La Reina del Sur is an American crime drama television series produced by Telemundo Global Studios and RTI Television (the latter in the first season), for Telemundo. Based on the homonymous novel by Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte and adapted by Roberto Stopello and Valentina Párraga. During its first season, Patricio Wills, the then president of Telemundo Global Studios, was the executive producer of the telenovela, and it had a budget of 10 million dollars, making the first season of La Reina del Sur the most expensive telenovela never produced by Telemundo.