The one-time archrival of ‘Ipaglaban Mo’ is now history.
Last Saturday marked the 108th and final episode of the GMA drama anthology series ‘Karelasyon’. Hosted by (and occasionally featured) Carla Abellana, the series focused on love and relationship stories that has hostility, jealousy, temptation and infidelity written on it.
‘Karelasyon’ first premiered on April 11, 2015, and as such, it was GMA’s own response to rival ABS-CBN’s revival of ‘Ipaglaban Mo’. While the series had some moments of ratings glory during its run, it was no match to the more superior and compelling stories that ‘Ipaglaban Mo’ presents.
On September 3, 2016, ‘Karelasyon’ was demoted to a later timeslot, which remained for the rest of its run. The change did little to improve ratings, as ‘Karelasyon’ regularly fell short to its new opponent in ‘SOCO’.
So why did ‘Karelasyon’ fail to pan out? Looking at its format, it was clear that the show has no place in GMA’s Saturday afternoon lineup due to these factors.
Similarity to Wish Ko Lang
Anyone who watches ‘Wish Ko Lang’ lately know that the program is no longer the wish-giving public service show that the now-ABS-CBN News personality Bernadette Sembrano once hosts. Under Vicky Morales, ‘Wish Ko Lang’ became just another drama anthology in GMA’s scheme of things.
That said, the similarity between ‘Karelasyon’ and ‘Wish Ko Lang’ made viewers too uncomfortable. GMA would have been smart to cancel ‘Wish Ko Lang’, but instead they gave ‘Karelasyon’ the boot.
Case Solved and Imbestigador
‘Case Solved’ and ‘Imbestigador’ also added to ‘Karelasyon”s issues. Both shows may have the words ‘public service’ and ‘docu-drama’ written all over it, but their occasional focus on love stories that end in tragedy may have also turned viewers off.
Entry of Ika-6 na Utos to the Saturday Lineup
When GMA decided to extend the weekday afternoon drama ‘Ika-6 na Utos’ to Saturdays, it turned out to be the last straw for ‘Karelasyon’. The former continued its momentum that it established on weekdays, while the latter sunk even further.
Despite airing for over two years, ‘Karelasyon’ will forever be remembered as a show that was aired at the wrong place and at the wrong time. Its format alone may be intriguing, but from the looks of it, GMA concocted a grave mistake on their part.
Thanks for the good (and bad) memories, ‘Karelasyon’. This show is worth forgetting for.
From the Tube 
… and that will be replaced with Tadhana, a weekly anthology for OFWs presented by Marian Rivera-Dantes that will be discussing in detail within the end of this week.
Other than that, Encantadia 2016 is now down to this penultimate week. Eh, more on that tomorrow.
Well, that new series is more clearly defined than Karelasyon, which seems indistinguishable alongside its fellow shows in the afternoon. But I wonder if the format of Tadhana is no longer new to us.
I think OFW stories are too niche for the public. Gaya nung docufilm nung MMFF nag-flop.
Let’s just give it a try. Anyway we’ll have a future article about this during the week.
I think Carla has a new fantaserye, thus the need for GMA to cancel the series.
That’s not the point. Had the show continued pwede pa rin namang mag-juggle si Carla between that upcoming fantaserye and Karelasyon. But now that it’s cancelled, that’s no longer the case.
When Vicky took over Wish Ko Lang, she presented the show the same format as Bernadette’s, for a long time, for like 8-10 years. It’s like only sometime (in 2014) when they reformatted it to a docu-drama show. Sa pagkakasabi mo kasi, naging docu-drama na lang siya when Vicky became the host. And it was under Vicky’s helm pa nga when they did the “Good Samaritan” segment which is done I think once a year (there’s no docu-drama thing there, huh).
Pero personally, hindi ko rin masyadong gusto yung ginawa nilang format ngayon; I think mas naging iconic yung show nung wish-granting type siya.
What I meant was that Vicky gradually changed Wish Ko Lang for the worst. Naka-summarize na talaga since I’ve been tackling this issue for a long time.
Parang mala-MMK na talaga ang Wish Ko Lang, and if GMA were smart, they could’ve just merged both WKL and Magpakailanman since halos magkapareho na sila. Then they can just do something about that vacant slot, such as inserting a game show or a humor-oriented show ala MKML.
They had that “Sabado Badoo” thing, I think target rival nila ang MKML. One of their features is that they show funny moments from their archived shows or whatsoever. But, meh.
Marc Logan is simply too unique for GMA to handle. He’s mostly used as a host by ABS-CBN News but has a knack for humor, which is why he is chosen to close most episodes of TV Patrol when necessary. Unfortunately for GMA, they don’t have that same person who can be as capable as Marc Logan, that’s why they stopped airing those humor-oriented shows in the vein of MKML.