So long, ‘Legally Blind’.
The finale of this tension-filled GMA Afternoon Prime drama will air tomorrow afternoon, 83 episodes after the story of blind lawyer Grace (Janine Gutierrez) began. But while its episode total is more than enough by typical teleserye standards, ‘Legally Blind’ proved to be anything but a success.
When ‘Legally Blind’ first premiered, it had to face stiff competition against ABS-CBN’s ‘The Better Half’, an equally dramatic series starring Shaina Magdayao, Carlo Aquino, JC de Vera and Denise Laurel. While the former earned some victories against the latter, on average, ‘The Better Half’ scored 15%, 2-3% better than ‘Legally Blind’.
On April 24, 2017, ABS-CBN premiered another kabitserye in ‘Pusong Ligaw’, which stars Beauty Gonzalez, Bianca King, Joem Bascon and Raymond Bagatsing. But instead of replacing ‘The Greatest Love’ in its vacated timeslot, the network decided to place ‘Pusong Ligaw’ opposite ‘Legally Blind’.
As it turned out, ‘Pusong Ligaw’ became even more dominant than ‘The Better Half’ was in its original timeslot. A new opponent spelled doom for ‘Legally Blind’, as ‘Pusong Ligaw”s 18% average ratings were 4-5% better than the former.
It also didn’t help that viewers who watch the surprisingly successful lead-in drama ‘Ika-6 na Utos’ failed to turn out in droves to support ‘Legally Blind’ on a majority of occasions. Such is the cruel fate for GMA’s teleseryes.
Still, for Janine Gutierrez, ‘Legally Blind’ turned out to be a much better outing for her than the short-lived series ‘Once Again’. Notwithstanding its shortcomings in the ratings, its 83-episode run was nothing to be ashamed of.
The finale of ‘Legally Blind’ should be a very gripping one. Now that Grace (Janine) has regained her sight, will justice finally prevail, or will she end up behind bars?
Viewers can only hope that this impending finale will make a lasting impression. This is ‘Legally Blind”s last chance to stand out, and they look to go out with a bang.
UPDATE: For some unknown reason, GMA extended ‘Legally Blind’ for another two weeks. Thus its finale will now be aired on Friday, June 30.
From the Tube 
Last-minute extension — two weeks left.
Its replacement, Impostora — after 10 years of the teleserye remake — will premiere on July 3.
Another case of promoting a finale gone wrong. If they say it’s a finale, that’s it, no more reasons to extend further. I seriously don’t understand GMA’s last-minute decisions.
This is similar to The Half-Sisters two years ago when its supposed finale was pulled at the last minute. They need to get their act together or else.
Maybe the replacement series still isn’t ready (?)
Impostora should have been ready by now. Heck, GMA is even promoting the series for the past few weeks. The problem is that they’re already promoting the final few episodes of Legally Blind last week and earlier this week, only to pull them out and extend at the last minute. That’s not a good business decision in their part.
Besides, Legally Blind doesn’t even win nationally so what’s the point of extending the drama this late in its run?
The show is showing strength though probably due to Ika-6 utos. Masyado siyang malapit sa Pusong Ligaw lately. Ewan ko kung anong nangyari sa Pusong Ligaw biglang humina ang ratings ng pumasok yung mga bagets.
Kaso even if the series is gaining some ground lately, GMA still made a bad decision. Kung na-announce na ang finale, dapat ituloy na. Kaso pinull-out at binigyan ng extension. It doesn’t matter if the show is performing well of late, basta kapag finale na, tapusin na, kasi kung hindi ito itutupad, chance are the viewers will once again tune out.
This is what happened to The Half-Sisters before. Na-announce na ang finale, tapos last-minute na-extend siya. Natalo tuloy kay Doble Kara at nawalan ng momentum. GMA should’ve known better than to announce a finale as promised to avoid any further complications.