Mandarina: Building collective memory with the renewed confidence of Mediaset and the freedom of the platforms

Santi Botello (executive director) and Pedro Revaldería (CEO) offer an unprecedented look at the present of Tangerine, a historic Spanish production company that, after a complex period, seeks to continue expanding its legacy with a particular duality: the commitment to current affairs and heart formats on linear television, and the creation of author series for platforms as a production company boutique.

The year 2026 will mark the twentieth anniversary of Mandarin. He will do so, predictably, in great shape, certified by the reports of Dos30’. And in 2024 the company was placed in the second position of ranking of production companies with the most broadcast hours not including replacements, occupying the 7.7% of linear television.

This success, supported by current affairs programs such as On everyone's lips o Code 10; heart format Friday and contests like He knows he doesn't know, all of them made for Mediaset Spain, is completed with a significant commitment to production aimed at the OTT world. As an example, the documentary save the king (HBO Max), the successful Ladies of the (h)AMPA (Prime Video) or the breaker Fury (HBO Max), a powerful stylistic and authorial exercise by Félix Sabroso who has accumulated nominations at the Iris and Forqué Awards.

This sweet stage of the company comes after a complex period in which its own foundations shook. Botello and Revaldería They review Mandarina's career and detail her present, built around a young team, a adaptation to the codes of television formats most successful of linear television and singularity as a driving force of television fiction.

---

Tangerine: an unexpected beginning

“Mandarina arises in a way somewhat accidental", comments Botello when recounting the origins of the company. At that time, he held the position of head of the production company Atlas, although the situation was not developing in the best way: "I had a boss with whom I did not understand, and a very peculiar paradox occurred: the bigger that production company became, the bigger I made my boss, who in some way was an enemy of both Pedro and Manuel Villanueva, who was the general director of content."

In this context, Antena 3 contacts Bottle to present you with a job offer which, after the corresponding time of deliberation, you accept. However, a conversation with Paolo Vasile changes everything: "When I go to tell him, he tells me to give him 48 hours if I haven't signed. After that time, he proposes that I found a production company... but I didn't know what it was like to set it up, since I've never been a businessman! I always had the concept that the world was divided into two types of people: those who use Excel and those who use Word. And I was from the second group."

As Botello himself acknowledges, he suddenly found himself producing successful formats. But the other essential piece of Mandarina was missing: Pedro Revaldería. "Not long after, I was lucky enough that Pedro left Mediaset and went to Plural. At that moment, Paolo told me that I had to bring him. I responded: 'That will be if he wants,' to which he told me: 'No, you'll bring him, even if he doesn't want to,'" says the executive director of Mandarina. “Thank God he wanted it and, since then, we have been partners,” he comments.

---

The extensive and varied production of Tangerine

Since then, the duo of Botello and Revaldería was accumulating successes, not all of them sufficiently recognized. With The search engine (2006-2009), a format that “worked very well,” the limits of the magazines themselves, given that he died of success by making up to 14 weekly deliveries; He knows it, he doesn't know it (2012-2013, 2024 – present) opened the doors of the international market to the producer, a path that they would later consolidate with My mother cooks better than yours (2014, 2018), which despite its low audience ratings in Spain, was broadcast simultaneously in 35 countries for six years after being chosen in MIPCOM Cannes “Best contest format.”

Pedro Revaldería: “Travelers Four It was the beginning of our new stage. We did a pilot in Naples that we presented and there was no excessive excitement. However, Paolo Vasile and Manuel Villanueva saw him and pushed him. Now, the show is in its ninth season.”

When reviewing his career, Revaldería fondly remembers spaces such as What a happy time! (2009 – 2017), “the last great project of Maria Teresa Campos” of which they feel very proud, or the one who recognizes that it is our “fireproof format”, in the words of Botello: Travelers Four (2018 – present), the program “that the more times it is repeated, the more the data goes up.” "It was the beginning of our new stage. We made a pilot in Naples that we presented and there was no excessive excitement. However, Paolo Vasile and Manuel Villanueva saw it and pushed it. Now, the program is in its ninth season," he explains.

---

2020: the most complex moment

Mandarina, with comings and goings and more and less successful formats, faces in the always complex year 2020 a moment in which, as it recognizes Bottle, “we were about to disappear"At that time, there was a uncertainty stage that placed a production company in limbo, a victim of one more of the “conjunctures” that accompany the volatile audiovisual field: “We never stop working and doing things, we believe, well.”

Pedro Revaldería: "Now we have that trust that we already had for many years. There was a moment when we probably, more than legitimately, lost it."

Various media They published the disappearance of Mandarina. The moment was delicate, but that news was fakeRevaldería explains: "That publication caught us with a very advanced contract with Disney to make an original series and with another agreement with HBO. It was never true. But of course, there were people who obviously wanted us to close."

There were two factors that allowed Mandarina's survival. The first was the recovery of harmony with Mediaset España, reinforced by the absence of a joint production company “that previously had a lot of weight and did it especially well”, in what is a veiled reference to The TV Factory: "Now we have that confidence that we already had for many years. There was a moment in which we probably, more than legitimately, lost it, because we have had programs that have been hits but also others in which we have not gotten it right," says Revaldería, who also attributes the success of his latest formats to the role of his current content manager, Begoña Padrón.

