Another year is about to end. But before the calendar flips to 2015, here is a look back at the year that was in television and radio. This article will focus on the GMA Network, who endured yet another frustrating year.
Positives
In a year where anything could go wrong, only a few bright spots remained on the corner of EDSA and Timog Avenue.
GMA’s Afternoon Prime emerged as the network’s top performer on weekdays, with ‘Villa Quintana’ and its successor ‘The Half Sisters’ leading the way. Also enjoying impressive performances were ‘The Borrowed Wife’, ‘Yagit’, ‘Innamorata’ and ‘Ang Lihim ni Annasandra’.
Afternoon Prime’s predecessor ‘Eat Bulaga’ remained a force on noontime, gaining some notoriety for its ‘Suffer Sireyna’ segment. Fellow long-running programs ‘Bubble Gang’, ‘I-Witness’ and ‘Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho’ also continued to impress viewers.
Perhaps the most welcome sight on the Kapuso network this year was the return of the Sunday TV Mass after a four-year absence. In response to criticisms that GMA was biased towards Catholics, they got the services of Society of Divine Word – Mission Communications Foundation, Inc. (SVD-MCFI) to broadcast the weekly mass every Sunday morning, thus appeasing their Catholic viewers for now.
And finally, GMA earned numerous awards in both local and international award-giving bodies. GMA News and Public Affairs, in particular, continued to garner praise for its excellent journalistic work by winning another Peabody Award, in addition to numerous New York Festival awards.
Negatives
If there is one network who deserves much of the blame for its failures, it is GMA. And 2014 was just another tough year for the No. 2 network.
GMA Telebabad continued to be an underwhelming performer for the Kapuso network. Virtually every teleserye GMA threw at its disposal failed to make an impact, including the four-week long historical drama series ‘Ilustrado’, who performed badly against its rivals from Mother Ignacia.
The 19-year old ‘Startalk’ also underperformed this year, with timeslot changes to blame for its poor performance. Neither a return to Sundays (vs. ‘Buzz ng Bayan’/’The Buzz’), nor a transfer back to Saturdays (vs. ‘Ipaglaban Mo’ and ‘Failon Ngayon’) helped ‘Startalk”s performance this year.
An ongoing purge to GMA’s weekend programming proved to be not as tense as last year, although the slumping ‘Sunday All Stars’, a clear candidate for cancellation, moved to a later time to avoid ‘ASAP’. Three movie blocks on Sundays, along with ‘Asian Horror Stories’ on Saturdays, did not help GMA at all.
Being the king at answering ABS-CBN’s every move, GMA countered ‘Meteor Garden’ and other Kapamilya throwback Asianovelas by re-airing ‘Jewel in the Palace’, ‘Coffee Prince’ and others, none of which were successful. GMA also countered ABS-CBN by airing ‘Marian’, ‘Bet ng Bayan’ and ‘Don’t Lose the Money’ versus its rival’s programs, again to negative results.
Controversy also affected GMA in 2014. Both Aljur Abrenica and embattled GMA employees under the name ‘Talents Association of GMA’ filed lawsuits against the network for various complaints, while Sen. Bong Revilla’s arrest due to the PDAF scandal prompted the network to cancel ‘Kap’s Amazing Stories’ to avoid any negative publicity.
Overall, it was an abysmal year for GMA, both in terms of ratings, financial performance, and standards of quality.
Outlook
Ramon Ang may have taken some of the shares, but GMA’s fortunes continue to revolve around their aging pair of owners in Felipe Gozon and Gilberto Duavit. So expect another difficult and trying year on the corner of EDSA and Timog Avenue.
‘Second Chances’, a long-overdue series, will kick off GMA’s slate of new programs this 2015, but it remains to be seen whether or not will there be second chances for the said network this year. One thing’s for sure: a wild ride continues for the men and women inside the GMA Network Center.
From the Tube 
Hinaluhan na kasi ng national issues na ang format ng Startalk ngayon kaya nga matamlay sila.
