After 178 episodes, ‘Kambal Karibal’ will be history.
The GMA Telebabad series will officially come to a conclusion Friday night. And while it enjoyed a long and stellar run, its ratings performance was anything but impressive.
‘Kambal Karibal’ was led by Bianca Umali as Criselda, Pauline Mendoza as Crisanta (Criselda’s dead twin sister), and Miguel Tanfelix as Diego. Kyline Alcantara, as Cheska, played a key role as a villain who made Crisanta’s life a living hell and was eventually possessed by the spirits of both Crisanta and Criselda.
The series had a wider following than everyone thought. Many, in particular, praised the acting chops displayed by breakout stars Pauline Mendoza and Kyline Alcantara, and as ‘Kambal Karibal’ progressed, so did the praise for the two young talents.
Yet despite the fact that ‘Kambal Karibal’ was by far the strongest and most compelling GMA primetime series in recent memory, the series failed to win in the ratings when it mattered most. And it didn’t help that the series went up against two of ABS-CBN’s most popular love teams today.
From November 27, 2017 to March 2, 2018 (70 episodes in all), ‘Kambal Karibal’ went head-to-head with ‘La Luna Sangre’ which starred Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla (a.k.a. KathNiel). Then from March 5 until this Friday (108 episodes in all), the series took on ‘Bagani’ led by Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil (a.k.a. LizQuen).
In all, ‘Kambal Karibal’ averaged better than 17% in the national ratings. Meanwhile, both ‘La Luna Sangre’ and ‘Bagani’ scored in the 29-30% range.
Notwithstanding its unimpressive ratings, GMA insisted that ‘Kambal Karibal’ performed well contrary to other’s expectations. Throughout the course of its run, ‘Kambal Karibal’ received multiple extensions in hopes of proving a point but it doesn’t change the fact that it had no chance of leaping past either KathNiel or LizQuen.
But regardless of how it played out, ‘Kambal Karibal’ will still be remembered for launching Kyline Alcantara and Pauline Mendoza into stardom. And for good reason, since GMA badly needed young stars to beef up their roster of talents amid criticism of their over-reliance towards veteran stars.
Come this Friday, viewers will have one last chance to see ‘Kambal Karibal’ work out its magic. Whatever happens, this series will bow out on a graceful note.
From the Tube 
To be fair to GMA, KK was their best performing show, and at least in Metro Manila, was their only show that could actually come close to beating the opponent. While, other than a handful of times, they ended up falling short, KK making it to 178 episodes, regardless of the circumstances (i.e. it was just being extended for pride reasons than anything else) is still an accomplishment. Considering many GMA series don’t even make it to 80 these days, 178 episodes, even if the extensions were arguably unjustified, is nothing to be ashamed of.
Now that KK is gone, I guess it’s back to ABS dominating the important timeslots again, especially with SIFY also ending soon and expectations that its replacements will do better. Bagani won this battle after all.
The only thing KK failed to do is to get past KathNiel and LizQuen. That’s the only negative for an otherwise amazing series. Also, Kyline Alcantara and Pauline Mendoza outshined its protagonist Bianca Umali for all intents and purposes. Perhaps GMA would be better off starring Kyline and Pauline in more prominent roles in the near future.
Reblogged this on MC's Corner and commented:
As a long-time viewer of Kambal Karibal, here’s FTT’s thoughts regarding the show.
Actually, they did manage to topple LizQuen and KathNiel a lot of times. just not every single time, but most of the time (75%, in a way) Kantar’s ratings are not to be trusted mainly because it is purely biased. as seen this week, ABS has resubscribed to AGB (the legit one) and it shows that Kambal karibal has beaten the two shows countless times. especially in its final month. (not counting the week of Maricar’s death)
ABS subscribing back to AGB is merely speculation at this point. As a matter of fact their PR website still posts figures from Kantar. So if Kantar seems to be biased as you claim, how come GMA shows are not talked about much on social media? AGB may claim to be legit but their figures don’t reflect the overall impact of a show because they only cover urban areas (no offense but rural areas also have some purchasing power themselves). KK was talked about a lot, indeed, but not enough to win viewers’ hearts.
Coudn’t ABS (and indeed, other networks) subscribe to both Kantar and AGB then? Is there a provision or clause that prevents a network from signing to more than one ratings provider?
We’ll never know. It’s their preference to stick to one provider whom they think is better and more concise.
In addition, the times KK did win on AGB could be counted on one hand, and they were all by less than 1%. If KK instead won regularly and/or by larger margins, and if KK had a closer performance on Kantar instead of regular blow-out losses, then maybe you’d have a point. At best, it mostly showed that Bagani was vulnerable and unable to match expectations, but to say that KK defeated Bagani is a bit of a stretch to be honest.
Besides, GMA’s presence is still weak in VisMin so it also didn’t help KK’s cause.
It’s a good thing they made use of the extension for Kambal Karibal with unbelievable plot twists. Di katulad sa Ika-6 na Utos which plots endless revenge between the 2 wives out of its extended storyline, which makes the said show cringe-worthy. As an avid viewer of KK, I was very against its recent extension. I felt that its storyline was overstretched, KK would’ve been better off with only around 100 – 120 episodes, IMO. I’m concerned with its storyline, I didn’t want it to end up like IANU.
One thing which annoys me is that, even during its final 3 weeks, a lot of its viewers complained that they wanted the show to extend again dahil gusto nila makita si Kyline, etc. They should’ve accepted that things must come to an end.
Typical fantards. Ayaw pa tanggapin ang pagtatapos nito. Anyway, KK did become popular, though they came so close to getting past Bagani (which by that point appear to have overexposed LizQuen so much that audiences are criticizing it). Still, it was not bad for GMA to extend the show not only for its popularity but because they believe in the potential of someone like Kyline or Pauline Mendoza, and they want them to gain experience down the road.