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A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines tele (for "television") and novela (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include teleserye (Philippines), lakorn (Thailand), téléroman (Canada, specifically Quebec), and sinetron (Indonesia). Commonly described using the American colloquialism Spanish soap opera, many telenovelas share some stylistic and thematic similarities to the soap opera familiar to the English-speaking world. The significant difference is their series run length; telenovelas tell one self-contained story, typically within the span of a year or less whereas soap operas tend to have intertwined storylines told during indefinite, continuing runs. This makes them shorter than most other television series, but still much longer than a miniseries. This planned run results in a faster-paced, more concise style of melodrama compared to a typical soap opera. Episodes of telenovelas usually last between 30 and 45 minutes, and rarely more than an hour, except for final episodes. The telenovela combines drama with the 19th-century feuilleton, and naturally evolved from the Latin American radionovela, according to Blanca de Lizaur. The medium has been used frequently by authorities in various countries to transmit sociocultural messages by incorporating them into storylines. By the 1950s, Brazil became one of the first countries to produce novelas with high budgets and aimed both to the national and international markets. Mexico soon followed, and by the 1970s and 1980s the country started to engage more profusely in using telenovelas to shape behavior. This was particularly successful in introducing the idea of family planning. The 1990s played a key role in the international export of telenovelas, thus the so-called 'Telenovela Craze' that spread in many regions in the world. By 2018, some signs of fading popularity had emerged. Brazil is considered the pioneer of the telenovela genre.

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