Telenovela

A telenovela (/ˌtɛlənoʊˈvɛlə/ or /ˌtɛlənəˈvɛlə/;Spanish: [telenoˈβela], European Portuguese: [ˌtɛlɛnuˈvɛlɐ]), Brazilian Portuguese: [ˌtɛlenoˈvɛla]) is a type of limited-run serial drama and popular on European, West Asian, Southeast Asian, Latin American, East Asian, South Asian, Arab World, Brazil, Portuguese and Spanish television networks. The word combines tele, short for televisión or televisão (Spanish and Portuguese words for television), and novela, a Spanish and Portuguese word for "novel". There are similar genres to the telenovela that use the novela format, but go by varying names including teleserye (Philippines), téléroman (Canada, specifically Quebec), or simply dramas (Asia from East Asia to the Arab World).

Telenovelas are different from soap operas in that they rarely continue for more than a year. This makes them shorter than soap operas, but still much longer than serials. The telenovela combines drama with the 19th-century feuilleton, and naturally evolved from the Latin American radionovela, according to Blanca de Lizaur.