More like an extended version of Abunda & Aquino Tonight.
Rasonable has a bad case of DTS since November. She intercepted, focused and planed too much to schedule dramas not just on the invincible Mother Ignacia but also an aspiring small player in Visayas Avenue.
In short, she is helping both ABS and PTV while hurting her own network. It’s like a face turning to a heel in wrestling.
Hmmm. Mukhang may balak si Rasonable para sirain ang imahe ng GMA. Not good.
She should be blamed for GMA’s poor performance this year. GMA management should replace her with someone way better & more trustworthy than her, to bring the network back on track.
Indeed.
Actually, she was a failed espionage to attack both the giant and tiny PTV over teleserye scheduling.
You said about “Meteor Garden” and “Lovers in Paris” on Dos nd GMA replied with “Jewel in the Palace” and “Full House.”
I wrote about PTV’s “Here Comes Mr. Oh” but GMA responded with “The Coffee Prince” that hurts Ch. 4’s liberating dreams of airing foreign entertainment show after their Charter Amendment last March 2013.
GMA doesn’t really care about PTV. They are seriously obsessed with beating ABS-CBN, period.
If you’re wondering what DTS means, it’s Delayed Teleserye Syndrome.
Ok.
GMA has not yet announced its SNBO for tomorrow on its website http://www.gmanetwork.com. Most likely, it will be a Tagalized movie against the ABS-CBN News Yearender.
GMA will air HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME starring Christopher Lambert on SNBO. Not a good way for GMA to end the year.
Even worse will be their costly year-end celebration in MOA on New Year’s Eve, if they have one again this year. Lugi na sila, magpaparty pa rin.
It should also interesting to note what show will replace Bet ng Bayan. Its grand finals night is set tonight.
That, we’ll see.
My wish also for 2014 for GMA News TV is to totally improve its programming, although it is next to impossible.
Tonight, News TV will replay Throwback 2014 with Rhea Santos and Tom Rodriguez. It airs at 9 pm after Reel Time.
alisin na nila ang pelikula sa umaga o hapon o buong araw, alin na ang boksing kada hapon sana kada linggo na lang ng umaga at sana mga alas 7 hanggang 10: 30 ng gabi ng umaga ang simula ng blocktime ng gma sa zoe tv 11 pag weekdays. o kaya ibalik ang citynet 27 at doon na iere ang news tv nila. ito muna ang hiling ko sa kanila.
Should News TV’s content gets even worse this year, there’s nothing we can do about it. All we hope now is for them to do something more drastic rather than just a minute decision.
In essence, it’s News TV vs. ABS in yearenders.
Ang my idea for GMA in the year 2015 especially in the weekend, in Saturday after Eat Bulaga balak ko inalik ang Startalk sa dating 90 Minutes format at ilagay ito sa 2:30 slot then Wish Ko Lang sa 4 PM tapos Imbestigador na sa 4:45 PM, sa Imbestigador next year sana’y ibalik na lang sa dating Investigating format at mawala na ang pagka-clone ito sa SOCO, samantala sa Sunday naman ay yun Superhero Sunday ay gawing na 1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours instead of just 1 hour lang kasi maraming naman edits at cuts nitong movie na yan, then yun Sunday All Stars ay ilagay sa 12:45 or 1 PM ang timeslot at muling ilagay sa Timeslot ng ASAP at sana’y maging 2 hours 15 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes, then ilipat ang Asian Horror Stories sa Sunday at ilagay sa 2:30 or 2:45 timeslot nito at yun GMA blockbusters ay stay sa timeslot o next year ay balak i balik yun Sunday Drama Anthology and magkaroon na ng bagong Showbiz Oriented Talk Show na ipapatapat sa The Buzz. I hope na mag ma i-strategy ang shows especially sa weekend.
That is next to impossible. Kung may guts lang si Mrs. Rasonable, chances are matutupad yung idea mo. But as it stands, may pagkadysfunctional ang schedule ng GMA pag weekends. Kaya nga ayaw nila itapat ang Startalk sa The Buzz, at ang SaS sa ASAP dahil takot sila.
