A new timeslot for ‘To the Top’ on Saturdays shows GMA’s lack of confidence with the show. (Logo courtesy of GMA Network)
GMA is definitely not confident with ‘To the Top’.
This past Saturday, GMA moved ‘To the Top’ to a new timeslot of 10:40 p.m. This means that it has to face both ‘Banana Split: Extra Scoop’ and ‘The Bottomline’, two ABS-CBN programs that merely cater to night owls.
Airing this late will definitely not bode well to the show, its participants, and its audience. The exposure of the boyband aspirants would have been more helpful if ‘To the Top’ were to air at an earlier timeslot and with a wider amount of viewers, but at 10:40 p.m., they will be severely handicapped.
While the Sunday edition will stick to its close-to-10:00 p.m. slot, this is still a period where GMA feels uncomfortable with. After all, the Kapuso network still has to worry about ‘Pinoy Big Brother: 737’ and ‘Gandang Gabi Vice’, and much like ‘Bet ng Bayan’ before it, ‘To the Top’ may still have no chance of success.
Despite its premise as a multi-platform reality show, ‘To the Top’ cannot depend on its online viewers alone. After all, television remains the most widespread medium to expose the talents, which ‘To the Top’ desperately needs.
That said, GMA appears to have little to no trust whatsoever in ‘To the Top’. They are not confident that the show will succeed in a traditional media setup, which is why they moved it to a later timeslot to avoid getting humiliated.
‘To the Top’ seems like a lost opportunity than a blessing for GMA. It may be the first show to employ both a traditional and a new media setup, but it is clear that GMA is wasting its time on the show, given its treatment and promotion.
So much for being the first boyband competition in the country. Now let’s see what they will do with ‘StarStruck’.
From the Tube 
To The Top goes to the flop!
If this give a remark of a bad move, then, what more for Starstruck?
Starstruck has its own following so hopefully it would not suffer much the same as To The Top. But let’s see what will happen.
Also consider the fact that StarStruck has been off for five years. How will the viewers respond to the comebacking show remains to be seen.
To the Top is definitely a lost cause at this point, despite its promising format. GMA just blew it when they moved it on a slot full of only night owls.
Wasted effort as it is. The creator/producer of the show should feel that.
Promising yet unconfident is a much better description for To the Top.
It’s now a lost cause, moving To The Top on late nights every Saturdays. IDK if things will change if we’re about to see a PBB vs. Starstruck showdown.
The show that we thought would be facing The Voice Kids 2 is now on a serious crisis. 10:40 p.m. is just too late for a show that’s supposed to promote new talents.
The winner may end up as an afterthought in the long run. Sayang ang mapapanalunan nila with the way GMA is treating this show.
the start of brain drain- public affairs dept.
Walang Tiwala, Inc.
Manood na lang ako ng Showbiz Unlimited on IBC 13 sa ganitong oras.
Kahit may mga itinayong fanbase na ang mga contestants, hindi bagay ang timeslot dahil very boring.
Exactly. Sayang sa oras ang To the Top.
Here’s GMA’s Saturday Night lineup (August 29):
5:30pm – 24 Oras Weekend
6:15pm – Peipto Manaloto
7:15pm – Despicable Me 1 (IDK if that movie will work against TVK)
8:55pm – Magpakailanman
10:45pm – Celebrity Bluff (who will watch this show this late?)
11:50pm – I-Witness
12:25am – To The Top (who will watch this show way past midnight?)
1:10am – Walang Tulugan
Tonight’s lineup is way worse. To The Top will air 25 minutes past midnight.
We’ve seen this move before. It can be recalled that in the final live performance episode of The Voice Kids 1, GMA aired a movie against the said talent show (link below).
https://fromthetube.wordpress.com/2014/07/29/another-lineup-change-on-gma-thanks-to-the-voice-kids/
In short, iniiwasan nila ang The Voice Kids 2 finale para daw hindi mapahiya. Ang problema, hindi nila ito ginagawa tuwing finale ng The Voice of the Philippines, so wala talagang sense itong move ng GMA.
To be honest, ang pinakmapapahiya sa move na ito ay mga ‘fans’ umano ng mga boyband-to-be ng To the Top. Hating-gabi na ieere, sinong manonood? Nakakahiya talaga.
Oo nga. Putting To The Top way past midnight? Malamang tulog na ang tao at 12:25am. On airing a film tonight against TVK2 finale, I don’t think it will work. Napatunayan talaga na weak talaga ang GMA sa weekends.
To The Top’s midnight airing is guaranteed tonight.
It is unclear when GMA will continue putting Tagalog dubs of Hollywood movies that were hits at 7 PM on weekends in light of the upcoming Your Face Sounds Familiar Season 2 (YFSY Season 1 garnered very high ratings).
