GMA Brings Back Kapuso Primetime Cinema

Once again, GMA is making some radical changes to its Telebabad lineup.

Just recently, the network announced that they will bring back the transitional movie block ‘Kapuso Primetime Cinema’. The re-premiere of the said movie block will take place on November 9, replacing the Koreanovela ‘Legendary Women’.

It can be recalled that GMA aired ‘Kapuso Primetime Cinema’ two years ago, following the conclusions of ‘Genesis’ and ‘Akin Pa Rin ang Bukas’. GMA’s intent of airing ‘Kapuso Primetime Cinema’ at the time was clear: to capitalize on low advertising revenue during the Christmas season and to give more time for the production of upcoming teleseryes.

As it turned out, the move backfired. Replacement dramas ‘Carmela’ and ‘Rhodora X’ failed to bring the desired results, and GMA was left wondering why their ‘Kapuso ang Una’ battle cry did not work out.

This year, GMA opted for a more different approach. Instead of replacing the network’s teleseryes like they did two years ago, they decided to place ‘Kapuso Primetime Cinema’ on the timeslot normally reserved for Koreanovelas.

One possible reason for the move is that GMA intended to air ‘Kapuso Primetime Cinema’ in order for ‘Saksi’ to match up better with ‘Bandila’. The presence of ‘Pinoy Big Brother: 737’ and ‘Tonight with Boy Abunda’ has led to a later-than-expected airing for ‘Bandila’.

There is one problem, however. ABS-CBN has announced that a fifth teleserye (‘You’re My Home’) will air on Primetime Bida at the conclusion of ‘Pinoy Big Brother: 737’, and as a result, a hopeless situation now awaits GMA and its embattled fanbase.

That said, GMA needs to realize that they need to concede defeat than continue their already lopsided rivalry with ABS-CBN. It is clear the both networks are headed into opposite directions, and with ABS-CBN already more dominant than ever, GMA knows that an overhaul is more than necessary at this point.

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ABS-CBN Raises the ‘Daring’ Stakes, Plus GMA’s Inability to Respond

The trend towards mature and dark subject matter on ABS-CBN’s Primetime Bida continues with ‘Bridges of Love’. (Photo credit: ABS-CBN)

Tonight’s premiere of ‘Bridges of Love’ on ABS-CBN has From the Tube wondering: Why is GMA not responding to the increasingly ‘daring’ route of Primetime Bida?

Mature and dark relationship-oriented themes have virtually become a norm on Primetime Bida’s 9:15 p.m. slot. Last year, ‘The Legal Wife’ became a rousing success due to the seemingly shocking portrayal of jealousy and infidelity involving the love triangle of characters portrayed by Jericho Rosales, Maja Salvador and Angel Locsin.

And just recently, viewers were treated to a similar display of deception and envy in the adaptation of the Koreanovela ‘Two Wives’. Like ‘The Legal Wife’, the series involved a love triangle, this time between the characters portrayed by Jason Abalos, Kaye Abad and Erich Gonzales.

Although ABS-CBN has trended in the right direction with the more mature-oriented teleseryes, it all began, however, with one bold move from its rival in Timog: ‘My Husband’s Lover’.

The 2013 GMA drama starring Carla Abellana, Tom Rodriguez and Dennis Trillo made the same-sex relationship a must-see during its run. Running from June to October 2013, ‘My Husband’s Lover’ briefly provided a boost to the sagging ratings of Telebabad.

Unfortunately, the Kapuso network failed to create a successful follow-up to ‘My Husband’s Lover’. The teleseryes that followed MHL (‘Akin Pa Rin ang Bukas’, ‘Rhodora X’, ‘Ang Dalawang Mrs. Real’, ‘Hiram na Alaala’, ‘Second Chances’) didn’t feel up to the task of elevating the dark and moody themes to a new level.

As a result, the 9:15 slot of Telebabad returned to its old sinking ways, while Primetime Bida continued to increase its gap. Worse for the Kapuso network, ‘The Legal Wife’ and later ‘daring’ Kapamilya dramas became a local and international social media sensation.

That said, GMA’s regression back to more wholesome and ‘tweener’ stories in the latter part of Telebabad became its undoing. And it only gets worse.

Next on ABS-CBN’s ‘daring’ list is ‘Bridges of Love’. Like ‘The Legal Wife’ and ‘Two Wives’, a love triangle will be involved in the series, only this time, it’s between two men fighting for the love of one woman.