---

The crucial arrival of platforms

The second of the elements that represented the salvation of Mandarina was the “fortunate appearance of the platforms", as Botello comments at various points in the conversation. "We are not an independent production company, but rather an owned one, which means that we basically work for Mediaset. However, the appearance of these new agents has allowed us collaborate with third parties to make big, important and ambitious products,” he highlights, emphasizing that “the excellent thing is to diversify”: “Our bad times came precisely from that, from putting all our eggs in one basket.”

Santi Botello: “Our bad moments came precisely from that, from putting all our eggs in one basket.”

This on-demand universe has given Mandarina an “excellent position.” After trying his luck with fiction production with formats such as Pirates (2011) o my gypsy (2012), Ladies of the (h)AMPA (2019 – 2021) opened the door to a new business model which has brought great joy to the production company. In the words of Revaldería: "We work with two people with a lot of talent and a lot of energy: Carlos del Hoyo and Abril Zamora. We began to focus on supporting the ideas of young people with things to tell." This title, promoted by Mediaset y Amazon Prime Video, was the predecessor of Mandarina's first 100% independent adventure in the OTT world: everything else, of April Zamora. “We were lucky enough to have HBO join us on that first foray and now we are looking forward to doing what we hope will be our fourth original with them,” he explains.

He affair with HBO Max he has continued with works such as the documentary Save the King (2022), which highlights its editorial courage and the journalistic value of the proposal (“no one can put a but to what is narrated there and how it is narrated”) or Fury (2025), recognized by critics and public. Prime Video, for its part, has supported formats such as the detective thriller Romi (2025) or programs with influencers Sweet naked (2022, 2025) y The life of Marta Díaz (2023).

---

Redefining current affairs from the figure of the prescriber

The platforms have contributed to Mandarina new paths to express themselves in the audiovisual market, but linear television continues to be the daily battleground of the producer. In that field, On everyone's lips (2022 – present) and Code 10 (2023 – present), both formats with Nacho Abad, have managed to consolidate themselves in the offer of Mediaset Spain adapting to the new rules that define current television news. As Botello comments, “we have been fortunate to be able to make the transition between how it was done before and how it is done now, which is something else.”

Pedro Revaldería: "The talking head that gave way to the opinions of one another no longer works. Both on radio and television, products have their prescriber, a person who not only tells you the information, but also explains it to you and convinces you."

For Revaldería, the success of the program lies in the figure of the prescriber, an indisputable bulwark in the current context of television information: "The talking head that gave way to the opinions of everyone no longer works. Both on radio and television, products have their prescriber, a person who not only tells you the information, but also explains it to you and convinces you." This figure must be complemented with the “secondary prescribers”: from the collaborators at the table, to the reporter himself deployed in the field.

To this approach must be added a narrative style characterized by a dizzying pace and absence of pauses: “We have young directors who narrate the events with a lot of rhythm,” he comments on the team led by Begoña Padrón, made up of people with an average age of 30 years and with a majority percentage of women.

This same professional profile extends to Friday! (2023 – present), a format that in its second year has achieved set the agenda to your heart's content based on exclusives and an attractive treatment of events. All of this, in a context of fierce competition with Antena 3, which alternates entertainment formats such as Your face sounds familiar to me o The Challenge, which creates a “fierce war”: “Always, with a separate nuance: the occupation and the extensive advertising rotation.” “We are very comfortable doing it,” adds Botello.

---

The path of innovation in television

When asked about the paths to bring innovation to linear television, Mandarina immediately points to the live information. Currently, it stands as a winning horse above experimentation, although the production company has always tried to find the most suitable product for each grill gap. As Revaldería comments: “We have always made a custom suit.”

Pedro Revaldería: "We are clear that we should not copy. That will never work. The genres are broad enough to have our own editorial position."

However, finding the right key is a complex issue. There is no recipe for success: you can identify a trend, but offer it prematurely; you can find it later than another production company, and still consolidate your format. In a world of contradictions, Mandarina knows how to extract lessons based on your own experience: "We have done very good things that were surely hasty and that at a later time would have gone really well. But what we are clear about is that we should not copy. That will never help. The genres are broad enough to have our own editorial position."

---

The Mandarin horizon

With a consolidated situation in the current television ecosystem, Mandarina faces its future with optimism. The coexistence of their orders for Mediaset Spain, and the creativity made available to the narration for video on demand platforms, allow the producer to separate itself from the uncertainty that may have accompanied much of its career.

Santi Botello: "There are few producers who have such a varied portfolio of products and that while we are in one world, we have our foot in others. And we feel very proud of it."

Currently, the Mandarina team continues working on the definition of fiction formats to continue making his name in Spanish fiction production. He will do it under a position boutique, taking care of each of its series. However, Botello recognizes that one of his great wishes is create a success for Telecinco: “A new The Serranos, Seven Lives… I would love it if we could do it ourselves.”

And the relationship with Mediaset España does not stop. Botello and Revaldería They continue trying to improve their formats day by day, evolving them so that they can adapt to the audience. Situations change, and unpredictability It will always accompany television production. But, above all, that feeling of doing the right thing.

Mandarina's path continues. As Botello explains: “It has brought us a lot of joy both Fury as Friday! (…) There are few producers that have such a varied portfolio of products and that while we are in one world, we have our foot in others. And we are very proud of it.”

A report by Sergio Julián Gómez