I had the exact same problem! I found a solution tho
So i look for the files that were used in the index.php files and this were:
featured.php
bottom.php
featlist.php
sidebar.php
Then I found this:
$my_query = new WP_Query('category_name= '. $featcat .'&showposts=1');
(Its almost the same for all the archive)
And replaced it for this:
$my_query = new WP_Query('category_name=noticias&showposts=1');
Weell beeing "noticias" the name of your category. Only in the case in the sidebar.php you modify the number of showposts, to show the number of posts you want in the highreel.
Hope you understand my solution =)
Im aware I actually dont know why the theme stop working and if you want to change the categories later you will have to go into the code, but It makes the index.php looks alright =)