El Conquis: ¿Un reality demasiado vasco? Análisis de un formato transcultural

Abstract

This article focuses on the case study of the reality show El conquistador del fin del mundo, the most successful TV program broadcasted by EiTB (Basque public media group) in the last fifteen years. The objective of the article is to analyze and explain the singularity of this adaptation of an international format. The methodology consisted in the complete viewing of the edition 2018/19 (one of the most viewed in its history) and semi-structured interviews with its creators. A mixed methodology was used, combining Anthropological and Television Studies, within the scope of Cultural Studies. Thus, some categories have been assigned in order to explain its exceptionality: the importance and tension between “jokoa” and “jolasa”; the structure of the group; the strategy of the “foxes” and the “lions” and the representation of the bodies. The confluence of these characteristics determines an eminently Basque and singular TV program, which embodied the way in which Basque society imagines and represents itself.