Around the AM Band: Mike Enriquez Returns to DZBB and 24 Oras, Plus DZMM’s Election Special

The legend has returned.

On DZBB Monday morning, listeners were greeted to a familiar voice as Mike Enriquez returns to the booth to anchor ‘Super Balita sa Umaga Nationwide’ with Joel Reyes Zobel. The long-time GMA News veteran made his first on-air appearance after a lengthy and curious absence due to heart and kidney surgery.

Oras na para alamin ang pinakahuling mga balita sa #SuperBalitaSaUmagaNationwide kasama si @joelzobel at ang nagbabalik na #ImbestigadorNgBayan na si Mike Enriquez.

Audio stream: https://t.co/CaqsfpiG7w pic.twitter.com/QFY4ktlN6p

— DZBB Super Radyo (@dzbb) November 25, 2018

But while Mike made his return to the microphone, he was only restricted to working ‘Super Balita sa Umaga Nationwide’ by orders of GMA management in light of his recovery. As a result, ‘Saksi sa Dobol B’ and ‘Sino?’ will continue with the likes of Joel Reyes Zobel sitting in on an interim basis.

Hours later, Mike also resumed his duties anchoring ’24 Oras’. Prior to that, he made his first public appearance since the surgery last October when he attended the signing of a memorandum of agreement for GMA News’ Eleksyon 2019 coverage.

That said, his presence heading into GMA’s 2019 election coverage will be very crucial given his recent health battles. If Mike will be able to stay healthy come May 2019, it should help GMA News’ cause.

Over on DZMM, their Halalan 2019 coverage got underway Tuesday with the ‘Ikaw na Ba?’ series. The maiden episode of ‘Ikaw na Ba?’ featured senatorial aspirants Samira Gutoc, Sergio Osmeña III and Juan Ponce Enrile in a question-and-answer format that looks at their platforms heading into the election.

Ating kilalanin ang mga nais maging senador na sina Juan Ponce Enrile, Sergio Osmeña III, at Samira Gutoc sa unang ratsada ng #DZMMIkawNaBa!

Tumutok sa https://t.co/2KfHnekcAm, https://t.co/IT0m0QqV5c o sa https://t.co/Fu1W2npyEG dahil tuloy ang pagkilatis sa kanila. pic.twitter.com/tpr62JUrqc

— DZMM TeleRadyo (@DZMMTeleRadyo) November 27, 2018

‘Ikaw na Ba?: The DZMM Senatorial Candidates Interview’ is moderated by DZMM anchors Peter Musñgi, Pat-P Daza, Gerry Baja and Anthony Taberna and is aired commercial-free from 4:30-6:30 p.m. The series is expected to invite more senatorial aspirants in the coming days, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, here is the full episode from last Tuesday.

Bonus: DZMM also debuted a new program last Saturday afternoon with ‘Haybol Pinoy’. Hosted by Tina Marasigan and Atty. Terry Ridon, the show takes a look at real estate and property news, as well as tips on managing a well-balanced household.

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UAAP Final Four and Finals to Stream Only on iWant and ABS-CBN Sports Website

Talk about making some restrictions.

The UAAP Season 81 men’s basketball Final Four is currently in progress with Ateneo already clinching the first slot of the Finals while Adamson and UP continue to dispute the other ticket. Unfortunately for viewers who are on a road trip or are away from home, they only have two choices to watch the rest of the tournament.

On ABS-CBN Sports’ official YouTube page, they posted a live stream of rolling advisories redirecting viewers to watch the UAAP Final Four on iWant and ABS-CBN Sports’ official website. The statement that will greet viewers is as follows:

“Watch all the games of the Final Four live on sports.abs-cbn.com or iwant.ph!”

In short, there is no live stream of the UAAP Final Four on ABS-CBN Sports’ YouTube channel at all. Instead, viewers can only watch the games online for free on the ABS-CBN Sports website or the iWant app (the latter requires user registration).

The same approach will apply during the UAAP women’s basketball stepladder playoffs, of which ABS-CBN Sports began covering in earnest. Considering last week’s debacle during the cheerdance competition (the YouTube stream crashed on occasion due to the heavy volume of viewers), it only made sense for ABS-CBN to avoid a repeat of such incident.

It also encourages the network to take full use of other sporting events that would have otherwise been inaccessible to the public. For instance, the Premier Volleyball League and the NCAA Season 94 women’s volleyball tournament will still be available live and free on the ABS-CBN Sports YouTube channel, because the network wants to promote the sport of volleyball very seriously.

As for the possibility of airing the men’s basketball finals anew on ABS-CBN Channel 2, it remains to be seen if the network will still push through with the plan. Considering ‘It’s Showtime”s recent penchant for working overtime, ABS-CBN Sports executives might as well stick with only S+A and live stream for the series.

The UAAP men’s basketball Final Four continues Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. with Adamson and UP disputing the last Finals slot. Game 1 of the Finals will begin Saturday.

It's do-or-die this Wednesday between Adamson and UP for the right to advance to the #UAAPSeason81 Finals!

Who you got? pic.twitter.com/mbxBrLqL3d

— ABS-CBN Sports (@abscbnsports) November 26, 2018

In 100 Words: Eat Bulaga Set to Move to a New Studio

The inevitable is about to happen.

‘Eat Bulaga’ announced Saturday that they are expected to move to a new studio anytime next month (dubbed ‘lipat bahay’ in the teasers). The new studio, aptly named the APT Studio (after ‘Eat Bulaga’ producer Tony Tuviera), is located at Marcos Highway in Marikina.

