It seems like romantic comedies on Primetime Bida are a bad fit.
Over the last two years, the fourth slot of Primetime Bida was dominated by romcoms, yet despite winning in the ratings, viewers were left unsatisfied and bored over the direction ABS-CBN took. One commenter even went so far as labeling these evening romantic comedies as ‘antok-seryes’.
Last year, ABS-CBN went the more serious route and aired ‘The Good Son’ on the fourth slot. Somehow it worked; the series averaged around 20% and viewers were once again invested into its heart-wrenching and heavy storyline, a far cry from the romance and good vibes of its predecessors.
However, ABS-CBN decided to replace ‘The Good Son’ with yet another romantic comedy. Only this time, it will feature an unlikely love team.
Remember the movie ‘Kita Kita’ starring Empoy and Alessandra de Rossi? After the surprising success of the film, ABS-CBN will look to capitalize on the popularity of AlEmpoy by giving them a more prominent role in the upcoming series ‘Since I Found You’.
Also starring Piolo Pascual, JC de Vera and Arci Muñoz, ‘Since I Found You’ features the story of five individuals whose lives soon change in a heartbeat. The lead characters are as follows:
- Nathan (Piolo), an accomplished businessman and boss of a construction company, is charismatic and good-looking yet employees are scared of his strict leadership.
- Dani (Arci), the company practicumer, soon falls in love with Nathan.
- Ginno (JC), Nathan’s assistant, becomes Dani’s own boss, but later on shows some affection for her.
- Janice (Alessandra), Nathan’s secretary, also expresses her feelings towards Nathan.
- James (Empoy), the company driver and comic relief, has a crush on Janice even as she constantly rejects him.
The cast of ‘Since I Found You’ will also include Carmi Martin, John Lapus, Vivoree Esclito, Isabel Oli, Cholo Barretto, and Michael de Mesa. It will be directed by Antoinette Jadaone.
If the performance of more recent primetime romantic comedies is of any indication, then ‘Since I Found You’ is in for a real challenge. Anything more than 20% in the ratings is vindication for the genre, but anything less than that is deemed a failure even if it still wins.
The ball is now on ABS-CBN’s court to prove its doubters wrong. Good luck.
‘Since I Found You’ airs weeknights after ‘Bagani’ on ABS-CBN Primetime Bida.
From the Tube 
It’s nice to see romcoms back in this timeslot. Romcoms are totally hit and miss when it comes to ratings. It’s also nice to see Jadaone back in directing teleserye. It’s too early to say if her excellent kilig directing would translate into good ratings.
Sadly, since OTWOL, romcoms on primetime only score around 13-18% which is not good. JaDine’s most recent teleserye TIMY was originally a romcom until they made it a more serious drama during its run. Unfortunately it fared worse than OTWOL, barely making it to 13%.
ABS got it right when The Good Son aired but what chance does the lighter SIFY have? After all viewers don’t like boring romcoms at night, with one commenter going as far as labeling them as ‘antok-seryes’. These series are better off aired in the morning much like Sana Dalawa ang Puso is doing right now.
Who knows, maybe things may turn out differently this time. SDAP seems to be a hit and maybe people are getting tired of all the serious shows on Primetime lately. With that said, if anything, what worries me more is not the theme of the series but more of Alessandra and Empoy being in main roles. Sure Kita Kita was a hit, but as much as I love Japanese culture, it could be that that hit was a one-off. I’m not confident that they can hold up a primetime series on their own; maybe if this was in Kapamilya Gold instead expectations would have been lower. In any case, let’s wish ABS good luck and wait for the Kantar numbers to come out.
Be careful what you wish for. I’m still not sure if the return to romcoms on primetime will result in improved ratings considering its ‘boring’ and ‘yawning’ nature.
Just trying to play the devil’s advocate here considering how pessimistic you appear to be this time (which is unusual for an ABS show).
I can agree with one of the commenters here about them being labeled as ‘antok-seryes’. Romcoms belong in the late morning slot, not primetime. More sensual and intense dramas should occupy that slot. You might remember The Legal Wife which earned 20-30% despite airing in the third-fourth slot. But if you want to disagree, fine. Nothing wrong about not agreeing with something.
Hindi naman ako ganun ka against sa romcom lalo na kung sa 2nd slot. Pero kung 3rd slot ay diyan ako kokontra. Yan ang oras ng pagtulog ng mga taga Probinsya. Kailangan ang show na ilalagay diyan ay siguradong nakabuhay ng dugo para siguraduhing hindi sila papatayan ng TV ng mga taga Probinsya. Kung kagaya ng ALTL na malakas upscaled female vierwer pwede ko pa mapalampas pero ibang romcom is a no no para sa akin sa 3rd slot.
Karamihan sa mga upcoming shows ng ABS ay action. Yung kay Angel at Gerald. Isa lang ang romcom which is the show of JoshLia LT.
The only romcom that actually worked well in that slot was OTWOL, and that was when audiences were still curious about JaDine. Other than that, the more serious dramas like TGS or The Legal Wife were doing well whereas the romcoms such as BFY and TIMY didn’t live up to the expectations of the audience. Kung ako tatanungin, mas bagay sa late morning ang mga romcom para mas ganadong manood ang mga tao sa umaga. Thanks to Jodi and Richard the romcoms in the morning became top draws in their timeslot. ABS would’ve been wise to consider which genres are better fit to a specific timeslot.
Didn’t A Love to Last moved on the 3rd timeslot and still did fairly well. I wouldn’t say it was only OTWOL who had success with this timeslot cos ALTL also did.
They weren’t as consistent as OTWOL though, hence the ‘antok-serye’ claim.