I guess this is only a temporary ruse just to avoid TVK. And besides, it’s a waste of time and energy. No one would bother watching To the Top at midnight or close to midnight in the case of later tonight.
Here’s tomorrow’s lineup (August 30, courtesy of Mr. Sunday):
12 nn SUNDAY PINASAYA
2 pm WOWOWIN
3:15 pm GMA BLOCKBUSTERS
4:45 pm JUAN TAMAD
5:30 pm 24 ORAS WEEKEND
6 pm VAMPIRE ANG DADDY KO
6:45 pm ISMOL FAMILY
7:30 pm GMA MOVIE SPECIAL: DESPICABLE ME 2 (halatang takot ang GMA dahil season finale na ng TVK2)
9 pm KAPUSO MO JESSICA SOHO
11 pm TO THE TOP (iksiin na lang ang airtime ng KMJS, for cying out loud!)
11:30 pm SNBO: THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS starring Russell Crowe
Grabe talaga. Sino ang manonood ng To The Top bukas ng 11pm?
To the Flop na ito, sabi ng mga taga-Pinoy Exchange.
Wala talagang tiwala ang GMA sa kanilang mga programa. It’s a cowardly and DESPICABLE move. Time to spread the word. #GMATakotSaTVK
I ask you Ralph and don’t scold to me. Its too obvious to your comments that GMA 7 is worse than ABS CBN. Are you favored in ABS CBN or you say “NO” because you don’t want to attract notice to your past and recent comments?
I don’t favor ABS or any other network. The reason why GMA is worse at this point is because of their poor and unwise decisions in recent years. The fellow commenters also agree with me that GMA needs improvement from top to bottom.
And besides, ABS has its own weaknesses. Again, not all networks are perfect; I’ve been saying this for a long time now.
So, why do you something stated to GMA 7 ” mayabang” or “To the Flop”. Are you favored in Pinoy-Exchange statement and why do you order to request and spread #GMATakotSaTVK. That means you are too obvious that you are favored in ABS CBN than GMA. Be careful to your words, Ralph. Be honest!!!
Again I’m not favoring anyone. I couldn’t see the point of why GMA had to place a movie against the TVK2 finale. They did this before in TVK1, so this is not the first time that they did this cowardly programming decision.
Yes, ABS CBN have weaknesses, I agree. But they need to recoup in Mega Manila.
Exactly. GMA’s signal in MM is much stronger, especially in public transport with TVs. ABS has to improve that.
Budget-wise and commercial is the wellness of TV -Plus, but they do not improved their ratings in Mega Manila in this strategy.
Maybe, because TVPlus is only a few months into commercial availability.
Now GMA 7 have loyal viewers, so they fulfill now to have some alternative shows from ABS CBN.
Still, they are at a disadvantage. They are still striving to compete against Channel 2. Their programming is almost a mirror image of ABS’. They may have loyal viewers, but they are still looking at a bigger picture.
And besides, it’s a waste of time. After adding the special movies, they are now expected to sign off at around 3 am the next day. They will be static for only an hour, which may not be enough for some rest in their equipment.
The transmitter power should be improve, but another expenses in their investments. Not to boost their selling in digital blackbox. They cannot beat GMA in that strategy.
It should improve eventually, but they are not concerned with that since families with cable subscription are also rising. And besides, we’re entering the digital age so their concern at this point is to prepare for the transition to digital TV.
Yes, I agree this is not good in performance.
And speaking of the airtimes for special movies, GMA back then used to be on the air 24/7 before being The Kapuso Network.
I think its definitely unlikely that GMA (as well as ABS-CBN, and TV5) should venture back into putting its tv network on the air non-stop. Since their broadcasting equipments need a rest after all as you said.
Looks like clear signal, fans’ obssession, and strange programming decisions, are just some of the many reasons why GMA is “nangunguna” in the country.
The “network war” will just get even dirtier.
That was during the year 2000. Pero puro replay lang ng past GMA programs. They stopped it eventually owing to lack of viewership and higher operating costs.
Near-24/7 operating days can only happen if there’s a live show that ran overtime. GMA doesn’t even have a live show to air, so there’s no sense in adding a movie opposite a live show on ABS. They may do this to save their shows from getting humiliated, but it’s not worth it money-wise and time-wise.
As far as network wars go, the claims from both sides will only persist from hereon. Any tactic by both networks will have a huge effect on the viewers’ preferences.
Aside from replays of past GMA programs, GMA also aired, during their 24/7 broadcast, some religous shows, Guidelines, music videos, and even movies. I saw that in GMA’s March 2000 TV sked in their old website, which can be found in the Internet Archive.
It was an experiment just to test the feasibility of a 24/7 broadcast on free TV. Too bad there are some limits.
Another expenses for GMA 7, 24/7.
