A few years ago, some were predicting the demise of Spanish-language television.
Most of the Latino population growth over two decades has come from U.S. births, outpacing the arrival of immigrants. The thinking was that because most U.S.-born Latinos speak English and can consume a wide array of media, Spanish-language TV would recede in relevance.
But Telemundo has defied such forecasts to become one of the nation’s hottest news outlets.
The NBCUniversal-owned, Spanish-language network, a longtime underdog, has been notching viewership gains in advance of its highly anticipated coverage of this summer’s FIFA World Cup championships.
Last year, Telemundo increased its audience for its evening news, anchored by Julio Vaqueiro, by 11% over the previous year, according to Nielsen data. Its Los Angeles station, KVEA Channel 52, has surpassed entrenched giants Walt Disney Co.’s KABC and Univision’s KMEX, attracting more viewers for its local evening and late-night newscasts.
The Miami-based division has a strong social media presence. Its Telemundo Noticias (News) account boasts 16 million followers on TikTok, topping ABC News, CNN and Fox News.
Cultural and demographic shifts have helped fuel Telemundo’s rise. After more than a decade of immigration declines, border crossings surged during President Biden’s tenure — a tide that turned with President Trump’s return to the White House. Instead, Trump brought a torrent of significant news events, including immigration raids that reverberated through Latino communities.
“We are growing because we are telling the stories that are important to our audience,” Gemma Garcia, Telemundo’s executive vice president for news, said. “We are very audience-driven.”
When U.S. military forces seized Venezuela’s then-president Nicolás Maduro in January, Telemundo quickly flew its main news anchor, Vaqueiro, to report from Colombia, which borders Venezuela. The network interrupted its usual Sunday night fare for a news special that scored solid ratings.
Vaqueiro, 38, has become the fresh face of Spanish-language news after Jorge Ramos, who achieved prominence as a forceful advocate for Latino immigrants during his 40 years on the air, signed off from rival Univision in late 2024.
The younger journalist brings a softer tone to his reports. He was promoted to Telemundo’s main news anchor in 2021 after several assignments, including working at KVEA in L.A. He loves stepping out from behind the anchor desk in Miami to cover big stories.
Vaqueiro traveled to frigid Minneapolis earlier this year after the deadly Immigration and Customs Enforcement shootings. He broadcast from anti-ICE protests and stopped by a church to interview a pastor and volunteers organizing a food drive for immigrants too afraid to go outside.
“We’re very focused on being out there and reporting on the ground,” Vaqueiro said in an interview. “Being close to our audience, that’s a big part of what we are doing at Noticias Telemundo.”
Another key to Telemundo’s momentum has been its commitment to the Spanish language.
Media companies a decade ago raced to engage young, bilingual Latinos by launching start-ups, including a joint venture between ABC News and Univision called Fusion that flopped.
Now Telemundo is the one with cool cred.
Call it the Bad Bunny effect: While the Puerto Rican artist’s Super Bowl halftime show in Spanish befuddled scores of viewers, millions of other fans, deeply proud of their Latino roots, were thrilled by his performance celebrating everyday workers.
“With Bad Bunny’s rise and the Super Bowl, it felt like a shift in values towards the Spanish language,” said Mark Hugo Lopez, Pew Research Center’s director of race and ethnicity research. “It has become a source of cultural pride … and it seems to be impacting the ways in which English-speaking Latinos also think about their identity.”
That increased affinity suggests that Spanish isn’t going away anytime soon.
“Our data has shown that Latinos say it’s important that Latinos in the future speak Spanish here in the United States,” Lopez said.
A slow build to a news leader
Telemundo’s rise was a slow build, coming nearly a quarter-century after NBC bought the network for nearly $2 billion.
Years of effort took root after NBCUniversal agreed in 2011 to spend big for the U.S. Spanish-language media rights to the FIFA World Cup, dethroning Univision, which had long televised the prestigious soccer event. This year, Telemundo is poised “to deliver the largest coverage in Spanish-language media history,” the network said in a statement.
