Venezuelan telenovela adaptation, Jane the Virgin, gave The CW one of its best Monday nights last October, delivering 1.6 million viewers the night of its premiere, which was also the best Monday 9 p.m. audience since 2012.

Gina Rodriguez, who plays the titular Jane, won the 2015 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy Or Musical. The win was The CW’s first in the Golden Globes, along with the first-ever nomination for Best Comedy.

Since then, Jane the Virgin has been getting a lot more attention, drawing in one of the biggest audiences of the year on the Monday after the Globes.

Rodriguez and The CW cast spoke with BuzzFeed’s Jarett Wieselman for the PaleyFest panel in Hollywood on Sunday afternoon.

Rodriguez, who said back at the fall 2014 PaleyFest that she was excited for the role because she “gets to play a role model,” told the audience this Sunday that from the start, she just fell in love with the role and the person, and has since had the privilege of seeing Jane grow. “You seldom get the opportunity to even audition for a woman who’s so strong and fearless,” she said, adding that Jane as a Latina woman “doesn’t usually get to be the hero in the piece.”

Jennie Snyder Urman, executive producer on the show, spoke about putting together an ensemble cast that spans generations, family and relationships. “I feel so lucky that we have such a deep bench of excellent actors,” she said, especially in putting the large group in scenes together in so many different combinations.

Rodriguez added that part of the strength of the cast is that they get to span from “reality to magical realism,” going from drama to comedy to larger-than-life telenovela-like scenes.

Justin Baldoni, who plays Rafael Solano, a part of the Rafael-Jane-Michael love triangle, identifies the strength of the writing is what brings those comedy/drama scenes to life, “always bringing everything back to the heart of what that person is going through.” (For example, Rafael found himself dating the person accidentally having his baby this season while battling new love interests and big life choices on a weekly basis.)

“She [Snyder Urman] wrote these very down-to-earth, real characters, but they’re thrown into these larger-than-life telenovela situations, which makes it so unique,” said Yael Grobglas, who plays the show’s multidimensional villain.

On Jane’s side of things, the actors talked about the strong bond between the Villanueva women, spanning three generations. Alba, Xiomara and Jane represent a strong family with women in charge, according to Andrea Nevado, who plays Xiomara (Jane’s mother). “I like to represent mi gente,” she said.

“I’m representing a demographic that is really real,” said Ivonne Coll, who plays Alba Villanueva. Her character is also in the country illegally, which she says “puts a face on the hundreds of thousands of those people.”

Executive Producer Ben Silverman, who brought Jane the Virgin, as well as Ugly Betty, to TV, said part of why he wanted the show on American television was because it’s “so connected to the Latin experience.”

Snyder Urman said that these issues are very important to not preach, but include and address organically in the storyline. “It’s so central to the people’s lives we’re representing,” she said, and the moderator Wieselman summed it up, saying “to not address these things head on would just be insane.”

When it comes to women’s rights, marriage issues, immigration and health care, Rodriguez adds that the show is able to create tolerance and understanding through the natural story and its characters, which has become a major strength in the show and a factor in the show’s word-of-mouth growth.

The show’s 22-episode season ends May 11 on The CW.

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