Univision anchor and special correspondent Enrique Acevedo is a busy man these days. For one, like everyone else working TV news, he’s trying to keep up with an unprecedented breaking news cycle. While stressful, it’s good fodder for Univision’s half-hour late-night news program, Noticiero Univision Edición Nocturna, which he co-anchors with Patricia Janiot.
In addition to the late night newscast, which he has anchored since 2012, Acevedo is launching a new online series tonight for Univision titled Juntos en Casa (Together at Home). It’s meant to be an educational, awareness and prevention program for Hispanic youth in the U.S. and Latin America focused on explaining and discussing the importance of staying home to help flatten the curve when it comes to the spread of COVID-19, and the impact and challenges it presents to society.
“Most of the coverage about this pandemic has focused on what we call the developed world,” Acevedo told TVNewser on Friday. “There’s not a lot of information designed specifically for audiences in emerging markets. We’re talking about millions of people facing a very different reality than most of us here in the U.S. where we’re also experiencing how inequality impacts public health outcomes. By partnering with PAHO [Pan American Health Organization], the regional arm of the World Health Organization and with the World Economic Forum we’re able to service this audience at a critical time.”
Juntos en Casa will livestream on Univision digital platforms each Friday, beginning tonight at 6 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. CT/ 3 p.m. PT.
In addition to all of his work for Noticias Univsion, Acevedo is also a correspondent for 60 in 6, 60 Minutes’ new program for mobile-first streaming platform Quibi. In fact, Acevedo was the first on-air correspondent to join the program, which is set to launch this summer.
TVNewser: How did you get involved with 60 in 6 at Quibi, and what has it been like working with [60 Minutes ep] Bill Owens and the 60 Minutes team?
Acevedo: Like everyone else I’ve been a fan of the Sunday broadcast since I can remember. [CBS News’ 60 Minutes correspondent] Scott Pelley’s coverage of 9/11 is one of the reasons why I became a journalist in the first place. So I literally jumped at the opportunity of working on 60 in 6 as soon as Bill told me about it back in precorona times. Working with Bill Owens, [60 Minutes executive editor] Tanya Simon and the rest of the 60 Minutes team has been a master class in journalism and storytelling. Having started working there just before the pandemic, I’ve also come to admire the solidarity and the sense of mission at 60.
You’ve anchored Edición Nocturna for nearly 8 years now. How have you made the newscast your own over time?
I hope I have! The Edición Nocturna team is focused on making our show the best news broadcast in the U.S, regardless of language. We take pride in the fact that our audience sees us as their primary and on many instances, their only source of information. We take that responsibility very seriously. What is different about our show? We don’t talk down to the viewer, we don’t believe in ratings driving content, we work with a point of view and that’s pro our audience.
In March 2017, you told a reporter at Politico that the Republican Party appears to be uninterested in speaking to Latino voters who watch Spanish-language news. Is that still the case? Have you had any more success with booking GOP politicians on Edición Nocturna since that time?
Unfortunately, that’s still true. Even during this emergency it’s hard for us to hear directly from Republican-elected officials. Starting with the president and the vp. There’s no reason why this should keep happening, especially with the election coming up. The Latinx vote could swing the election in states like Florida, Arizona and even Texas. Republicans need to defend their platform and their ideas beyond Fox News. Univision News is the primary source of news and information for U.S. Hispanics. 89 percent of our audience is exclusive to Univision and not reached by English-language TV news. When the community needs trustworthy and accurate information in their language, we become a lifeline for the audience.
Through your work, have you noticed a significant difference in how American and Latin American audiences consume the news?
I was born in a country where every single night all the news shows would lead with whatever the president did that day. No matter what it was, “El Señor Presidente” was at the top of the broadcast and we all thought that was normal. Independent and critical journalism has not been the rule in Latin America, but the exceptions have always done phenomenal work. That used to be the main difference between the U.S. and Latin America. Here we have the First Amendment and a proud tradition of quality, rigorous journalism. That however is being challenged in this era of misinformation and propaganda. News freedoms and news literacy has become and urgent necessity everywhere, including here in the U.S.