Phenom of the age

We've been seeing commercials for telenovela DVDs, some for ones recently ended, and some going as far back as La Usupadora. Today's WSJ notes, in an article entitled "'Telenovelas' Become A Vibrant New Niche In the DVD Market," that, whereas predicted DVD best-sellers have been anything but, novelas have been doing very well indeed. Apparently, they're sold in many Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy stores. They're reported to have English subtitles. They are definitely re-edited and abridged, which is not true to the generous and discursive treatment of plot and subplot elements. If a standard novela has 150 one-hour episodes and a very successful one may go on and on and on, I wonder what gets cut.