Salvados launches 18th season with two-part profile on former Valencia mayor Rita Barberá

Season premiere focuses on Rita Barberá

The Spanish investigative television program Salvados will open its 18th season on La Sexta with a two-part documentary examining the political career and downfall of Rita Barberá. The special broadcast coincides with the approaching tenth anniversary of the death of the former Valencia mayor, who died in November 2016. Produced by Atresmedia in collaboration with Producciones del Barrio, the double bill will reconstruct her 24-year tenure leading Valencia between 1991 and 2015. Barberá secured five absolute majorities and played a central role in the People's Party, including backing Mariano Rajoy for party leadership. Host and director Gonzo will examine how her political standing shifted as judicial investigations and corruption controversies reached her inner circle.

Key witnesses and political allies

The premiere will assemble interviews with political allies, opponents, journalists, and civic figures who observed Barberá throughout her career. Former Generalitat Valenciana president Francisco Camps will appear on the program, alongside former government minister José Manuel García-Margallo and Barberá's mayoral successor Joan Ribó. Journalist Consuelo Reyna and Beatriz Garrote, a representative of the July 3 metro accident victims association from 2006, will also provide testimonies. In one exchange, Gonzo confronts Camps regarding gifts of Louis Vuitton handbags from the Gürtel network in 2009, which Camps denies despite Barberá's earlier public acknowledgment. Gonzo explained the central theme of political allegiance and abandonment that frames the opening episodes.

When you see that there is someone whose success can feed you and benefit you, you end up turning them into a god. But if that person becomes a problem, you turn them into the complete opposite.

Evolution of the investigative format

Salvados reaches 18 years on Spanish television after debuting on La Sexta in 2008, with Gonzo entering his seventh year as presenter following the departure of creator Jordi Évole. The documentary format runs for 50 minutes per episode, aiming to tell substantive political and social stories through direct protagonists rather than outside narrators. The new season follows a successful run in the previous year, which recorded an audience share of 6.5%, an average of 800,000 viewers, and 2.2 million unique users each Sunday. Production teams designed each episode in the lineup to function visually and stylistically as an independent film. Gonzo noted that long-form television profiles allow the team to explore the harsher dimensions of public office and institutional power.

What I like most about this program is the portrait of how ugly politics can be, but also human relationships.

Upcoming lineup for the 18th season

Following the opening profile of Barberá, the 18th season will broaden its coverage across culture, sport, and contemporary social history. Comedian Joaquín Reyes will appear in an intimate interview filmed at his summer residence in Murcia, where he will reflect on his personal life and religious faith. Another upcoming installment will feature 82-year-old rock musician Miguel Ríos, documenting his lifelong career on stage as a pioneer of Spanish rock. Former rhythmic gymnast Almudena Cid will contribute to an investigative report examining the lack of labor protections and retirement support facing elite athletes once their competitive careers conclude. The season will also present the intertwined accounts of two men whose lives were permanently connected by a terrorist attack carried out by ETA.