Urban Latino To Premier @ MetroTV.

“Urban Latino”, a magazine-lifestyle program, makes its premiere on MetroTV on Sunday, April 7th at 8:30 PM. MetroTV announced plans to air the 13 original episodes of the series each Sunday at 8:30 P.M. with a weekly second run of the series to follow on Saturdays at 8:30 P.M. “Urban Latino” highlights the diverse elements of U.S. Latino culture with topics ranging from entertainment and celebrity interviews to fashion, music and food, each from a New York Latino perspective. MetroTV can be found on Time Warner Cable channel 70 and on Cablevision channel 16.

“Urban Latino” is hosted by well-known and popular Spanish television personality Celines Toribio. She began her television career in 1995 at Univision’s New York affiliate, WXTV-41. She went on to gain national exposure on Univision Network as entertainment reporter for the popular entertainment magazine programs “El Gordo Y La Flaca” and “Primer Impacto”. Celines has interviewed almost every major Latino celebrity and personality, including Ricky Martin, Luis Migel and Celia Cruz. Currently Celines can be heard weekday mornings on the radio on WCAA – Latino Mix 105.9. Urban Latino is Celines’ first English language television effort since leaving Univision.

“MetroTV is all about celebrating the diversity and culture of the New York metropolitan area. Since the Latino community is such big part of New York, ‘Urban Latino’ makes perfect sense for our viewers. The show is breaking into a relatively untapped market, reaching out to an audience interested in the Latino lifestyle and culture,” adds Judith Tolkow, VP of Programming and Development.

“The double primetime airing of ‘Urban Latino’ is a first for Latino targeted English language programming and is a testament to the commitment of MetroTV not only to Urban Latino but to the New York Latino market in general,” said Robert Rose, President of Artist and Idea Management, Packager and Executive Producer of the show.

The series is supported by a strong promotional and marketing platform via Urban Latino Magazine; a New York based, nationally distributed, English language magazine that has been serving young Latinos for over seven years. In addition, Urban Latino Magazine provides access to events and in market promotional opportunities such as college tours and concert sponsorships that tie in to the promotion and marketing for the series.

The English language television series targets young U.S. Latinos and is a co-production between Artist and Idea Management, Urban Latino Magazine, Gallco Studios and MetroTV. Additional episodes of a broader, more national version of “Urban Latino” is also being produced for a syndicated launch for the Fall 2002 season targeting the remaining top U.S. Latino markets via English language broadcast outlets.