24 Horas (Mexican TV program)

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24 horas (24 hours) was a Mexican television news programme broadcast from 1970 to 1998, presented by Jacobo Zabludovsky.^[1][2] It aired on el Canal de las Estrellas for 27 years, starting from September 7, 1970. It was the longest running news show on Mexican TV,^[3] with almost three uninterrupted decades of broadcasting. It stopped airing on Monday, January 19, 1998, even though Zabludovsky continued working on Televisa until the year 2000. It was a very influential show as it was the most watched news show in Mexico.

This news show was the first to be produced by a news team from the same network, without newspaper articles.

In 1952, Jacobo Zabludovsky began various roles as a writer and substitute for news programs, and in 1969, the Mexican television company Telesistema Mexicano (later called Televisa) established its General Directorate of News. Informative spaces were created on the channels of this company, initially of short duration and with a limited budget for production. Subsequently, a one-hour program called Café Matutino was created, hosted by Zabludovsky himself, which served as a precursor to 24 Horas.^[4]

In its early years, it was broadcast from Monday to Friday in the evening. In the mid-1970s, an afternoon version was launched, titled 24 Horas de la tarde. In later years, it was also broadcast on Saturdays.^[4]

On September 1, 1988, under the direction of Zabludovsky, Empresa de Comunicaciones Orbitales (ECO) began broadcasting, the first 24-hour Spanish-language news system, with its operations center located in Miami, Florida, and Mexico City. Later, Zabludovsky returned to Mexico due to problems with the system's workers and reporters, who accused him of bias and adhering to the censorship of the Mexican government. This project was on the air until 2001, when Televisa canceled it due to its low profitability.

It was argued that the editorial line of this program was pro-government, aligned with the Mexican government's communication policy, and consistent with the views of Televisa owner Emilio Azcárraga Milmo, who in an interview referred to his company as a "soldier" in the service of the then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Mexican president, Ernesto Zedillo.

The newscast was considered by the opposition, as well as by the independent press, as another obstacle to the establishment of democracy in Mexico. Its marked bias in favor of the government, its lack of plurality, its servility to the presidential figure, as well as constant attacks on government opponents, earned it several citizen boycotts in the 1980s.

As a result of these criticisms, and the fact that a certain degree of freedom of expression was given on several restricted television channels, as some critics argued, the sale of TV Azteca in 1993 and the arrival of Emilio Azcárraga Jean as president of Televisa in 1997, with the idea of refreshing and adapting the network's news spaces to the times. The following year, the decision was made to stop broadcasting the newscast to make way for the newly created news division, called Noticieros Televisa. The final broadcast of the 24 Horas newscast included a retrospective and recap of his career, as well as a summary of the landmark news moments that marked an "era," followed by a small farewell party.

Later, Jacobo Zabludovsky began a new stage in radio news, mainly on some chains like Radio Red and others outside the Televisa group. However, he was an advisor to Noticieros Televisa on some occasions. He received awards and distinctions for his long career in journalism.

After the end of the almost uninterrupted broadcast of the 24 Horas newscast, the successors of this newscast were specially prepared by this new news division. The first was conducted by the reporter who previously hosted the morning newscast Al Despertar, who collaborated sporadically with 24 Horas, Guillermo Ortega Ruiz. However, some time later and already at the beginning of the new century, a second restructuring was carried out, and Joaquín López-Dóriga was assigned to this night news space, who occupied that place from April 2000 to August 2016,^[5] and was replaced in that space by the journalist Denise Maerker.^[6]

Many renowned Mexican journalists and newsreader started their career on this show. Examples include:

• Jacobo Zabludovsky†
• Joaquín López-Dóriga
• Ricardo Rocha Reynaga
• Juan Ruiz Healy
• Lolita Ayala
• Heriberto Murrieta
• Fernando Schwartz
• Guillermo Ortega Ruiz
• Abraham Zabludovsky Nerubay
• Juan Manuel Damián

• Graciela Leal
• Luis Aguilar Chávez†
• Salvador Estrada
• Guillermo Pérez Verduzco†
• Fernando Alcalá
• Juan Manuel Rentería
• Patricia Donneaud
• Norma Meraz
• Félix Cortés Camarillo
• Gregorio Meraz
• Guillermo Herrera
• Rita Ganem†
• Laura Padilla
• Agustín Granados
• Ana Cristina Peláez
• Juan José Prado
• Juan Francisco Castañeda
• Francisco Ramírez
• Fernando del Monte Ceceña
• Magdalena García de León
• Philippe Bac
• Amador Narcia
• Rocío Villagarcía
• Laura Martínez Alarcón
• Rafael Vieyra Matouk
• Virginia Sendel-Lemaitre
• Martha Venegas
• Helen Sztrigler
• Cynthia Lara
• Ma. Cristina Espinoza
• Julieta Berganza
• Silvia Lemus
• Maxine Woodside
• Talina Fernández
• Martha Renero
• Francisco Patiño
• Elda Sánchez Gaytán
• Alejandro Llano
• José María Rebolledo
• Salvador Carrillo Martínez
• Rocío González Trápaga
• Raúl René Trujillo
• Ricardo Peña Navarrete
• Héctor Jaime Mendoza
• Primitivo López
• Juan Sebastián Solís
• Susana Solís

• Valentina Alazraki (Italy and the Vatican)
• Philippe Bac (Canada and France)
• Félix Cortés Schöler (Germany)
• Ignacio Espinoza (Miami-USA)
• Jesús Hermida (Washington)
• Federico Knoblauch (Germany)
• Mario Lechuga (Texas-USA)
• María Almendra McBride
• Marcelo Luis Ojeda (Argentina)
• Alberto Peláez (Spain)
• Joaquín Peláez
• María Elena Rico (Soviet Union/Russia)
• Horacio Rocha Staines (Great Britain)
• Eva Usi (Germany)
• Erica Vexler (Israel)
• Ariel Roffe (Israel)
• Kassia Wyderko (Yugoslavia)
• Marissa Céspedes (New York)
• José Luis Belmar (Sweden)

After the final broadcasts of 24 horas, most of the correspondents continued to work on the new worldwide information program of Televisa, being part of Noticieros Televisa, such as Alazraki, Belmar, Céspedes, Pelaez, and Wyderko. Later, some correspondents were replaced.