Coliseo

Coliseo (in english: Colosseum) is a Mexican telenovela produced by Canal Extra and aired on the same channel between October 18, 2010 and August 26, 2011, obtaining 225 episodes. The work was created by Edgar de la Rua.

Plot
In the Roman Empire in the year AD 114, the young legionary Linus finds himself in the middle of a dispute between two aristocrats (Marcelino and Salomón) who seek the Emperor's support to become members of the senate. The two aristocrats end up offering Linus a bribe, each with a promise more exorbitant than the other, but Linus takes advantage of both and ends up asking for a lot of riches, using that occasion as an opportunity to leave the life of a mere legionary. Getting rich, Linus also seems to lose his ethics and uses and abuses his new position, and tries at all costs to have a relationship with Valeria, Salomón's daughter, including inducing the old oligarch to arrange a marriage between him and his daughter. Linus, however, forgot that there was already a love engagement in his hometown, where he left a bride, Flora, who leaves for Rome in search of him, and is shocked to discover what her suitor has become. A loving trio forms between Linus, Flora and Valeria, but when Cneo, Valeria's brother enters the plot after returning from his studies and discovering the deception that the former legionnaire has been up to with Valeria and Salomón without both of them knowing, Linus finds himself pressured to take action, and things are made worse when suddenly Valeria is murdered, and Linus goes on a warpath with Rome's other riches.

Contrary to the political plot, we also have the mystery that surrounds Flora's mother, cared for only by her father, she always dreamed and imagined if one day she would meet her mother, Magdalena, Salomón's lover, is the main suspect of being the mother of Flora at first, but the young woman discovers that she is not her mother, but was a great friend of Lea, who was Flora's real mother. Magdalena tells Flora that although they are friends, years have passed since she last saw Lea, and says she does not know her fate, and whether she is alive or dead, however, Magdalena agrees to help Flora try to find out what happened to Lea.

Conception
Edgar de la Rua was commissioned by Canal Extra to write the script for Coliseo in mid-2010, as Dulce Amor was coming to an end, Edgar de la Rua pulled out of his sleeve a project that was quite questionable by some of the executives, a plot that took place in ancient Rome, more precisely in the Roman Empire. Edgar didn't mind some negative comments about the upcoming soap opera, and asked why viewers would accept a teen drama about common teenage problems and not accept a soap opera set in the Roman Empire. "Although it seems to be something old, Coliseo is more current than ever, Ancient Rome is more current than ever! Analyze, ancient Rome had adulteries, vices, murders, drugs, abuse of power, robberies, inequality, poverty, hunger, many blackmailers, charlatans, greedy people, what has changed? we, the mirror of Ancient Rome, continue to have these same problems today."

Edgar de la Rua, 2010

The telenovela was approved under some resistance by executives and began production at the end of August 2010. The marketing campaign for the telenovela began in September 2010, with the presentation of excerpts from scenes already recorded during breaks in Dulce Amor. This was the second telenovela on Canal Extra to have a set city after El Cuarto Hermano (2006), although the first to have a complete studio, the CPEX (Centro de Producción Extra), created especially for the recording of telenovelas, being a of the largest television studios in the world, which was completed in 2010 after 12 years of construction. This was also the last telenovela to be shown in 4:3.

Cast

 * Lautaro Sarmiento as Linus
 * Mía Rosas as Flora
 * Saúl Franco as Salomón
 * Mónica Figueroa as Valeria (Salomón daughter, killed at episode 103)
 * Pedro Cubas as Cneo (Salomón son and Valeria younger brother, first appearance in episode 31)
 * Marina Cazalla as Magdalena (Salomón lover)
 * Linda Gracías as Lea (Flora mother, first appearance in episode 116)
 * Ricardo Rouco as Marcelino
 * Gloria Zorita as Lara (Marcelino wife)
 * Óliver Sant'Anna as Sixto (Marcelino son and Valeria lover)
 * Floriano Milagros as Gael (Flora father)
 * Angelo Valdez as Judge Rufo Felicio
 * Maximiliano Casagrán as Cornelio Eliseo
 * Jorge Bautista as Caio (Valeria servant and also her killer)
 * Moises Villa as Commander Julio Tercio (dies at episode 203)

Exhibition
Coliseo was originally shown between October 28, 2010 and August 26, 2011, obtaining 225 chapters, unlike its predecessor, Dulce Amor, it was normally shown at 8 pm. On two occasions, the soap opera was shown later, at 9:30 pm, they occurred on March 2, 2011 and on June 19, 2011, the reason was because of two presidential pronouncements broadcast on both days. There was also an occasion when the soap opera was shown earlier, at 7:25 pm, due to the airing of the CONCACAF Champions League Final, on April 27, 2011, between Monterrey and Real Salt Lake.

International exhibition
The soap opera was shown in countries such as Panama, United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Central America, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, among others.

Streaming
It was released on some streaming platforms in Mexico in 2021.

Audience
In its premiere, Coliseo scored 27 points in the audience, 5 points below the audience of its predecessor, many within the network bet that the telenovela would be a stunning failure, which was not fulfilled, and the telenovela began to grow in audience From March 2011, and the average audience started to see between 34 and 37 points, in the final phase of the telenovela, other audience peaks came, and the telenovela started to register between 45 and 48 audience points per episode. Separately, the penultimate episode, where it is revealed that the person who killed Valeria and also Julio Tercio was Caio, the telenovela registered its highest audience, 68 points, the last chapter had an audience of 62 points. The telenovela's general audience average was 47 points, 2 points below its predecessor, but still considered a phenomenal audience by Canal Extra standards.