Newly crowned MotoGP champion Jorge Martin was the victim of a fierce battle for an audience between two TV shows that compete for the prime-time television slot in Spain.
Four days after celebrating his first title in the premier class at Barcelona, Martin had agreed to appear on La Revuelta, a television show presented by David Broncano and broadcast by Television Espanola every day during the week.
La Revuelta was established a few months ago as a direct rival to El Hormiguero, which has been on the air since 2006 and occupies the same time slot.
When the time came for Martin to appear on TV with La Revuelta, Broncano publicly spoke against the pressure the Spaniard had received to turn down his appearance in the hours leading up to the show. Martin, at that time, was still in the dressing rooms of the theatre where the La Revuelta is filmed.
"Today Jorge Martin, MotoGP world champion, was going to come, who, in fact, is down here, in the dressing room. But half an hour before starting he told us that El Hormiguero found out that he was coming," lamented the presenter of the Spanish state television show.
"And since they don't want any guest to appear here, rather than there, they have pulled their strings, with the ways of pressuring that they have, and Jorge has told us that he can't do the interview. He has told us that he cannot appear on the show because, otherwise, some things would happen."
El Hormiguero is part of the media conglomerate Atresmedia, of which La Sexta is also a part and which this year reached an agreement with MotoGP promoter Dorna to provide free-to-air coverage of up to four grands prix this year (five after the inclusion of a second race in Barcelona to replace the cancelled Valencia round).
As a result of the great stir caused by the accusation made by the most visible face of La Revuelta, El Hormiguero posted a message on X (formerly Twitter), in which it pointed out that both Dorna and the agency that represents the Spanish rider were responsible for what happened.
"It has been a misunderstanding of no major importance. Two weeks before the [championship] final, we had agreed to have Jorge Martin exclusively on our program," it said.
"Today, one of their representatives made a mistake by changing the visit they had scheduled with another rider. After what happened, Dorna, the organising company of the Motorcycle World Championship, contacted the representatives to resolve the situation."
The whole storm was unleashed as a result of a social media post by Martin himself in which he said he would visit La Revuelta on Thursday. The show is known for not revealing its guests before it's recorded.
It was a post that the 2024 Pramac rider deleted quickly, but not before it was seen by El Hormiguero, which likely used its agreement with Dorna as a measure to achieve its desired purpose.
Autosport understands that it was El Hormiguero who directly advised the world champion not to appear on the set. In any case, the show with La Revuelta was recorded and will be broadcast – as long as there is no change of script – after Martin appears in El Hormiguero next week.
