Speech rate is crucial for achieving both synchronization and naturalness in dubbed dialogue. However, since dubs are constrained by the pace of the source language and languages exhibit different rhythmic structures, dubbing actors, translators, and dialogue writers might encounter significant challenges in producing a well-synchronized, natural-sounding outcome. This corpus-based study aims to measure speech rate in order to explore the trends and techniques employed in the Spanish dubbed version of a US series that contribute to optimizing synchrony and naturalness in the final delivery. Our findings are compared with average speech rates in spontaneous conversation to assess whether the dubbing process might result in a slower or faster articulation rate. The results indicate that the analyzed dubbed lines are slightly decelerated as compared to spontaneous-like speech in order to align with the pacing of the original English dialogue and maintain lip synchronization. The conclusions drawn from this research underline the pivotal role of speech rate in producing natural and realistic dubbed dialogue from both technical and qualitative perspectives. They also highlight the challenges dubbing professionals face in their daily practice and the strategies they adopt to prioritize natural-sounding deliveries in Spanish dubbing.