The Kids’ Choice Turns to Celebrities to Hike Ratings

ABS-CBN’s overdependence on celebrities in its talent and game shows is once again rearing its ugly head.

This time, the victim is ‘The Kids’ Choice’, whose last few episodes were celebrity editions. Since September 29, ‘The Kids’ Choice’ featured either Kapamilya child celebrities or sons/daughters of Kapamilya celebrities, a drastic departure from past episodes involving ordinary kids.

While ‘The Kids’ Choice’ is currently performing well in the ratings, it seems like ABS-CBN is in no mood to celebrate. After all, the program’s 27% average is less than that of its predecessor ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids’ which regularly peaked in the 30s.

To make matters worse, ‘The Kids’ Choice’ was nearly beaten by the finale of ‘The Clash’ during the weekend of September 29 as the latter came within 1% of the former’s ratings. Overall, since its premiere on September 2, the gap between ‘The Kids’ Choice’ and its competitor was only around 5%.

It was clear that the dominance of past ABS-CBN talent shows was nowhere to be found on ‘The Kids’ Choice’. While it was an original creation, a rarity for ABS-CBN these days, viewers were unimpressed with how the show is being conducted.

Considering that the judges are just 10-year-old elementary school celebrity children with raw trains of thought, the criticisms are undeniable. Exposing them to unfamiliar territory as superiors was just too much to ask for.

Somewhere in Timog Avenue, the folks from GMA Network are celebrating this near-victory. And it will not be a surprise to see either ‘Daddy’s Gurl’ or ‘Studio 7’ overtake ‘The Kids’ Choice’, unless something drastic happens.

That said, the shift from ordinary children to celebrities was a clear desperate move on ABS-CBN’s part to improve the ratings of ‘The Kids’ Choice’ and restore its dominance in that timeslot. The show may be intriguing and unique to begin with, but at the end of the day, the network only cares about the bottom line.

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GMA’s Own 5:00 P.M. Regional Programming Issue

ABS-CBN is not the only major television network with a regional programming problem.

Archrival GMA also endures its fair share of issues when it comes to regional programs. Similar to what ABS-CBN experiences, GMA’s biggest concern is at the 5:00 p.m. slot where regional news programs are aired in the provinces in lieu of shows relayed straight from Metro Manila.

Just last Monday, GMA’s Mindanao-based channels began to air a new regional newscast titled ‘One Mindanao’. The program is anchored by longtime Mindanao-based GMA anchors Tek Ocampo, Sarah Hilomen-Velasco and Real Soroche, and is aired on weekdays at 5:00 p.m.

Like ‘Balitang Amianan’ (Dagupan and Ilocos) and ‘Balitang Bisdak’ (Cebu), ‘One Mindanao’ preempts the first 30-40 minutes of ‘Wowowin’, the GMA afternoon game show hosted by Willie Revillame. But as far as GMA is concerned, this was just a minor inconvenience.

Consider the following factors:

1. Most GMA regional networks are now mere relay outlets following the closure of most stations and the layoff of its employees.
2. ‘Wowowin’ is still aired after the newscasts, thus no need to reair the show the following morning.
3. ‘Wowowin’ more often than not beats an ABS-CBN Koreanovela (only a few relay areas receive such programs due to regional ‘TV Patrol’) in the ratings game regardless of either Kantar or AGB Nielsen.

With that in mind, it was clear to GMA that they are undeterred about the overall programming disparity between Greater Manila Area and regional areas. However, with the entry of ‘One Mindanao’ in the Mindanao area, they now have every reason to worry since ‘Wowowin”s audience will be reduced significantly.

Issues among ABS-CBN and GMA’s regional network programs are in dire need of a resolution. The 5:00 p.m. slot, usually a haven for regional networks to produce their newscasts, is one example of what each network needs to do to make things all the more parallel.

But since GMA currently has less regional stations than ABS-CBN, their own concern may be revisited once they decide to resuscitate some of these stations. For now, GMA can only hope that their regional networks’ standing will be improved with each step.

ABS-CBN Reairs Prior Episode of Pusong Ligaw Due to Technical Issues

Talk about a technical issue.

Many viewers were stunned Thursday afternoon when ABS-CBN, for some unknown reason, reaired last Wednesday’s episode of ‘Pusong Ligaw’. That episode (see videos below) featured a pair of scenes in which Caloy (Joem Bascon) offered to help Tessa/Teri (Beauty Gonzalez) in her business, and a scene where the latter remembered her lost son Rafael.

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Abangan ang #PusongLigawAgenda ngayong hapon!

A post shared by STAR CREATIVES TV (@starcreativestv) on Aug 22, 2017 at 10:48pm PDT

This was in contrast to the ‘Pusong Ligaw’ episode teaser that was shown on ABS-CBN earlier that day. Unfortunately, the intended upcoming episode failed to hit the airwaves, and despite all efforts needed to correct the mistake, ABS-CBN decided to simply push through with the replay due to time constraints.

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May plano na naman si Marga! #PusongLigawPROnly

A post shared by STAR CREATIVES TV (@starcreativestv) on Aug 23, 2017 at 11:00pm PDT

The replay episode of ‘Pusong Ligaw’ also made its way to iWant TV, the digital on-demand video service of ABS-CBN. As a result, two videos of the same episode are now uploaded within the said service (to clarify the situation, iWant TV added a disclaimer stating that the August 24 episode of ‘Pusong Ligaw’ was indeed a replay episode).

The ‘Pusong Ligaw’ gaffe was the latest in a recent string of misfortune that befell ABS-CBN’s afternoon lineup. Last month, ‘It’s Showtime’ was delayed for 45 minutes due to a technical incident that disrupted the noontime show’s live broadcast.

ABS-CBN and ‘Pusong Ligaw”s production outfit Star Creatives have yet to issue a press release or statement regarding the incident. Still, as far as the viewers are concerned, a wholehearted apology is what they wanted, since the mistake made by the network and its production team is something that is unavoidable for the most part.

It remains to be seen if the unaired episode of ‘Pusong Ligaw’ will finally launch later this afternoon. But one thing is certain: producers should always be prepared in advance and find ways to minimize problems.