Challenging prime time television. Co-viewing practices in the Brazilian telenovela

Television (TV) has always been the focus of continuous debate around its shifting social practices, involving and challenging all established main agents, from content producers to brands, corporations, regulators and audiences (Boddy, 2002; Uricchio, 2002). At the same time, the remediations of TV are at the core of broader discussions on media change, particularly since the popularization of media consumption through the Internet. TV retains a position of centrality for understanding what it means to live in a connected environment. This article contributes to this debate through the analysis of the co-viewing practices within the specific context of Brazil's most popular cultural product, the telenovela. After an overview of the key themes and scope of the research, we will situate the practices of co-viewing in the context of some of the key issues regarding connected viewing. We will deal with the particularities of the Brazilian telenovela as a cultural product and finally we will outline our empirical research on co-viewing practices in unofficial Facebook groups surrounding the controversial prime time telenovela 'Babilônia'.