comedy, concerts, entertainment, humor, music, Philippines, songs, television, variety show

One Year After Debut, Sunday PinaSaya Struggles to Remain Relevant

Seems like viewers still favor musical numbers over comedic skits in a Sunday variety show.

It has been a struggle lately for GMA’s ‘Sunday PinaSaya’ as they enter their first anniversary this week. The APT-produced variety show was off to a strong start when it first aired, but like ‘Eat Bulaga”s AlDub phenomenon (Alden Richards happens to be a cast member of ‘Sunday PinaSaya’), its momentum soon faded as the calendar turned to 2016.

On the contrary, ABS-CBN’s ‘ASAP’, now on its 21st year, returned to the top of the game thanks to its improved production values and new segments. The show also got a boost when it added former Kapuso performers Kyla, Jay-R and most recently Jona Viray.

Ratings for the two shows clearly indicate how things quickly change on the Sunday noontime scene. ‘Sunday PinaSaya’ was able to dominate early on because viewers were curious about this new comedy-centric variety show, but as the months wore on, it was obvious that they still prefer the music and dance numbers of ‘ASAP’.

It was also evident that the AlDub phenomenon dictated the early success of ‘Sunday PinaSaya’, especially since Alden Richards was a cast member and Maine Mendoza made a few appearances. Unfortunately, even AlDub is bound to lose sometime, and when bandwagon fans grew bored of the love team, the ratings of ‘Sunday PinaSaya’ soon plummeted.

The improvements on ‘ASAP’ should cause a lot of concern to the people behind ‘Sunday PinaSaya’. The show overall was not bad, but they need to understand that they should not rest on their laurels and make some tweaks every once in a while.

That said, the priority of ‘Sunday PinaSaya’ at this point is to possibly add new cast members and create new skits that will further engage its viewers. If done properly, they could regain the momentum that they lost at the beginning of the year.

As ‘Sunday PinaSaya’ celebrates its first anniversary, one thing is certain: they want to go back on top. But it remains to be seen whether or not they will be able to make some improvements in hopes of regaining their lost viewership.

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drama, entertainment, Philippines, television

Wish I May Ends Tomorrow

‘Wish I May’ is down to its final episode.

The GMA Afternoon Prime series, whose story focuses on a rare genetic disorder called ‘chimerism’, will conclude tomorrow afternoon after a run of 88 episodes. It will be replaced by ‘Magkaibang Mundo’, starring Louise delos Reyes and Juancho Triviño.

Named after a hit song by fellow Kapuso star Alden Richards, ‘Wish I May’ starred Bianca Umali and Miguel Tanfelix, along with Camille Prats, Mark Anthony Fernandez and Rochelle Pangilinan, among others. It was co-directed by Neal del Rosario and Mark Sicat de la Cruz.

‘Wish I May’ was originally announced in October of last year to coincide with the AlDub phenomenon, but the premiere of the highly-anticipated series was delayed by a three-month extension of its eventual predecessor ‘The Half-Sisters’. It finally hit the airwaves on January 18, however, the long wait took its toll.

Not only did ‘Wish I May’ fail to make an impact, but its low ratings came at the same time as the decline of AlDub’s popularity. By the time the series aired, viewers were once again switching to ABS-CBN’s ‘It’s Showtime’ to watch the revival of ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ instead of ‘Eat Bulaga”s ‘Kalyeserye’.

Even worse for ‘Wish I May’ is the impressive performance of rival series ‘Doble Kara’. Ratings for both series consistently favor the latter, and as ‘Wish I May’ continued to fall short of expectations, it came to a point that GMA decided to lessen the promotion of the series by early April.

Suffice to say, it’s a decision that justified ‘Wish I May”s inability to succeed. The series whose premiere had been long overdue to begin with is about to end with a whimper.

‘Wish I May’ may be unique thanks to its focus on ‘chimerism’, but its long-delayed premiere will forever be remembered for all the wrong reasons. That said, it’s going to be a long day at the office for GMA management, wondering what might have happened if ‘Wish I May’ premiered as originally scheduled.

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