“Telenovela” was the vehicle set to bring Longoria back to TV, following her stardom on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives.” The Latino-themed sitcom was one of the hottest projects last development season, entering a bidding war between a couple of networks, before landing at NBC with a straight-to-series 13-episode order — the only way Longoria would commit to the project.
NBC trimmed the episode order from 13 to 11, and did the same for “Superstore,” which stars America Ferrera. However, “Superstore” landed an early Season 2 renewal, after performing well — and better than “Telenovela.” Even with its star-power in Eva Longoria, “Telenovela” was also the lower rated of the two. During its winter run on Mondays, it averaged a 1.3 rating in adults 18-49 and 4.4 million viewers overall in Nielsen’s “live plus-7” estimates.