Spanish is a commonly used phrase meaning "whatever it takes" (literally: "whoever might fall"), as a reference to the unorthodox interviewing methodology.

A recurring segment is "Proteste Ya" (Protest Now), which involves the people of a certain neighborhood or home area sending an e-mail to an e-mail address especially reserved for Proteste Ya, complaining about government negligence in their neighborhood. The CQC journalists then go to that neighborhood, find out about the problem and try to force the person responsible to make a commitment to improve the situation, often taking something from their office as a "collateral".

CQC around the world

Argentina

The Argentine edition of CQC was hosted by Mario Pergolini, Eduardo de la Puente and Juan Di Natale until 2009. The new anchor is Roberto Pettinato^[1]

It started broadcasting in Canal 2 (currently known as América TV), in 1995. This first stage ended in 1999, with a special show transmitted live from the Gran Rex Theatre in Buenos Aires. In 2001, there was a special show (made in the same theatre) to announce the new season of the show for the next year, this time in Canal 13. In 2005, Canal 13 hired Marcelo Tinelli, who is frequently argumented in the programme and has been a longtime rival of Mario Pergolini. This resulted in CQC (and all of the shows produced by Cuatro Cabezas) moving to Telefé. The show went on the air every Monday at 10:30 pm (local hour). On 15 December 2008, Pergolini officially retired from the show .

The journalist cast in Canal 2 were Clemente Cancela, Andy Kusnetzoff, Guillermo López, Daniel Malnatti, Gonzalo Rodríguez and Daniel Tognetti. The cast in Canal 13 were Clemente Cancela, Diego Della Salla, Guillermo López, Daniel Malnatti and Gonzalo Rodríguez.

Chile

The Chilean edition started broadcasting in 2002, it is currently transmitting in Mega on Sundays at 10:00 pm. The hosts are Nicolás Larrain, Gonzalo Feito and Iván Guerrero. The journalist cast is composed of Sebastian Eyzaguirre, Jean Philippe Cretton and Pamela Le Roy, as well as the hosts Feito and Guerrero. Previously in the show were reporter Marcelo Arismendi, Fernando Lasalvia and hosts Felipe Bianchi and Pablo Mackenna. With the show being broadcast on a Christian channel, they are restricted from talking to people related to the church. The show is produced with the support of the Chilean production company Edu. Some of their most popular memes is El Hombre de Trabajo Trabajo y Trabajo^[2] and Eduardo Bonvallet.

Spain

The Spanish version was broadcast by Telecinco from 1996 to 2008 (except in 2003 and 2004 when the show was cancelled), by La Sexta from May 2008 to December 2008, and by Cuatro in 2010. The first period (1996 to 2002) was produced by GloboMedia, while Cuatro Cabezas was in charge from 2002 to 2010.

In their first stage, the show was hosted by El Gran Wyoming. Some of the reporters (like Pablo Carbonell) were already experienced TV journalists, while the rest started their television careers in CQC such as Javier Martin and Arturo Valls. Despite enjoying a high rating and the numerous awards given to the programme and its presenter, Telecinco decided to cancel the show at the end of 2002 alleging business reasons. On the weeks after the cancellation was announced, the program experienced a rise in its audience rating. The announcement was made after the reporters suggested to include a section about Ana Botella, wife of the former Spanish prime minister, though Telecinco denied that the cancellation had any connection to that.^[3]

In 2005 the programme returned to Telecinco, this time hosted by Manel Fuentes, Arturo Valls, Eduardo Aldán and Deborah Ombres as the first woman in the cast. The good ratings made the show renew their contracts for a second season, hosted by Arturo Valls, Manel Fuentes and Juan Ramón Bonet (Juanra) with the reporter cast of Toni Garrido, Fernando González (Gonzo) and Christian Gálvez, having also Arturo Valls as reporter. In the third season, Toni Garrido was replaced by Eugeni Alemany and Francisco Rodríguez was introduced after winning a contests of reporters; later Christian Gálvez left the programme for another projects in Telecinco and Maldo made his appearance in the team of reporters. The fourth season, which began in Autumn 2007, had Manel Fuentes, Juan Ramón Bonet and Leandro Rivera as hosts, the latter in replacement of Arturo Valls.