Sa tingin ko mas maganda siguro kung sinugalan ng Dreamscape ang Alempoy. As in silang dalawa ang bida. Para kasing support lang sila dito kay Piolo. Sa pagkakaalala ko ng unang pinakita yung teaser nito wala masyado reactio from crowd until lumabas yung scene ng Alempoy. Dun bigla nagtawan yung mga tao.
At the time ABS wanted a marquee name, and even though sumikat ang AlEmpoy through Kita Kita, sa tingin nila hindi pa feel yung pagiging headliner nila Alex and Empoy sa TV. That’s why they made Piolo and Arci the main attraction. Who knows, once it rates well, perhaps a few changes in the script might change that.
SIFY is off to a winning start on Nationwide Kantar: 22.1 SIFY vs 14.2 TOTGA.
That’s just one day. We’ll see how the next few weeks turn out.
In fairness, hindi siya ganun ka light. Ang pangit nga lang nung pabago-bago ang tone. Sa side ni Piolo at Alessandra parang heavy drama. May bentahan pa ng kidney na naganap. Sa side naman ni Arci ang rom-com feels at kay Empoy naman comedy.
Parang mixed bag of formats, kung baga. If its premiere night ratings are of any indication, this series should do just fine contrary to our expectations. Then again it’s just the first week so we’ll see what happens from here.
So I guess the show is turning out to be a surprise hit so far: it’s beating its opponent in both Kantar and AGB by sizable margins. Of course, it’s only the show’s second week so things could still change eventually, but for now things are looking good for the series.
Any notion of it being a teleserye that can make viewers sleepy has been quashed so far. In fact, they seem more energized with this series and the ratings really showed.
The show is showing weakness with its all time low of 18%.
Source? Since the ABS PR website only posted ratings through Tuesday.
At anong source mo? NUTAM? Hindi na reliable ang Nielsen pagdating sa TV ratings as of late. Nielsen is only reliable on radio, unlike Kantar na reliable ang radio at TV surveys nila.
If you wondered why Nielsen is no longer trusted on TV ratings, better recall the alleged AGB Ratings controversy.
Yesterday’s airing got 18.8% from Kantar. It’s going downwards.
I wonder how do you get these figures in advance whereas ABS and other websites post these a few days after airing? Do you have any contacts from Kantar?
LOL Sa instagram ng Dreamscape ko yan nakuha.
Ah ok. In advance na sila nagpo-post. Anyway, mukhang hindi maganda yung 18%. Tingnan natin mamaya kung anong kasunod nito.
Let’s wait and see nalang. Pag ispaghetti pababa pa siya later on dapat na siguro matakot ang ABS pero pag steady lang baka pwede na rin. Everyone knows that timeslot is less viewed so 18.8% seems more or less average (TGS pa nga ata ang outlier dito eh).
Kamusta naman si TOTGA?
P.S. nakapanood ako ng episode kagabi, narinig ko ang theme song. Parang binaboy ni Kyla ang kanta ng Air Supply, di bagay sa series ang style.
Sunod sunod ang all time low niya everyday. Also nakakapalan ako sa mukha ng character ni Arci dito sa show eh Practicumer lang naman siya sa kumpanya.
If this keeps up mukhang hindi aabot ng Hunyo itong SIFY. I guess we were right all along. Light dramas don’t belong on primetime; yung mga mas seryosong drama like TLW and TGS ang mas bagay sa fourth slot (technically since pre-TV Patrol slot was given back to a teleserye).
Yung story masyadong mabilis. Usually grabeng paligoy-ligoy bago maging sila. Para tuloy nawalan na ng thrill. Pag nag-start na yung paghihigante nung character ni JC parang magiging heavy drama siya.
And considering na Dreamscape ang producer nito (and whose reputation for extremely successful series is well-documented) SIFY should’ve been better than the 17-18% they’re posting lately. Kaso yun nga, questionable storytelling which is contrary to Dreamscape’s standards. Parang yung nangyari sa Sherlock Jr. where viewers grew tired of its convoluted plots as the episodes pass.
ABS should know all too well na pang-umaga lang ang mga romcom. It’s clear that they didn’t learn from TGS.
Nagtataka lang ako kung bakit ang tindi ng underperformance ng SIFY eh parang maganda naman ang reception nito online, atsaka maganda naman ang mga reviews niya.
Not all are fans of the show. May mga critics rin yan. Hindi mo ba nakita yung comment ni Miko? Sinabi niya na nagda-drag na daw yung istorya ng SIFY at nawala na daw ang essence ng pagiging light drama nito.
Also, Kantar only accounts viewership on television sets in the Philippines. Hindi pa kasama diyan ang iWant TV at TFC.
Yes but that was only on this blog, I was referring to other sites like Twitter and Facebook. Then again, it could just be Kapamilya fantards praising it.
Speaking of them, mukhang tahimik sila ngayon sa SIFY. Baka alam nila na malapit na silang matalo at kinakabahan na sila ngayon. Mukhang this time, ang mga Kapamilya fantards naman ang napahiya.
And they should be, because the show has been producing convoluted stories of late that led to its sharp drop-off in ratings. Feeling ko magiging Born for You version 2 itong SIFY with the way it’s being written right now.
Had this show air in the late mornings baka iba ang magiging resulta. But this is primetime, and ABS has no place for such shows at night. Kaya nga ‘antokserye’ ang tinawag ng mga critics dahil masaya nga ang istorya pero nakakaantok naman.
No wonder. Call it the curse of ABS antokseryes.
After OTWOL they failed to find a romantic follow-up despite all the good ratings. Perhaps the fourth slot would be best served to more serious family dramas or kabit-seryes.