Sonsoles Ónega closes her second season in the afternoons on Antena 3 as the leader of her time slot and the first in which she has competed against Ana Rosa Quintana, a duel full of morbidity that she rejects being presented as a war. “What war? There is no war. Not on my part. If someone has declared one on me, I have not heard of it,” she answers. “We compete with very good products, from TVE fiction to magazines, and not just Telecinco,” she explains. “The program has not been presented as a face to face with any channel, because that would give me unbearable tension.”
Jorge Javier Vázquez will soon join the fight for control of the afternoons with a programme on Telecinco that will be broadcast from 16.00 to 17.30. Therefore, in principle, he will not compete with Sonsoles Ónega. “Jorge has always been affectionate with me and I have learned a lot about television by watching him,” she says about the Mediaset communicator. “We will follow him closely and I wish him well.”
How do you assess the season?
I’m very positive and I’m already looking forward to starting the new one. I want to rest, I don’t have chronic exhaustion or anything like that, but I want to take a breath and come back with enthusiasm in September.
Will there be any changes to the program?
There will be changes. We are going to format more of what we have done this year and it has worked. Maybe there are things that require minor touches, tightening of screws, but the structure is going to be the same: current events and heart. And there will be some additions that I cannot announce yet. There will also be some adjustments on the set.
What is the ingredient that makes everything fit into a daily schedule?
I don’t know if there is an infallible recipe, but I think that the program has to vibrate, pulsate and flow. There are things that look good in the script, but then they don’t work. You have to be flexible and fast to move through the topics.
How do you deal with the pressure of everyday life?
We put pressure on ourselves. In the chain, they tell me not to look at the data so much, but it’s like working in a bakery and not counting the bread you’ve sold. I care because you want to return trust and that can only be done with data.
This season we have all been very attentive to the ‘war’ between Sonsoles and Ana Rosa…
What war? There is no war. Not on my part. If someone has declared one against me, I have not heard of it.
Did you expect to be a leader?
Yes and no. We started the season doing what we were already doing. We compete with very good products, from TVE fiction to magazines, and not only Telecinco’s, Más vale tarde is also very good competition. The programme was not planned as a face-to-face with any channel, because that would give me unbearable tension.
Now you have a new competitor in the afternoons, Jorge Javier Vázquez, although you may not have the same schedule.
Jorge is another great figure on television and I am sure that the Telecinco audience will receive him with affection and high expectations for what he does, and I have them too. I am looking forward to July 29, if it starts that day, to see him.
Have you spoken with him?
I corrected something he wrote wrong in Lecturas. I told him: ‘Jorge, this is not the case, it’s nothing.’
Did it give way to talk about more things?
Yes, Jorge is very bad and he stings me. He has always been a very good companion with me, he has treated me with great affection when I was at Informativos Telecinco and I went to Save me to sell my novels; and when we made our way in It’s already 8 o’clockHe has been loving and I have learned a lot from watching him on TV. We will now be following him closely and I wish him well.
Atresmedia is going to adapt your novel, Las hijas de la criada. Are you still writing?
Yes, I would like to publish at the end of next year and for that I need summer, peace and time perspective.