GMA News TV will replay THROWBACK 2014 with Rhea Santos and Tom Rodriguez tonight at 9 pm after Reel Time.
You said that again, Mr. Sunday.
Correction: GMA News TV is now airing a marathon of Illustrado as its way of commemorating the death anniversary of Dr. Jose Rizal on December 30. As you posted, it was a flop.
And a bad decision too even before it aired.
GMA will have its yearly New Year countdown at MOA this New Year’s Eve. It’s confirmed already.
More gastos for the embattled network.
True that.
From 1 to 10 for GMA, I will give them 3. May shares na nga si Don Ramon Ang sa GMA, matatapos na ang 2014, marami pa ring kulang. Isama mo pa ang mga nagsisilayas na talents and moving to Mother Ignacia. Samantalang ang ilan sa kanila, hanggang New Year’s Eve na lang ang termino dahil sa paghahain ng complaints against the network. Pati na rin ang kawalan ng sariling VOD online portal for their shows. Frankly speaking, they are next in line with IBC.
News TV looks like Love Radio. Saying that they’re the #1 news channel sa bansa, but look at their inconsistency. Movies, sports, non-sense programs. Tsk3. Naging #1 lang sila because of their strong signal reception. Even their news division, I don’t like them na rin.
Mrs. Ida Henares has a potential to replace Rasonable.
Their New Year’s concert this Wednesday will do more harm than good. Ano ang ise-celebrate nila? Wala, kasi madami silang pagkukulang. Saka lalo silang mababaon sa utang dahil dito.
Yes. Parang wina-whitewash na lang nila ang kanilang current performance status sa kanila mga viewers. Eh kitang-kita naman na mas lalo silang humina this year.
That’s the difference between being humble and being mayabang. GMA is at best typifies the latter.
hindi lang gma, ganon din sa tv5, lugi na nga sila, may new year countdown celebration pa sila
Hindi lugi ang TV5 this year, according to Gabby. And besides, their New Year’s celebration is more carefully planned and promoted than GMA’s, since they’ve been hyping them in advance compared to GMA’s belated promotion.
This year, tanging Tanduay at Krem-Top ang sponsor ng countdown. Chef Boy Logro will have a cooking portion tapos may mga performances ang mga winners ng Bet ng Bayan.
Expect na mala-Sunday All Stars ang presentation ng NYC ng GMA.
Indeed. Mukhang hindi maganda ang kalalabasan ng celebration na ito.
I hope GMA airs the Marian Rivera-Dingdong Dantes wedding special on SNBO this Sunday. It will surely be a good way for GMA to kick off 2015 with a lot of promise.
ABS-CBN, from what I heard, will be airing Pope Francis specials for the whole month of January on Sunday’s Best.
Considering ABS is a more Catholic-laden station, it’s a good move for them.
The news department of ABS will produce the Pope specials.
Ok.
I’m not a Kapuso, but It’s kinda sad to see those 52 “talents” go. They should’ve filed a complaint at the beginning of this year. I do agree with Rey. Ms. Rasonable should be blamed for GMA’s so-so to poor performance this year. I hope someone better (as better as ABS-CBN’s Mr M.) will replace Rasonable within next year. On the other side, their NYC this year will be the same as its previous ones, with Chef Logro’s cooking segment. But, I highly doubt na malulugi sila.
I slightly disagree with Nameless. News TV is NOT like Love Radio. It’s performance is way better than its parent network. Aside from news, they also air Informative programs (NOT nonsense) & a bit of sports. In my opinion, its news department is performing quite better than its Artist Center.
For this year, I’ll give a 7 out of 10 for GMA.
Sorry, pero their NYC only adds to their financial burdens. Safe to say na yumayabang ang GMA because of this. Good thing ABS is more humble by holding a New Year’s Mass.
You may say that News TV is better than GMA, but they still need a lot of improvements. Plus the movies and reruns had to go; they still look like their predecessor QTV at times.
