With the cancellation of ‘The Lolas’ Beautiful Show’ earlier this February, TAPE decided to cease production of pre-noontime shows after nearly five years. (Photo credit: TAPE Inc. and GMA Network)
Jodi Sta. Maria and Richard Yap.
It all started with this love team, and it all ended with this love team. The duo forever changed the pre-noontime landscape.
Yet one production outfit tried to make things a little more interesting. That outfit happens to be Television and Production Exponents Inc., better known by the acronym TAPE Inc.
The producers of ‘Eat Bulaga’ decided to take a crack at the Jodi-Richard love team by premiering a pre-noontime talk show hosted by a then-seven-year-old Ryzza Mae Dizon. In April 2013, GMA and TAPE launched ‘The Ryzza Mae Show’, and for nearly two years, it engaged with ‘Be Careful with My Heart’ in a tough battle for ratings supremacy.
Yet ‘Be Careful with My Heart’ continued to roll, and so did its successors ‘Give Love on Christmas’, ‘Oh My G!’ and ‘Ningning’. When TAPE realized that ‘The Ryzza Mae Show’ has outlived its usefulness, they decided to replace the talk show with a light drama in ‘Princess in the Palace’, starring Ryzza alongside Eula Valdes and Aiza Seguerra.
But the move to a drama format did not change its fortunes, and neither did a sitcom in ‘Calle Siete’. Meanwhile, another ABS-CBN series in ‘Be My Lady’ extended the network’s reign in the timeslot.
In October 2016, GMA and TAPE canceled ‘Calle Siete’ and in its place came a coming-of-age light drama in ‘TROPS’, starring the That’s My Bae quintet of Kenneth Medrano, Kim Last, Jon Timmons, Tommy Penaflor, Miggy Tolentino, and Joel Palencia. The said series also ended Ryzza Mae Dizon’s three-year run in the pre-noontime slot amid her physical changes and the emergence of AlDub.
Unfortunately, ‘TROPS’ also failed to make a difference in the ratings. Over at ABS-CBN, their dominance continued with ‘Langit Lupa’ and ‘Ikaw Lang ang Iibigin’.
In a last-ditch effort to make an impact in the pre-noontime slot, TAPE and GMA returned to the talk show format in September 2017 with ‘The Lolas’ Beautiful Show’, hosted by the lolas of Kalyeserye (portrayed by Jose Manalo, Wally Bayola and Paolo Ballesteros). It couldn’t have come at a worst possible time, as AlDub was no longer a difference-maker by the time this show premiered.
Sadly, the return of Jodi and Richard (plus Robin Padilla) in ‘Sana Dalawa ang Puso’ put an end to TAPE’s pre-noontime aspirations. As a result, TAPE cancelled ‘The Lolas’ Beautiful Show’ after 95 episodes on February 2, 2018, and ceased production of pre-noontime shows.
Give TAPE and GMA a lot of credit for trying to give ABS-CBN a run for its money. But at the end of the day, the latter’s superiority in the pre-noontime slot became too much to overcome, especially with the unlikely duo of Jodi Sta. Maria and Richard Yap giving plenty of ‘kilig’ to its viewers.
Now that TAPE ends its production of pre-noontime shows, time will only tell when GMA decides to strike on its own. But for now, the competition is over and GMA will have to live and die with Tagalized movies as a way to wave the white flag.
From the Tube 
Let’s be honest here: while the Lolas are still occasionally funny and are among the few things keeping EB afloat these days, TAPE and GMA have to throw in the towel and admit that the glory days of AlDub are over. I don’t get why they’re insisting on sticking to them: AlDub Nation is a shadow of its former self, and AlDub’s teleserye failed to click and embarrassingly lost to a newcomer child start. While Eat Bulaga still does well in Metro Manila (courtesy of AGB), Showtime is putting up a fight there, and is even winning everywhere else (courtesy of Kantar).
It’s such a shame. My family is sticking to EB for whatever reason, maybe since they’ve been loyal EB watchers for as long as I can remember. But EB has been in decline for years now: Problem Solving (even though it was somewhat more tolerable than AlDub) was not funny at all, and AlDub’s brief but massive success was at best a temporary reprieve. But the rot had begun years before that. I guess the rot really began when Bulagaan became weekly only. I had noticed that all of their segments, even AFJJFA had become stale. At least Music Hero is kind of nice: maybe they should stick to that since the segment has more promise than AlDub (yes I’m aware it can be considered a ripoff of TnT, but it’s not exactly the same since the contestants focus on instruments rather than vocals).
I wonder how EB can return to its former glory. Once upon a time it was the king of noontime shows, and while it arguably still is, it’s obvious that the show is aging like milk.
We’re not talking about EB here. We’re talking about why TAPE and GMA couldn’t beat the pre-noontime dramas that ABS offers. Yes EB may have something to do with their pre-noontime shows, but these are an all too different matter.
Considering their anime aren’t doing well anymore either, and they’re now resorting to movies, it’s like they’ve given up on mornings already. Too bad: ABS could use some competition in the morning as well. Something tells me they should have given AlDub their own pre-EB show during their peak; it probably would have turned out better.
As for the TAPE shows, it could be because the artists tended to not really be that famous (Eugene Domingo not withstanding). For some reason, they just couldn’t click with the masses, except maybe loyal EB viewers. So the struggles there could also at least partly be attributed to GMA being unwilling to promote their younger stars.
