Disney+ Launches First Original Daytime Drama 'Return to Las Sabinas'

EXCLUSIVE: With its launch, Disney+ placed a heavy emphasis on daily drama Return to Las Sabinas.

The first five parts were released today in Spain, as well as on Disney+ worldwide and Hulu in the US. The remaining 65 parts will be removed within a week and new episodes will be released on weekdays. Soap daily dramas and soap operas are moving the dial in different areas of the television world, but… Return to Las Sabinasfrom Diagonal and ordered by Disney+ in Spain, is the first original series of its kind in the daily drama space for a major streamer.

Yesterday, on the eve of its premiere, Disney+ head of programming Sofía Fábregas, creator and showrunner Eulàlia Carillo, and director Jordi Frades tipped Deadline about the high-profile project.

“We said, 'No one is streaming a daily show,'” says Fábregas, vice president of originals at Disney+ in Spain, when asked about the early days Return to Las Sabinas. “The model (of everyday drama) itself is not new. We're not inventing it, but we're doing something that no one thought could be done on a streaming platform.

Having launched the platform after its SVOD counterparts in Spain, Disney+ needed content to set it apart. The strategy was twofold: working with established directors and filmmakers who had not made TV films before, such as Clara Roquet (Freedom) and Javier Fesser (Camino); and move into the everyday space of melodrama, previously reserved for free TV viewers.

“It's not yet confirmed whether this will be successful or not, but Disney was willing to take the risk to be the first to introduce something that was both proven, but because no one had tried it (on streaming), which was also very new,” – says Fabregas. “We wanted to take something the audience was used to and put it in an unexpected place.”

Diagonal lens

Banijay's Diagonal filmed many everyday dramas in Spain, including: Love in difficult times (Love in difficult times). This time, the challenge for the producer was to create something that felt premium but would span 70 episodes. The sets usually seen on such shows were gone, as location filming took place in and around Barcelona. The daily drama's usual one-episode-a-day filming schedule has also been extended to give the team two-and-a-half per part – which still works out to 22 pages of script each day. The show also had twice the fasting time of the regular daily drama.

An experienced team has gathered. Director Frades worked on the film Poblenouone of the first daily series broadcast on Spanish television about 30 years ago. Creator and showrunner Carillo has a similar background, as the end credits confirm Dreams of freedom and many other series.

The location of the shoots and the extended schedule give Return to Las Sabinas a different flavor than other daily dramas, Carillo says. “The story required all this landscape and these locations. This is not what we are used to seeing on a daily basis in Spain. We had more time – we wrote for almost two years.

Return to Las Sabinas has themes beloved by daily drama fans, as the synopsis shows: After many years apart, the Molina sisters receive a call that forces them to return to their hometown of Manterana to deal with their father's health problems. This unexpected return means a reunion with the life and love they tried to forget. Settled in the family estate of Las Sabinas, they must face secrets from the past that will change their lives.

The trick was to keep the elements that viewers love, but apply a premium finish. Frades says: “We didn't want a very, very different storyline. We want people to find love, passion, drama, comedy and everything they like in a daily show, but maybe with a little tweak.”

Thriller elements have been chosen to provide a more premium feel, but at its core it is about life, love and family. “It begins, like all fiction, with the question: What would you be willing to forgive?” – says Carrillo. “The series is about forgiveness and second chances. It is also a story about first love and its impact on our lives, as well as about new loves and how we find love, even when we do not expect it.

Frades wanted to evoke memories of the past in certain parts of the story. “I felt nostalgia, something like a time travel to those years when you played in the forest, smelled the grass and found your first love. Everything is so pure, but something happens that changes everything (in the show). This is the tragedy of our history. It's a very beautiful first love, but we have a tragedy that makes it fall apart.

The team promises that viewers who invest time in the 70 episodes will be rewarded with a satisfying ending. There are no clumsy attempts to keep the door open for a second season. Meanwhile, Fábregas says that yes, there are other ideas on her desk for daily dramas should this one take off.

Betting on daily drama

Return to Las Sabinas was first announced during a Deadline-moderated session at Series Mania. This continued to create industry buzz last week at Iberseries & Industria Platina in Madrid. During this event, there was a lot of talk about Spain as a hub for global content and how to reach international markets with Spanish-language offerings.

The new Disney+ show will be available worldwide. Of course, Fábregas wants local success that has global reach. Therein lies a particular ambition to create a significant connection between Spain and Latin America. “We speak the same language, but there is still no program that really works in both markets. I would like to have one that appeals to the entire Latino audience,” she says.

The head of programming at Disney+ Spain says the series is not an experiment. “I would say it's a bet and we'll see if we win,” she notes. “It's a bet because we and other streamers haven't done it yet. We are programming against other streamers.”

If that bet pays off, this show could pave the way for a new type of original on SVOD. “Could this change the rules? Potentially yes. Maybe in five years all streamers will have such programs,” says Fábregas.