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Sara (Belgian TV series)

Sara
Logo sara.jpg
Sara logo
Created by FremantleMedia
Starring Veerle Baetens
Gert Winckelmans
Kürt Rogiers
Sandrine André
Opening theme "Where She Belongs" — Natalia Druyts
Country of origin Belgium
Original language(s) Dutch (Flemish)
No. of episodes 200
Production
Producer(s) FremantleMedia
Location(s) Antwerp, Belgium
Running time 25 min (approx. 22 min)
Release
Original network VTM
Original release 25 September 2007 (2007-09-25) – 29 June 2008 (2008-06-29)
Chronology
Related shows Remake of Betty la Fea
External links
Website

Sara is a Flemish telenovela, based upon the Colombian telenovela Betty La Fea. It tells the story of Sara De Roose, a business economics graduate, who passed with honours at the university but has trouble finding a job—until she comes across an assistant job in a Belgian fashion company, called "Présence". The company is looking for a new general manager, and Sara arrival coincides with the two CEOs arguing who this has to be.

The series was broadcast by the commercial station VTM, upon which it was shown every weekday at 6:25 pm. On Sunday, VTM broadcast all episodes of last week, called 'De Week van Sara' (= Sara's week). Sara premiered on 25 September 2007 and ended in June 2008, after 200 episodes. A new telenovela called "LouisLouise" (about a guy named Louis, who turns into a woman (Louise) by a spell) replaced Sara as of September 2008.

Sara begins the series as the ugly duckling, mocked by many of her colleagues for being "ugly". As the series progresses, she develops confidence, moves up the ladder, becomes more powerful and explores romantic interests. The series also focuses on fellow Présence employees, and their relationships and career problems.

The show was written by a team of writers, led by Hugo Van Laere. He already wrote many scripts for Flemish TV series and movies, such as 16+, Rupel, and Dennis van Rita. The series was directed by Serge Bierset, Renaat Coppens, Filip Van Neyghem and Geoffrey Enthoven. The latter already directed many Flemish movies, such as The Only One and Happy Together.

Sara's first episode was a huge success, with an average of 840,000 viewers (it was broadcast in prime time at 8:35 pm). The second episode was broadcast at its regular hour, 6:25 pm. This ensured a fall in viewers of 50%, with an average of 420,000 viewers. The reason is probably a game show, called Blokken, which is very popular in its time slot and starts at the same moment as Sara.

Slowly, the ratings of Sara increased. In December 2007, Sara already had an average of 450,000 to 550,000 viewers. As of February 2008, the ratings increased again, and Sara now has an average of 650,000 to 750,000 viewers. Since then Sara became a direct competitor for Blokken. And the success continued: ratings increased even more, and when VTM moved Sara to prime time again (for the last twenty episodes), ratings doubled and surpassed a million viewers. The final episode gathered more than 1.5mln viewers.


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Wikipedia

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