It will provide live coverage for all 104 matches, including on the Telemundo and Peacock streaming apps.
Being part of NBCUniversal has brought other benefits, too, particularly as Telemundo’s main competitor, Univision, has struggled under a succession of ownership groups.
NBCUniversal integrated its English and Spanish-language news units at its television stations. In Los Angeles, KVEA’s newsroom is in the same building on the Universal lot as KNBC-TV Channel 4. The same managers run both divisions.
“All of these things have evolved,” said Millie Carrasquillo, a Hispanic media consultant and former Telemundo research senior vice president. “It’s an alignment of the audiences, an alignment of how technology is evolving — and also the way that news is being delivered.”
Telemundo’s national newscast, anchored by Vaqueiro, averages 1.2 million viewers, its largest audience in years.
But audiences, particularly younger ones, are less likely to watch TV news, so network executives have tapped the potential of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to boost their reach.
On TikTok, Telemundo reporters broadcast live from outside the U.S. Supreme Court last week as justices heard oral arguments on Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship for babies born to parents who are in the country unlawfully. Telemundo featured live coverage of the traditional Easter egg roll at “La Casa Blanca” (the White House) and frequent reports about NASA’s Artemis II mission, which scored millions of views.
“Radio and television hasn’t gone away,” said Mari Castañeda, University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Commonwealth Honors College dean. “But Telemundo has recognized that [cellphones] are where most of their audience is located and they leaned into that.”
Social media posts are easy to share, serving as a viral expansion of the network’s audience.
“Telemundo has emerged as a leader because it has modernized,” added Castañeda, a native of La Puente in Los Angeles County.
The U.S. Latino population nearly doubled between 2000 and 2024, rising from 35 million to 68 million, according to the Pew Research Center. Since the Great Recession, the growth has largely come from U.S. births, and the median age of U.S.-born Latinos is about 21.
The trend line bent during the Biden years as U.S. births roughly equaled the arrival of immigrants, Lopez said.
“Immigrants are still a very large part of the Latino story,” he said.
‘This is a country we really love’
Telemundo’s brightest star — Vaqueiro — was born in San Juan del Río, north of Mexico City and came to the U.S. when he was 26 with his wife, who was also born in Mexico.
“We have three American kids,” Vaqueiro said. “All we know as a family is the U.S. This is a country that we really love and we’re grateful to it.”
In many ways, Vaqueiro’s journey is the story of U.S. Latinos.
“He’s Mexican but he’s also a U.S. Latino and he understands the context and issues that communities are feeling,” said Castañeda. “There’s a sense of authenticity and care that comes through.”
Vaqueiro wrote a book, “Río Bravo. México, Estados Unidos y el regreso de Trump, (Rio Grande: Mexico, the United States, and the Return of Trump),” to explore the political mood during a period of tumult and often tense relations between the countries.
Telemundo strives to stay out of the political fray, Garcia said.
“We don’t think about politics,” Garcia said. “We cover what is happening within our community, and now more than ever, we are on top of our community’s stories.”
Vaqueiro added: “We have to be very careful reporting the facts and verifying every information that comes to us.”
Political divisions course through Latino communities, including in South Florida where Telemundo is headquartered.
“We’ve always known that Latinos are not a monolith,” Vaqueiro said. “This is a complex community that is constantly growing. It’s diverse: geographically, culturally and generationally.”
Interest in news has swelled since Trump began his second term. Ratings are also up for ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir,” which is drawing 8.4 million viewers per telecast this season, outpacing NBC, Fox News and CBS.
In national news, Univision still tops Telemundo. In local news, Telemundo’s KVEA has continued to build on its lead this year, although KMEX remains competitive and Disney’s KABC remains dominant among English-language stations.
“I just hope that we meet the moment,” Vaquerio said. “This is a critical moment for Latinos who are navigating very difficult times under a lot of pressure.”
He has another goal, too.
“I want to lift Latino voices who are moving forward — opening new businesses and graduating from college,” Vaqueiro said. “I want to talk about the positive side of this community that brings huge contributions to the United States.”
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