They were the only channel to do so at that time. Since then we had AksyonTV and UNTV who followed the 24/7 route. While historical, it was an economic and mechanical drain to say the least.
Before GMA, New Vision 9 was the first Philippine free TV station to go 24/7, especially after it was relaunched back as RPN in 1994, if my memory serves me right, but later ceased transmission on 24/7 basis for the same reason as GMA’s case.
Channel 9, by then, is sequestered by the government, so the experiment was only brief, not to mention costly.
Magastos kasi magoperate ng 24 hours sa TV, lalo na sa operating costs pa lang ng analog transmitter. IDK if that will change once the country is now entering the digital era.
Though there are some free TV stations that air 24/7 on cable, such as the Solar-owned stations, CNNPH and Net 25. But still, ang walang tulugan na broadcast is not feasible at this point.
I am not a big fan of To The Top to be honest. I think Starstruck can survive and will not suffer the same faith as To The Top IMO.
GMA will definitely pool their resources more on StarStruck, and hopefully land a better timeslot. Their treatment on To the Top has become so harsh. Airing on midnight last night was their worst decision yet, all because of that movie they had to place against The Voice Kids 2 finale, which they didn’t need to.
To be exact, To The Top last night aired at past 11:30 pm. And their airing of the two Despicable Me movies vs The Voice Kids, for me, was despicable.
With Your Face Sounds Familiar back next weekend, more problems loom for GMA.
Especially if their To the Top is airing on an unfavorable timeslot such as 10:00 p.m. or later. Shame on the fans of the aspiring boybands for that demotion.
This proves that Charo Santos is way more better and more successful than Lilybeth Rasonable. GMA’s programs are not even close to the recent popularity of Eat Bulaga, especially AlDub.
Expect more bad news from GMA in the next four months, especially on when GMA News will produce an entertainment program other than To The Top (preferably a teleserye).
You can say that again. GMA News and Entertainment Affairs pa more.
And when we talk about GMA’s Programming Division, I think Wilma Galvante had a better, smarter and more successful and experienced approach when she was still the head of GMA’s Entertainment TV.
Exactly. Rasonable ruined things since she came in, and GMA is in a flux right now.
Juan Tamad starring Sef Cadayona is also produced by GMA News just like To The Top.
That show, along with Alamat, Titser, Ilustrado and Katipunan, does have some cultural and historical sense. What we do fear is a GMA News-produced teleserye that is neither cultural nor historical, like most of the GMA teleseryes.
If GMA News continues to play the ‘taga-salba’ role to its embattled entertainment counterpart, it will be a huge dilemma for the network. So far, To the Top qualifies under the cultural aspect, but then again, they are under-promoted, which won’t help.
GMA’s strategy to air Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2 have been backfired. Naka-38.8% sa Kantar ang Final Performance Show ng TVK2 last Saturday, habang naka-43.4% ang Final Results Show ng TVK2 last Sunday.
Any thoughts on this?
It was no surprise that they failed. What a waste of time and money. And the fact that they announced it at the last minute really speaks volumes of their decision-making.
What happened sa To The Top? Is it over? Parang wala na ako balita kung tapos na ba yan or whatever (even their plugs sa GMA parang di na pinapakita eh). BTW I have a family friend from Laguna who has their son joining to the said reality show. I don’t really watch this show but I don’t know if he is fortunate to be the one of the soon-to-be boybands.
To the Top is still ongoing, but with the show airing so late, malamang wala na masyadong nanonood. Though, with To the Top being a multi-platform program, there may still be some techies watching that show online. Either way, it looks like it has seen better days. Na-overshadow na ata nito ng StarStruck.
On the other hand, GMA News already had a history of producing shows not meant for a news and public affairs department. Such as: Ang Yaman ni Lola, Kitchen Superstar, Puso ng Pasko: Artista Challenge, Sunnyville, Happy Land, and Survivor Philippines (I don’t know if we should include in the list Art Angel, Sabadabadog and Lovely Day plus other kids shows)
Thanks for bringing that up. Now we know why GMA News keeps producing something that is not ‘news’, even during the peak of the fantaserye and Koreanovela invasion.
Masasayang lang ang Peabody Awards ng GMA News kung matutuloy pa rin yan.
Time for ABS to step up and get that Peabody they seriously deserve. GMA News is just wasting their time doing unnecessary stuff.
Heto na ang mga nanalo sa To The Top: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/538658/publicaffairs/gma7specials/gma-network-announces-winners-of-its-boy-band-search-to-the-top
Any thoughts on the future of the winners?
Very uncertain. Considering that GMA made some poor decisions that left To the Top airing way later than they wanted, it is doubtful na sisikat sila. They might as well not sign with GMA Records and sign with another record company. Either VIVA or Star Records would be their destination if they desire success.
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