In 2008, La Sexta bought the rights of the programme from rival channel Telecinco.^[4] This new period of the programme began on the 14th of May 2008 with many new faces, as some of the old hosts and reporters had a contract with Telecinco (like Manel Fuentes) or decided to leave for another projects (like Gonzo). The host in this period was Frank Blanco, a radio presenter, accompanied by Juan Ramón Bonet and Toni Garrido, who come back to the show after two seasons. Estíbaliz Gabilondo, the comical duo Niño y Fox and Miguel Martín were the new reporters.^[5] The show was cancelled on December 2008 after 17 episodes because of low ratings.^[6]

In 2010, TV channel Cuatro decided to pick up the format with a female trio of presenters. The host in this new period were Ana Milán, Silvia Abril and Tània Sarrias.^[7] The show was not renovated due to low ratings.

Italy

The Italian version is called Le Iene, which is the Italian title of Tarantino's movie Reservoir Dogs. It started in 1996, currently transmitting on Italia 1.

France

There has been an edition of CQC as "Les Hyènes" in France,^[8] transmitting on France 2.

Israel

The Israeli edition of CQC aired in 2001, but was cancelled after one season for low ratings. The lack of success is attributed to the heavy competition by other satirical shows already established.^[8]

Brazil

The Brazilian edition of CQC is called Custe o Que Custar ("Whatever it Takes") and is aired on Rede Bandeirantes (Band) on Monday nights (10:15 PM, Brazilian time) and reprised on Saturdays (12:00 AM, same time zone) since March 17, 2008. The show is hosted by Marcelo Tas, Marco Luque and Oscar Filho (nicknamed the Pequeno Pônei (Little Pony) of the team, due to his short stature), and its journalist crew is also comprised by Felipe Andreoli, Rafael Cortez, Monica Iozzi (who won the contest Quem quer ser o 8º integrante do CQC? - "Who Wants To Be The 8th Member Of CQC?"), joined by Maurício Meirelles in late 2011 and Ronald Rios in 2012.

Meirelles and Rios entered the show as replacements to former co-host Rafinha Bastos (who took a leave from the show after making an inappropriate joke about singer Wanessa's pregnancy, being subsequently dismissed by Band following revile from the media; he now presents the Brazilian version of Saturday Night Live on RedeTV!, as well as his own show on cable channel FX) and Danilo Gentili (formerly known as "the unexperienced reporter"), who left to star on his own project in Band, the talk show Agora é Tarde ("Now It's Too Late").

United States

Cuatro Cabezas is planning to export the show to the United States, and shot a pilot in Argentina with hosts Dominic Monaghan, Zach Selwyn and the late Greg Giraldo.^[9] Clips of the pilot and interviews of the hosts (and Monaghan's girlfriend Evangeline Lilly) aired in the June 23, 2008 edition of the Argentine show.

Portugal

The Portuguese version of the show, Caia Quem Caia, premiered on TVI on October 25, 2008. The show was fronted by Pedro Fernandes, José Pedro Vasconcelos, and Joana Cruz. Additional field reporting was done by João Santos, Miguel Rocha, and Filipe Cardoso. The show's regular slot was Saturday nights, although it occasionally got bumped to the following evening. The first series ended on January 17, 2009, with no indication that it would come back in the future.

Netherlands

A Dutch adaptation of CQC was broadcast since August 2009 on Veronica, and was presented by Dutch TV presenters Beau van Erven Dorens, Pieter Jouke and Daan Nieber. It ended on April 5 of the following year.

References

External links

• (Spanish) Official Argentine site
• (Italian) Official Italian version site
• (Spanish) Official Spanish version site
• (Spanish) Formerly official Spanish version site
• (Spanish) Official Chilean version site
• (Portuguese) Official Brazilian version site
• (Portuguese) Official Portuguese version site
• (Spanish) CQC Monography
• (English) TV for export in Argentina.ar
• (Dutch) Official Dutch site