And with CNN Philippines about to start airing, News TV, as well as Aksyon TV, will face even more problems in 2015 if their inconsistent programming continues.
Indeed. So much for two networks mixing one format with another.
There’s nothing wrong with News TV re-airing dokyus, but I have a problem with them airing movies. And I doubt na “yumayabang” ang GMA. They’re just between humble (a bit more of) & mayabang. In my opinion, though. (Don’t judge)
Their ‘yabang’ comes from their New Year’s countdown tonight, and I doubt their humble nature by holding this meaningless concert. GMA is definitely losing money with their mediocre entertainment programs, and yet they still hold an NYC just to thank the remaining fans who stuck around, and even go as far as claiming that they’re still in great financial health. That said, it’s just another costly effort by the embattled folks inside Timog Avenue. Their past efforts are ok, but not in the recent past where they clearly struggled.
Regarding News TV, what I’m talking about here is reruns of QTV programs which doesn’t make sense anymore. It’s ok for them to re-air docus, but not as often as possible.
japok: i do agree with you, especially on how you rate gma. the thing is, gma wasn’t as successful since rasonable was appointed, and she made things even worse. but, i’ll expect a good (sort of) start on gma.
james: aksyon tv’s condition is way worse than news tv. the former should revamp into something else, while the latter needs a little improvement.
ralph: i see nothing mediocre about gma’s entertainment programs. (and they’ll never be one) nuff said.
But they need to get rid of Rasonable immediately if they were to improve. Replace it with someone more credible and knowledgeable.
I disagree though with the other two points of yours. Both AksyonTV and News TV’s conditions are equally worse, whether you like it or not. They don’t even pale in comparison to the original local news channel which is ANC. Consider either station a hybrid of one another rather than a pure news channel; they depend on another genre just to keep them afloat. Both should either rebrand or improve, if I were them.
I also disagree about the second statement of yours. The last few years have been bad for GMA’s entertainment programs; they were always outrated and outtrended by ABS-CBN at every turn. GMA relied too much on its veterans of late while ABS has been promoting its younger talent very well. With the huge discrepancy in both talent level and management level, it’s definitely not good for GMA.
Ralph, I disagree about your last statement. How can GMA rely too much on its veterans while they have other younger talents? Common sense, men. To be fair, GMA is also promoting its younger talents very well, notably Miguel & Bianca, & they also rely on them. Tsaka, may Starstruck sila within the beginning of this year. Hence, I’m sure they’ll also promote that batch as well. So, don’t be a dickhead.
Common sense? Let’s face it. ABS got the most out of the likes of Kathryn Bernardo, Daniel Padilla, Julia Montes, Enrique Gil, and their other younger talents. They are very bankable now because they developed well under Mr. M’s eyes. But what did GMA do? They kept on using Marian Rivera, Jennylyn Mercado, Dingdong Dantes and their other vets to lead their teleseryes, thus holding back the development of their younger talents. They may be starting to give the young ones such as Bianca and Miguel leading roles, but they are still unproven at this point, and given the discrepancy in terms of talent development between the two networks, it may take a while before Miguel and Bianca considers themselves at par with a Kathryn and Daniel.
GMA’s recent struggles with talent development have something to do with the long absence of StarStruck. Yes they may be back this year, but will they recapture the popularity of their glory days? I doubt that, since PBB and other ABS reality shows have become more popular during its absence. Should both PBB and StarStruck face off, it will be a long, hard struggle for the latter.
So who’s the dickhead now?
News TV became more showbiz when Bea Binene became a segment host for Good News and their Idol sa Kusina is more of a weekend version of Basta Everyday Happy.
porket naging host ang mga artista sa news tv, pang-showbiz na ang news tv? di ba puwedeng gusto nilang subukin ang pag-host?
That’s because it’s against their name. Parang bumabalik sila sa format ng QTV. Would you consider News TV as a REAL news channel? HINDI, dahil HYBRID lang sila. That said, they don’t deserve the name GMA News TV. More like ‘GMA BALITAKILYA TV’.
more like gma “new” tv, w/o an “s”. hahaha.