DTBY could have given Be My Lady a run for their money had GMA and TAPE took advantage of AlDub’s growing fame. But at the time Maine was still untested so even that may not be in the cards.
GMA could have opened their Artist Center for TAPE to use. That would have mitigated the damage. Unfortunately, GMA doesn’t train them very well unlike Johnny Manahan’s Star Magic.
An anecdote: back when I was still considering law school, I took a review class near Ateneo. Lo and behold, one of my classmates was a GMA Artist Center talent, who apparently wanted to pursue law studies. Things must be going wrong at GMA Artists Center when their young artists would rather pursue other things than continue their acting career.
Like I said, the biggest difference is Johnny Manahan. Right now, GMA doesn’t have someone with the credentials of Mr. M to turn untapped talents into top stars, and those talents are being buried into supporting roles rather than getting a chance to shine.
I got a joke, you can’t Bulaga without the letter L #EatBuLaga. But in all seriousness, this is another loss for TAPE and GMA. And once again, they can’t even solve that one important problem… HOW TO STOP THE STA.MARIA-YAP EMPIRE…
They pretty much threw in the towel now. There’s nothing they can do. Only thing left is to place those EZ Shop and Shop TV stuff to Channel 7 and air it before EB. Tagalized movies are the coward’s way out as far as viewers are concerned.
Maybe they should try a foreign news program for a change, like ABC World News Tonight. Will that work?
Not even that will do. TV shopping na lang since GMA has no other choice.
Mahal din ang rights to acquire US network primetime news programs like NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News and ABC World News Tonight. Home shopping is their only choice since financially drained sila salamat sa mga magastos na fantaserye na naging biktima rin ni Cardo sa ratings. Even back in 2000s, fantaseryes drained their finances.
GMA really made a lot of bad investments. Inuna ang fantaserye imbes ang long-term na kapakanan nila. Now here they are wondering why ABS continues to remain profitable beyond TV and radio while they are still stuck in the old ways of Gozon and Duavit.
Balitanghali at 11:30 AM, perhaps?
The only problem is the schedule of EB after the news bulleting, which could end in either 12:15 PM (45 minutes) or 12:30 PM (60 minutes)?
I don’t think GMA will do that. Besides, Balitanghali has long been a fixture of News TV and noontime newscasts are not that important.
Eat Bulaga will continue with airing even they dont need new show before Eat Bulaga
Then again, they’re no longer that popular.
Good day. I have a suggestion for GMA. Bakit di nila pagbaliktarin ang GMA fantaseries nila sa GMA tagalized movies. Para yung una ang maging pre programming show ng EB. Salamat
It won’t make a difference. GMA tried airing Asianovelas against Be Careful with My Heart before and failed. Sa TV shopping na lang sila umasa kesa sa paulit-ulit na Tagalized movies. Total mas kikita pa sila dun sa mga oorder ng mga produkto online or via phone.
Kung TV Shopping ang ilalagay nila, may possibility na humina ng “bahagya” ang EB dahil sa lead programming nila. Gasino na lang ang manonood ng TV shopping, kung pwede naman bumili ang isang tao direkta sa store. “athough hindi ko nilalahat”
Balik tayo sa programming, I think much better, gumawa sila ng gameshow as lead programming, Hindi ba’t ginawa din ito ng ABSCBN, Pilipinas Game KNB then Wowowin. Why not do the same thing, They have the talents, Edu Manzano, Eugene Domingo or even “Kris Aquino “. Nakakamiss na din kaya ung may ganitong klaseng show na matatawa ka na, may matutunan ka pa. Tapos mananalo ka pa. Suggestion lang po iyon. salamat
The first paragraph seems logical but the second sounds reasonable but impossible and irrelevant to materialize now. This is not the 2000s anymore.
Yes, we do have excessive talents but the psyche of the masses is on the emotions emanated from the teleseryes and not on the stimulation of mind.
Put the blame on the rival’s teleserye expansion from late morning.
Besides, TV shopping programs are a network’s last resort to fill airtime when they no longer have a chance to compete with a more superior program. We saw that with TV5. Of if you want, why not convince GMA to move a light-hearted primetime drama (in this case The One That Got Away) to the late-morning slot then place one of the potential afternoon shows to primetime (in this case Hindi Ko Kayang Iwan Ka). They can also add a Koreanovela to the third afternoon slot if they desire.
By the way, it seems that GMA will fight the kiligserye with a kiligserye of their own, this time starring Camille Prats. I guess GMA is really starting to live up to its nickname “Gusto Maging ABS-CBN”.
Only thing missing for them is a morning talk show of their own to counter Magandang Buhay and a short late-night talk show to go up against Tonight with Boy Abunda. As for the kiligserye we’ll talk about that soon.
Well, they should transfer “Mars” to Channel 7….
….Only if the bigwigs are smart enough!
One problem though: Suzi Abrera also hosts Unang Hirit and moving her other show Mars to the early morning slot could make her overexposed. Perhaps Pauleen Luna could replace her, since she’s also friends with Camille Prats.
Also, anime fans might rebel from this decision but then again, GMA’s animes are slipping popularity-wise and no longer as strong as before.
Sorry: pet peeve ko lang po ito kasi anime fan ako: the plural of “anime” is “anime”, not “animes”.
Never mind that. The point is that GMA anime are no longer that popular even with all the loyalists still around. They need to move from this, no matter how painful it can get. Their morning lineup needs to be improved, period.