‘Bridges of Love’ will be led by Maja Salvador, Jericho Rosales and Paulo Avelino. The story will feature two brothers (Echo and Paulo) who were separated by guilt and hatred, but were bridged together by love through one woman (portrayed by Maja).

The upcoming Kapamilya series should pose a big threat to its Kapuso counterpart ‘Second Chances’. The latter series failed to keep up with the success of ‘Two Wives’ during its first two months, and it won’t be a surprise if its new opponent makes a similar impact.

Now GMA should start revisiting the very theme that made ‘My Husband’s Lover’ a success. A new strategy should be in store for Telebabad if they still want to keep in step with Primetime Bida, otherwise there will be more trouble for the embattled block.

New Shows, Same Result for GMA Telebabad

Both ‘Got to Believe’ and ‘The Legal Wife’ defeated ‘Carmela’ and ‘Rhodora X’, while ‘Annaliza’ dismantled ‘Paraiso Ko’y Ikaw’. Ratings courtesy of Kantar.

This week GMA unveiled three new series in its Telebabad block: ‘Paraiso Ko’y Ikaw’, ‘Carmela’ and ‘Rhodora X’. However, the end results remained the same.

Monday’s AGB Nielsen ratings showed that ‘Got to Believe’ registered a 28% rating in Metro Manila, and a 29.8% rating nationwide. ‘Carmela’ meanwhile only got 18.1% and 14.9% respectively. ABS-CBN’s own newcomer ‘The Legal Wife’ likewise defeated ‘Rhodora X’ with 23.9% and 21% figures compared to the latter’s 15.8% and 11%.

The same can be said in Kantar’s total ratings. Monday’s figures saw ‘Got to Believe’ beat ‘Carmela’ 29.8% to 14.4%, and ‘The Legal Wife’ overwhelm ‘Rhodora X’ 21% to 11%. ‘Got to Believe’ also finished as the top trending topic on Twitter, with ‘The Legal Wife’ a close second. Meanwhile, ‘Rhodora X’ and ‘Carmela’ also trended well on Twitter, a rarity for GMA’s drama series in recent years.

On the other hand, ‘Paraiso Ko’y Ikaw”s debut failed to beat ‘Annaliza’ in its timeslot. The now long-running ABS-CBN series earned a 23.7% rating in Kantar compared to the former’s paltry 9.6% rating. Since debuting in May 2013, ‘Annaliza’ has defeated three other GMA drama series in ‘Home Sweet Home’, ‘Binoy Henyo’ and ‘Prinsesa ng Buhay Ko’ in its 5:45 p.m. timeslot.

Based on these early figures, it looks like all three GMA drama series are on pace for another shorter-than-expected run, similar to what happened to ‘Genesis’ and ‘Akin Pa Rin ang Bukas’. Then again this is just the pilot week for each series, so it is still subject to change. But right now, it is a demolition job for ABS-CBN’s ‘Primetime Bida’ over its counterpart.

GMA’s Desperation vs. ABS-CBN’s Patience

Next week will see three teleseryes air their series premieres. GMA will unveil both ‘Carmela’ and ‘Rhodora X’ to replace the interim movie block ‘Kapuso Primetime Cinema’, while ABS-CBN will roll out ‘The Legal Wife’ to replace ‘Maria Mercedes’.

As I have observed recently, GMA has become so desperate in rolling out their teleseryes. If you recall, both ‘Genesis’ and ‘Akin Pa Rin Ang Bukas’ finished their runs at the end of 2013, but because their upcoming teleseryes were still in the pre-production stage, GMA had no choice but to air Tagalized movies in the vacated timeslot. Had they finished both series on the week before ‘Carmela’ and ‘Rhodora X’ begin their runs, it would have made the transition smoother. But as it turned out, both series ended rather prematurely and, as I wrote in my previous article, GMA seems to have conceded the primetime race to ABS-CBN, due to the fact that their teleseryes tend to enjoy shorter-than-expected runs.

On the other hand, ABS-CBN preaches patience with their teleseryes. Much of the patience has to do with the low turnover of programs compared to GMA, along with high ratings and social media impact. As a result, the high ratings on most Kapamilya telseryes translate to longer and more productive runs. ‘Juan dela Cruz’, for example, ran longer than the likes of ‘My Husband’s Lover’. And even before that, some ABS-CBN teleseryes have ran longer than GMA’s, with the original ‘Mara Clara’ and ‘May Bukas Pa’ even taking more than a year to finish.

