More original content for Telemundo

Telemundo will keep up its 1,000-plus hours of original content production for 2007-08 with new telenovelas, a new dating show on the weekend and a late-night Thursday show coming from Hollywood.

The NBC Uni-owned network announced programming and its own Telemundo 360 initiatives at its upfront presentation Tuesday at Radio City Music Hall.

During a conference call with reporters before the presentation, Telemundo president Don Browne said that the network's strategy was full speed ahead with the original-content plans announced several years ago.

"Our focus has been and continues to be all about original content," Browne said.

The novellas include "El Otro Lado del Amor" (The Other Side of Love), a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story; "La Traicion" (The Betrayal); "Dona Barbara," based on the classic Latin American novel; "Las Brujas de South Beach" (The Witches of South Beach); and "Idolos de Juventud" (Youth Idols), about a music producer who produces a reality show to find the next big singing star and two contestants who find love onstage.

The late-night Thursday program is "Mas Vale Tarde," hosted by Alex Cambert from Telemundo's new facility at Universal Studios City Walk Hollywood. It will include interviews, sketches and musical acts and could expand beyond Thursday night if successful.

The new dating show is "12 Corazones: Rumbo al Altar," a spinoff of Telemundo's daytime "12 Corazones." Not returning is "Mas or No Mas," Telemundo's take on NBC's popular "Deal or No Deal." Executives said it didn't do as well as they had hoped.

Mun2, the company's youth-oriented channel, also announced several shows, including "holamun2.com: El Show," a 30-minute weekly magazine launching in the first quarter, plus "Beauty Es Cool," a reality show about a beauty school; and in third-quarter 2008, "The mun2 Hook Up" will pair aspiring Latinos with successful Hispanic leaders to get a look at what it takes to succeed.

There will be about 1,040 hours of new content on Telemundo this year, Browne said.