Las Estrellas originated from XEW-TV, which began broadcasting on 11 March 1951. The channel was a sister station to the legendary
XEW-AM radio station, owned by
Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta, which was also the owner of the newly launched channel. It was the second commercial TV channel to be established in Mexico City, after
XHTV channel 4, owned by the
Novedades newspaper. XEW-TV's first transmission was a live, play-by-play, outside broadcast of a
Mexican League match, with XEW radio veteran
Pedro Septién on commentary duties. Other than live sports broadcasts, XEW-TV initially broadcast films from the
Golden Age of Mexican cinema, as its studios in Chapultepec 18 were still under construction. The studio complex, known as Televicentro, would be inaugurated in January 1952. Soon thereafter, the programming scope would be expanded to include live variety shows and television theatre showcases, in a style similar to XEW radio's similarly formatted shows. XEW-TV would be a pioneer in Mexican television, and would establish many industry firsts. In 1962, the channel would become the flagship network of the newly merged Telesistema Mexicano, which also brought XHTV and XHGC under Azcárraga's hands, and, after merging with
XHTM-TV and
Televisión Independiente de México, many of these stations' programs would move to XEW-TV. As a result, XEW-TV rapidly grew and became the country's most watched TV network, a position which was undisputed for many years, as Televisa held a monopoly on commercial TV in Mexico, which even went into heavily influencing the political landscape in the country. As a result, by 1985, and in preparation for the
1986 FIFA World Cup (in which Televisa was the host broadcaster), XEW-TV was renamed
El Canal de las Estrellas, in reference to the station's line-up of actors, comedians and presenters. This was further reinforced with the launch of an image campaign song, sung by
Lucía Méndez, in 1988. Before the TSM-TIM merger, XEW's network was carrying its telenovelas from 4:15pm to 7:45pm. After the death of
Emilio Azcárraga Milmo in 1997, El Canal de las Estrellas suffered a massive restructuring of its programming. The biggest moment of the restructuring came in 1998, when
24 Horas, the
Jacobo Zabludovsky-anchored newscast, long a propaganda mouthpiece of the Mexican political regime, was canceled. The station's brand identity was also replaced with a new logo created by Pablo Rovalo. After a period of ratings turmoil, viewership stabilized, but the channel had to contend now with a surgent
XHDF, freshly privatized and bought under the auspicies of
TV Azteca. After years of decline, particularly after
2012, as accusations of political bias in favor of then-President
Enrique Peña Nieto began to hamper the broadcaster's credibility, in 2016, the decision was made to relaunch entirely the station's branding and programming. On 22 August 2016, XEW-TV was renamed as
Las Estrellas, and introduced many changes to its programming schedule, including shorter and snappier telenovelas and news programming, as well as dropping many long-running programming in favour of programming oriented to a younger audience. The changes generated a big ratings decline; as a result, by 2017, much of the new programming was canceled and the prime time telenovelas and news programming were relocated to pre-relaunch timeslots and viewership stabilized, especially during the
COVID-19 pandemic. == Las Estrellas Internacional ==