There is no question that ABS-CBN is currently the No.1 television station in the country in terms of ratings. But let’s also consider the fact that GMA is falling behind its rival because of so many short series and overwhelming turnover of programs. If GMA can somehow reverse this trend, it will be a big help to their slumping confidence. But as of now, the Kapuso’s creative slump will continue to haunt them.

GMA Telebabad Concedes to ABS-CBN’s Primetime Bida

This past week ‘Genesis’ and ‘Akin Pa Rin ang Bukas’ officially aired their final episodes. However, with production still in the works for ‘Carmela’, ‘Rhodora X’ and ‘Kambal Sirena’, GMA Telebabad decided to fill in the void with ‘Kapuso Primetime Cinema’.

As it turned out, it was clear that GMA Telebabad is conceding to ABS-CBN’s Primetime Bida. The last few years saw Primetime Bida dominate Telebabad in the ratings, helped by hit teleseryes such as ‘Budoy’, ‘Walang Hanggan’, ‘Princess and I’, ‘Juan dela Cruz’ and current favorites ‘Honesto’, ‘Got to Believe’ and ‘Maria Mercedes’. ABS-CBN was also successful in marketing younger talents, something GMA could not afford to do.

In addition, due to mounting operational losses GMA began to adopt the TV5 way by airing more Tagalized foreign films. This was none more evident than in ‘Kapuso Primetime Cinema’. But unlike the typical Tagalog-dubbed films on other blocks, KPC airs movies voiced by Kapuso talents, perhaps to add to their talent fees. To me, this movie block became a clear picture of GMA’s concession of defeat to ABS-CBN.

Despite that, ‘Kapuso Primetime Cinema’ will only be a temporary showcase, as the aforementioned ‘Carmela’, ‘Rhodora X’ and ‘Kambal Sirena’ will debut in the coming weeks. But even as GMA unveils a new slogan called ‘Puso ang Una’ in hopes of regaining the top spot, I expect ABS-CBN to overwhelm GMA once again on primetime.

Double Serving of GMA’s New Teleseryes

 

In only three weeks, the GMA Telebabad lineup debuted three new teleseryes. That is a turnover of over a half from its previous lineup.

Just last Friday, two GMA teleseryes aired their series finales. ‘Binoy Henyo’, a story of a wonder kid with an impoverished life, finished its run with the titular character Binoy (David Remo) reuniting with his real parents Agnes (Sheena Halili) and Francis (Luis Alandy), only after Agnes was acquitted of all charges filed against her by Emily (Gwen Zamora). Likewise ‘Anna Karenina‘, a story of three girls trying to solve the mystery of the real Anna Karenina, ended its run after it was revealed that Anna (Barbie Forteza) was the real Anna Karenina.

And yesterday GMA debuted a pair of new teleseryes: the kiligserye ‘Prinsesa ng Buhay Ko’, starring the love team of Aljur Abrenica and Kris Bernal, and ‘Kahit Nasaan Ka Man’, starring Julie Ann San Jose and Kristoffer Martin. The former tells the story of Princess, an orphaned young woman who nevertheless showed determination and hard work. She eventually fell in love with Nick, but only after they cross paths once more after first meeting in an orphanage. The latter tells the story of Leandro and Pauline, born handicapped and out of poverty but eventually fell in love through music, but only after a series of family squabbles threatened their love for each other.

Air times for ‘Prinsesa ng Buhay Ko’ and ‘Kahit Nasaan Ka Man’ are currently sandwiched between GMA’s early evening newscast ’24 Oras’, occupying the slots vacated by ‘Binoy Henyo’ and ‘Anna Karenina’, respectively. GMA’s two new offerings are also aired opposite ABS-CBN’s highly-rated series ‘Annaliza’ and ‘Juan de la Cruz‘, whose ratings have remained highly consistent even as GMA continues to search for answers regarding their low ratings in the late afternoon/early evening timeslot.

After ‘Mundo Mo’y Akin’ ended its run and was replaced by ‘Akin Pa Rin Ang Bukas’, followed by the aforementioned new teleseryes, GMA has turned over half of its ‘Telebabad’ lineup, a sign that the network is still searching for stability on primetime. Nevertheless, Kapuso fans hope that with fresh blood comes a better ratings return for the Kapuso network.