A CORAZÓN ABIERTO, AN ORIGINAL SERIES ADAPTATION OF ABC STUDIOS' HIT DRAMA GREY'S ANATOMY, PREMIERES IN COLOMBIA

Nearly Half the Country's Viewing Audience Tunes in to the Premiere

A Corazón Abierto Runs as a Telenovela with 80 Consecutive Episodes Airing Weeknights

April 27, 2010 - A Corazón Abierto (With Open Heart), an original series adaptation of ABC Studios' hit drama Grey's Anatomy, premiered on Monday, April 26 on Channel RCN in Colombia to stellar ratings. With a 20.4 rating and 48 share, nearly half the viewing audience in Colombia tuned in to the new series, making it the most impressive debut on Colombian TV since the premiere of Yo Soy Betty La Fea (the Colombian version of Ugly Betty). In keeping with the Latin American television format of limited series runs, A Corazón Abierto airs as a telenovela with 80 consecutive original episodes airing weeknights.

A Corazón Abierto follows surgical intern María Alejandra Rivas Cavalier as she begins her training in the shadow of her mother's renowned surgical reputation. Her new group of fellow interns, including Christina Solano, Jorge Viana, Isabel Henao and Ausgusto Maza, will become her new family, while she also sparks a relationship with surgeon Andrés Guerra. The series focuses on compelling medical stories while exposing the personal lives and complex emotions that surface during the drama of each new case. The series was written to appeal to the local audience by adapting to the reality of the cultural and medical characteristics of Latin America, and specifically of Bogotá, Colombia.

A Corazón Abierto, as well as a recently announced reversioning of The Golden Girls, represent a continuing strategy of international brand expansion by Disney Media Networks Latin America. Both follow four original limited-run productions in Latin America of Desperate Housewives (Amas de Casa Desesperadas), which were produced for Colombia/Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina and the U.S. Hispanic market, and were further distributed to additional markets.

A Corazón Abierto is a production of Disney Media Networks Latin America with executive producers Leonardo Aranguibel and Fernando Barbosa, and produced by Vista Productions. The writing of the series was supervised by Fernando Gaitán, who wrote Colombia's Yo Soy Betty La Fea, the original Ugly Betty. Well-known Colombian director Sergio Osorio used over 40 spectacularly replicated hospital sets from the original version of the popular drama which premiered in the U.S. on ABC in 2005. The new sets were designed to portray an authentic Colombian medical facility.

A Corazón Abierto was cast to portray the affinity of the original characters. Can Grey's Anatomy fans match the Colombian characters to their U.S. inspirations? We'll give you a hint: The gentleman in the foreground is a new character unique to the Colombian version.

The series stars and their characters and U.S. inspirations are listed below from left to right:

Juan Pablo Espinoza (Ausgusto Maza, inspired by Alex Karev)
Rolando Tarajano (Javier Burgos, inspired by Preston Burke)
Sandra Hernández (Isabel "Isa" Henao, inspired by Izzie Stevens)
Natalia Durán (Christina Solano, inspired by Cristina Yang)
Santiago Moure (Germán De La Pava, new character)
Carolina Gómez (Alica Durán, inspired by Addison Montgomery)
Jorge Enrique Abello (Mauricio Hernández, inspired by Mark Sloan)
Rafael Novoa (Andrés Guerra, inspired by Derek Shepherd)
Verónica Orozco (María Alejandra Rivas Cavalier, inspired by Meredith Grey)
Jorge Cao (Ricardo Cepeda, inspired by Chief of Staff Richard Webber)
Juan Manuel Mendoza (Jorge Vaina, inspired by George O'Malley)
Aída Morales (Miranda Carvajal, inspired by Miranda Bailey)

The sixth season of Grey's Anatomy is currently airing in the U.S. and has been sold to over 200 territories worldwide.

About Disney Media Networks Latin America

Disney Media Networks Latin America is the integrated division of the Walt Disney Company Latin America responsible for managing the Television, Radio, Digital Media and Cable Businesses across Latin America. Headquartered in Argentina, has offices in Brazil, Chile, México, U.S. (Miami) and Venezuela