Ana Rosa Quintana shares the throne in her return to the competitive morning television

Of the recent tectonic shifts in television, which many failed to grasp, the most striking was the transfer of Ana Rosa Quintana (Madrid, 1956) to the afternoons of Telecinco more than a year and a half ago. She was chosen to replace 'Sálvame'; a clear statement of intent by Mediaset's CEO, Alessandro Salem, to try to change the image of a channel often too closely associated with sensationalist content and reality show personalities.

However, 'TardeAR', the programme led by the veteran and esteemed Madrid journalist, is now history. The pieces of the puzzle have returned to their place.

While it is too early to draw definitive conclusions, based on the initial ratings data, it can be said that Ana Rosa Quintana's return to early mornings has been successful, although the data is nuanced.

Indeed, securing the highly contested throne of morning audience leadership is more competitive than in the pre-streaming television era. Morning audiences are now much more fragmented and volatile than ever, and viewers make intensive use of their remote controls to choose the content that best suits them depending on the day or time.

'El programa de Ana Rosa' resumed its morning version last Monday, February 3rd, with a good result, a 15% share and 398,000 viewers. These figures marked its best performance so far in this new phase.

The return of Ana Rosa generated anticipation and her show led its slot (from 9:00 to 12:15 hours, the new broadcast time). That day 'AR' managed to surpass La Sexta (13.1%), which maintained the silver medal with 'Aruseros' and 'Al rojo vivo'. It also outperformed Antena 3's 'Espejo público' (12.5%), with its historic competitor Susanna Griso at the helm, and TVE's first channel offering (11.3%), with 'La hora de La 1' and 'Mañaneros'.

However, in the strictly overlapping time slot (from 09:00 to 11:00 hours), Alfonso Arús's 'morning show' narrowly led (15.2%) over Telecinco's magazine (14.9%). The following day, Tuesday the 4th, Ana Rosa's audience slightly decreased to 14.8%, with around 346,000 viewers. On Wednesday, February 5th, her show lost more viewers: 14.2% and 336,000 viewers. However, on Thursday the 6th, it fell to fourth place in the morning audience rankings (12.6% and 284,000 viewers). Conversely, in the same time slot as 'AR', La Sexta won (14.6%), followed by Antena 3 (14.6%) and La 1 (13%).

Ana Rosa improved her figures on Friday the 7th (13% and 312,000 viewers) and rose to third place. This time it was Susanna Griso who led the morning (14.3%) in the segment of strict competition with her main rivals. La Sexta came in second (13.7%) and La 1 fell (11.8%).

Moreover, it is in the political and current affairs segment where Ana Rosa records her worst figures (from 08:55 to 11:00 hours). To cite this same Friday, Telecinco marked an 11.8% between 8:55 and 11 hours. It was the fourth option, behind Silvia Intxaurrondo (13.3%) on TVE.

Ana Rosa's return to the morning brought with it other collateral damage for programmes on the same channel. 'La mirada crítica', presented by Ana Terradillos and until less than two weeks ago the political debate of reference on Telecinco, was forced to reformulate its format towards pure and hard information.

It also had to advance its start to eight in the morning. The change significantly affected it in this first week of broadcasting: it started on Monday with a 9.3% and closed on Friday with an 8.6%. Its worst result was on Wednesday, when the audience plummeted to 7.5%.

In contrast, 'Vamos a ver', which now airs after 'El programa de Ana Rosa' and extends until the start of the news, managed to stand out in the first position of audience leadership with its new schedule. The programme, now hosted by Patricia Pardo (its regular presenter, Joaquín Prat, is on holiday), stood out on Friday with a 15.3% share and 504,000 viewers in its first part, although the edition of 'Vamos a ver más' (where the heart debate is mainly broadcast) dropped to a 10.1% share, with more viewers (680,000) as it airs at a time with higher television consumption.

"I already feel the adrenaline that the morning brings, that the news brings. In the morning many things happen, it is where a large part of the news is produced and we will report them live with the support of technological tools," an enthusiastic Ana Rosa assured in her return to a programme produced in collaboration with Unicorn Content, the production company chaired by the journalist and presenter.