When Does El Chema Season 2 Come Out? Is It Renewed?

What is El Chema about?

El Chema is a telenovela about the rise of a drug trafficker from street-level smuggler to cartel boss, tracking José María Venegas from his teenage years into his dominance of the criminal underworld. If you're drawn to crime dramas about power and corruption, or if you've watched the prestige cartel shows on English-language networks and want to see how Spanish-language television handles the same material, this offers a different perspective. Telemundo built the series around Mauricio Ochmann's central performance, making his transformation the emotional core rather than just a plot device.

The show operates in the familiar soap opera mode of American cartel dramas, mixing intimate character conflicts with large-scale criminal operations. What distinguishes it is its willingness to spend real time on relationships and family loyalty alongside the business mechanics of drug trafficking. The tone wavers between genuine tension and melodrama in ways that feel authentic to the telenovela form rather than like a mistake. Some viewers will find this balance engaging; others will bounce off the emotional excess.

Critical reception was modest. The show held viewers for two seasons before Telemundo ended it, suggesting solid if not explosive ratings. IMDb scores (6.9 out of 10) reflect the same divide you'll see in comments: some viewers praise Ochmann's range across the character's arc, while others found the pacing uneven or the plotting repetitive.

It sits uncomfortably between the high-budget prestige approach of shows like Breaking Bad and the serialized family-focused storytelling of traditional telenovelas. If you want cartel drama with a Spanish-language cast and crew, or if you're interested in how different TV traditions approach the same violent subject matter, El Chema is worth a try. Just expect the emotional register to shift in ways that American cable might smooth out.

Created by Luis Zelkowicz

Is El Chema renewed or cancelled?

Why did El Chema end?

El Chema wrapped up its run after just over four months on the air, concluding what amounted to a single extended season spread across two production cycles. The show, which debuted in December 2016 on Telemundo, followed the crime-drama formula that had worked for the network before, but it failed to sustain audience interest beyond its initial stretch. Spanish-language television demands steady viewership to justify production costs, and El Chema's ratings trajectory apparently didn't meet that threshold. The IMDb score of 6.9 suggests the show found some audience appreciation, but appreciation alone doesn't cover the expense of making 85 episodes with the production values a crime drama requires.

The decision to end the series appears to have come from Telemundo itself rather than from a predetermined creative plan. The network had bet on El Chema as part of its slate of original dramas aimed at the U.S. Hispanic audience, a market where telenovelas and crime serials had historically performed well. When viewership softened, continuing the show became less attractive than investing in other projects. By April 2017, the network had made its choice, and the show concluded without a properly planned sendoff. For a show that burned through 85 episodes in such a short window, El Chema was essentially a failed experiment, one of several dramas that Telemundo tried during this period with mixed results.

El Chema Season 2 Release Date

El Chema seasons

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