This will mark the fourth time that ‘Eat Bulaga’ moved to a different studio, and the first to be independently funded. The program previously occupied the following studios:

• Broadcast City Studios (1979-88; with RPN-9)
• Celebrity Sports Plaza (1988-89; with RPN-9)
• Dolphy Theater (1989-95; with ABS-CBN)
• Broadway Centrum (1995-2018; with GMA)

Broadway Centrum is expected to be demolished shortly after ‘Eat Bulaga”s move to the APT studio. It will be replaced by a high-rise condominium unit developed by Megaworld’s Empire East Holdings.

Billboard Hot 100: November 24, 2018

Here are the Top 10 songs from the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of November 24, 2018.

1. Ariana Grande – Thank U, Next. No. 1 last week.

2. Travis Scott – Sicko Mode. No. 3 last week.

3. Marshmello & Bastille – Happier. No. 4 last week.

4. Halsey – Without Me. No. 6 last week.

5. Maroon 5 feat. Cardi B – Girls Like You. No. 2 last week.

6. Juice WRLD – Lucid Dreams. No. 5 last week.

7. Sheck Wes – Mo Bamba. No. 9 last week.

8. Panic! At the Disco – High Hopes. No. 12 last week.

9. Kodak Black feat. Travis Scott & Offset – ZEZE. No. 8 last week.

10. Lil Baby & Gunna – Drip Too Hard. No. 10 last week.

All videos of the Top 10 songs can be viewed above. Our thanks to Billboard for this week’s Hot 100 Top 10.

Take It Back: PNP, DILG Express Support to Ang Probinsyano in Joint Statement

The threat has been retracted, for now.

A week after the Philippine National Police and the Department of the Interior and Local Government expressed concern over ‘Ang Probinsyano”s supposed unfair portrayal of the police force, a joint statement was issued following a meeting Wednesday between the DILG and ABS-CBN executives. Here is the full statement.

“ABS-CBN and the Department of Interior and Local Government met yesterday (Nov. 21) in Camp Crame and resolved the issues related to the program “FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano.” It was a fruitful dialogue wherein both parties were thankful for the chance to express their views directly to each other.

The PNP stated the importance of the support and respect of the people to its organization, while recognizing ABS-CBN’s freedom to create and convey the story of the program.

For its part, ABS-CBN assured them that the program will continue to portray Cardo Dalisay as a police officer with integrity, who is dedicated to serve and protect the people.

The DILG, including its attached agency the Philippine National Police, will continue to support “FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano” as it continues to inspire Filipinos with the valuable lesson that in the end, good will always triumph over evil.”

It can be recalled that PNP chief Oscar Albayalde criticized ‘Ang Probinsyano’ for its unfair portrayal of the police force, something that the DILG initially agreed upon. In response ABS-CBN said that “all elements in the series are purely fictitious as stated in the disclaimer in the beginning of each episode” and that “they have no intention to smear the reputation of any person or organization.”

DILG undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said that the meeting was simply set up to explain the two parties’ views to each other and that there was no mention of any changes to the plot. In the meantime, ABS-CBN executives are currently considering a meeting with PNP chief Oscar Albayalde to similarly iron out this situation.

Not a Good Sign: The Declining Interest of Late-Morning Dramas on Philippine Television

‘Playhouse’ is only averaging around 13% in the ratings, a far cry from past late-morning teleseryes aired on ABS-CBN. (Photo courtesy of ABS-CBN)

There was a time when late-morning teleseryes on television were a thing in this decade.

It started in 2012 when the unlikely pairing of Jodi Sta. Maria and Richard Yap took off with ‘Be Careful with My Heart’. The series became an immediate hit, reaching ratings of as high as 27%, and ran for over two years.

From then on, ABS-CBN kept the wheel rolling, airing either romantic comedies such as ‘Oh My G!’, ‘Be My Lady’ and ‘Sana Dalawa ang Puso’ or kid-oriented tear-jerkers like ‘Ningning’ and ‘Langit Lupa’. ABS-CBN even tried to get serious for once with the triathlon-themed ‘Ikaw Lang ang Iibigin’.

But in the past several months, late-morning dramas began to lose viewer interest. By August, ‘Sana Dalawa ang Puso’ slumped to around 13-15% in the ratings (this despite having Jodi and Richard in the series), and this decline only continued through its successor ‘Playhouse’.

Over on GMA, the network already waved the white flag at the start of the month. Their most recent local late-morning drama, ‘Kapag Nahati ang Puso’, was cancelled last November 2, and after only two weeks, GMA moved the Koreanovela ‘Woman of Dignity’ to an earlier timeslot due to poor ratings.

Prior to that, GMA tried to counter ABS-CBN with their own dramas that were either self-produced or under the TAPE Inc. production team. Unfortunately for GMA, each of their dramas backfired, with the likes of ‘Ang Forever Ko’y Ikaw’ and ‘My Guitar Princess’ ending after only two or three months.

While ABS-CBN continues to claim victory over this timeslot, the declining ratings of ‘Playhouse’ is something that should cause a lot of concern to the network. If the 13% ratings are of any indication, then there must be something wrong.

Either that viewers are getting tired of watching too much of the same thing, that the story in itself lacked substance and originality, that the cast is boring, or that they just can’t wait for ‘It’s Showtime’ to start. Whatever the case, it is up to ABS-CBN to regroup and see what needs to be corrected.

It is too early to tell if this will spell the end for Filipino late-morning dramas. That said, one can only hope that a turnaround in fortune is imminent, but if this spell continues, then a programming reboot is necessary.