La usurpadora (English: The Usurper) is a Mexican television series produced by Carmen Armendáriz for Televisa.

Paola plots to pull a Prince and the Pauper switch with her newfound twin, Paulina Doria, to stand in as First Lady on Independence Day, and then kill her.

Paulina is not willing to sacrifice her position of social influence for charity and begins her own scheme: acting crazy to get committed, and using the real story to receive a diagnosis of multiple personality disorder.

Facundo breaks Paulina out of the hospital and takes her to the countryside; Paola is taken to Colombia after being misidentified as her sister after the attack, with her confusion ruled as post-traumatic stress.

[8][9][10] Announced later, the secondary cast features several of the relatives of the main characters: Daniela Schmidt plays Gema Vidal, the assistant and lover of Bernal; Juan Carlos Barreto plays Manuel Hernández, who is in love with Paola, with Aurora Gil as Manuel's crazy sister, Teresa.

[11] The remaining cast were revealed when the show went to air:[12] The series was inspired by a story from Cuban telewriter Inés Rodena and largely based on the 1998 version, La usurpadora.

[13] The creative team also wanted to update the story's context, too, changing the businessman and trophy wife leads to the President and First Lady; including settings in other countries (primarily Colombia) to show an international Mexico; and changing the two sons of the leads in the original into a son and daughter, who are also step-siblings.

Ernesto Esteva, in the art department of the production, said that the house was based on European styles, and more specifically on "what was brought from the old continent to New Spain".

[19] The palace in the series is not modeled on the real Los Pinos in terms of design and architecture, but Esteva says that the scope of the buildings is similar, so that the events of the show could realistically be happening within the appropriate spaces.

[16] Giving a negative review, Álvaro Cueva of Milenio said that though the production tried to make the show into a series, it was still very much a telenovela, and noted that it came to Mexican television at a bad time, relating it to the first report on the Andrés Manuel López Obrador presidency.

[23] Cueva said that the show was too morbid and that its creators must have "serious mental issues"; he also criticized that the first episode details a plot to assassinate the First Lady during Independence Day, and so could be giving ideas to radicals who would really try such a thing.

[23] Unlike La hora de la Novela's warm view of the production's recreation of the show, Cueva referred to it derogatorily as "refrito", saying it was a mockery to the Mexican audience; he explained that the original was a focused show that knew its audience, and opined that the new production lacked this, saying that the writers haven't even modernized it because they were off-the-mark with what a modern woman in Mexico wants, which is not, in Cueva's view, something as simple as being First Lady.

[23] Abraham Reyes of the La Neta Noticias website commented that the production never managed to obtain the same rating level that episode 1 had during its broadcast.

[25] But she also criticized the abrupt end that was given to the series with Andrés Palacios and Sandra Echeverría staying together as a family, and leaving Betke out.

[25] In addition to giving good reviews regarding the protagonists, the work of the actors Juan Carlos Barreto, Aurora Gil, Ana Bertha Espín, Queta Lavat and Paco Ruedas was also praised.

[16] The character of Carlos Bernal, the President of Mexico played by Andrés Palacios, has been compared by La Hora de la Novela to have similarities with figures like the Nuevo León governor Jaime Rodríguez Calderón and former president Enrique Peña Nieto, who also, like Bernal, had children out of wedlock.

At the time of the rescue, everything gets out of control and they kill all of Teresa's men, the woman shoots Carlos and Paulina but Baca goes through being injured.

The next day, Manuel arrives with the news of what happened to Teresa, Arcadia suggests Paola use Liss to escape the country.