Telenovelas are a big deal in the Brazilian market, as they make up part of the artistic, audiovisual and entertainment of the society's culture.

In Brazil, telenovelas are primarily produced by Rede Globo, Brail's largest audiovisual media conglomerate, SBT, and RecordTV. While most telenovelas produced in Brazil are great record breakers, some left a lot to be desired amongst the Brazilian audience and yet, surprisingly, managed to get good numbers when sold to other countries and below, we have a list of these telenovelas that managed to be international successes:

Apocalypse 

The telenovelas, written by Vivian de Oliveira of the Moses and the Ten Commandments fame, was an audience repellent when it aired in RecordTV, back home in Brazil. However, the same cannot be said for the dystopian drama when it premiered this year on the UniMás network in the USA, where dubbed in Spanish and titled Apocalipsis, the novela, starring Igor Rickli, Juliana Knust and Sergio Marone in the titular roles, scored a viewership of 700,000 households, making it the most-watched program at that hour.

The Rich and Lazarus 



The Rich and Lazarus, written by Paula Richard, had modest viewership dropping from 15 to 10 points, as compared to its predecessor, The Promised Land ( A Terra Prometida ) which is set to premiere in English dub, on January 6th in the UK only on mytv (The two mentioned shows in this paragraph will probably make it to Kenya on KTN )

The telenovela was acquired by Univision in the USA, also dubbed in Spanish under the title El Rico y Lazaro and led audience ratings to the point that protagonist actor Dudu Azevedo had to travel abroad in promoting the show.

The Rich and Lazarus stars Igor Rickli, Dudu Azevedo and Milena Toscano.

Jesus



Jesus, also written by Paula Richard, is beyond being a success in international markets. In Brazil, the telenovela raised the rating from direct predecessors, Apocalypse and Leah, but did not make it to grand success-level, in national terms. 

The same cannot be said for when the telenovela aired in the USA on Univision. Now only was the audience so great, but it finally became the most-watched Brazilian telenovela in American television history.

The Life we Lead 



Produced by Globo, The Life we Lead has been sold to over 95 countries.The telenovela, written by Licia Manzo who was debuting as a writer of telenovelas with the show, did not do well according to Ibope numbers and failed miserably from the first to the last episode.

The number of countries it has been sold to, however, proves the veracity and trueness of the story. It was sold with an international version of 70 episodes and the sales beat those for O Clone and Terra Nostra. Not bad, huh?

Side By Side



Irrational Heart



This second partnership between Gilberto Braga and Ricardo Linhares - the first one being Tropical Paradise (2007) - aired in a period of audience crisis for the prime time of Globo. Perhaps because of this - and also for some really problematic points of the work - it took a while to get into the good sides of Ibope and ended up with a median average.

Even because of this factor, it can be said that the repercussion of Irrational Heart on the international market was surprising, although not so phenomenal. Broadcast to over 30 countries, the work was so successful in Uruguay that it ended up broadcasting in exclusive movie screenings to the most ardent fans.


In Argentina, Irrational Heart was cast to replace the successful Avenida Brasil and was able to hold on to the audience of the previous show.

Brave Woman


Rejected by the public and trampled by critics, the story created by Gloria Perez knocked down the rates of Avenida Brasil , its predecessor in prime time of Globo, from 39 to 34 points. Abroad, however, Brave Woman is remembered as one of the most watched Brazilian attractions of the last decade, even transforming actress Nanda Costa into the media darling of many countries.