I still like BALITAKILYA though, given their penchant to air movies.
In short, they failed to justify their decision to rebrand from QTV to News TV. Parang QTV pa rin ang feel ng News TV after all these years.
Agreed with the above commenters about the costliness of GMA’s yearly tradition of its NYC specials.
Also, GMA will go ahead with re-airing some of the K-dramas shown by the network in the past.
Confirmed na papalit sa Hiram na Alaala ang Second Chances.
Strawberry Lane, which will end this Friday, will be replaced by Once Upon a Kiss, starring Miguel Tanfelix and Bianca Umali. More on that on an upcoming article.
GMA’s latest Koreanovela throwback will be My Name is Kim Sam Soon. Seems they’re becoming too obsessed with the throwback Asianovelas after ABS started it with Meteor Garden.
GMA’s annual NYC event was at first memorable when they were still relevant, but with their recent struggles, it no longer makes sense. It’s true na lalong nababaon sila sa utang with this event in question.
I just hope that GMA will no longer produce a “New Year Countdown” this year. I have long agreed that producing another one will just worsen their current financial situation, since these comments were posted last year. GMA must try making a news coverage instead about the situation of Filipinos celebrating New Year, and the condition of those who’ll get injured or killed by the carelessness of using firecrackers.
As you write your “2015 Year In Review” for GMA by the end of this year, I expect more “negatives” than “positives” in that upcoming post, and I also expect 2016 to be worse for the Kapuso network, if its current bosses make more wrong and impractical decisions.
I don’t think I’ll write a year in review for each network this time. It’ll be better if I just jot down some significant events in media for the year. It would be better than making such analysis.
Anyway, yes we agree that they’d be better off without a New Year’s Countdown this time around. If they produce one just to capitalize on AlDub, that’s bad news for them, as it will only add to the criticism.
halatang me2pak (may topak) si rasonable pagdating sa throwback. that “minion from abs-cbn” would do anything to destroy gma’s performance. sheesh.
Indeed.
No developments yet on when GMA will air the Marian Rivera-Dingdong Dantes wedding.,
Again, we’ll have updates coming as soon as they are available. It’s a painstaking production to say the least.
probably on the 2nd sunday, since sports science will be airing this sunday (based on an ad i saw yesterday). correct me if i’m wrong, sir.
We’ll still see.
I called GMA and it will be MP Featuring Sport Science on SNBO this Sunday.
Ok
ABS-CBN’s docu on Pope Francis titled FRANCIS THE PEOPLE’S POPE airs this Sunday night on Sunday’s Best.
About pala sa ilang shows sa GMA, as Eat Bulaga continues its noontime domination, I guess or I predict that the Ryzza Me Show might end either this year or sa 2016. The EB’s wonder kid will turn 10 na sa May 2015, eh. So she’s now entering into pre-teen stage na. Parang Goin’ Bulilit lang, na kapag 10 to 12 years old na ang isa sa kanila (or kapag Grade 6 na) , automaic graduate na.
BTW, Happy 2015 sa ating lahat!
That we’ll wait and see.
Nameless, MP Featuring Sport Science this Sunday on GMA features billiards legend Efren “Bata” Reyes in one of its segments.
Mr. Bean with Rowan Atkinson will air either on Kapuso Movie Festival or GMA Blockbusters this Sunday.
Seems that GMA almost got some movies which were used to air on tv5 before.
It’s been always like that in recent years now; about the only difference is their dubbing talents.
Seems that the GMA almost got some movies which were used to air on tv5 before.
Very predictable. We should better look forward to their new offerings on Telebabad and Afternoon Prime, not those very repetitive Sunday programs.
GMA and TV5 share the same movies simply because they have no noontime show and showbiz talk show to compete with ABS. But at least, TV5 has the PBA which can hold its own against The Buzz in the ratings. GMA has no show that can compete with The Buzz so they are settling for those repetitive movies.