GMA’s Astig Authority a Sinking Ship Thanks to Magandang Buhay

How the mighty have fallen.

The past few days have not been kind to GMA’s Astig Authority block, and it showed in the recent ratings posted by the more ‘national’ Kantar firm. As seen in these figures below, it is clear that the block has lost the interest of the public while rival ‘Magandang Buhay’ is beginning to gain momentum with each passing episode.

February 27, 2017

Magandang Buhay (8.1%) vs. Ghost Fighter (5.9%) / Pokemon Xy (6.7%) / Bleach (7.3%)

March 6, 2017

Magandang Buhay (7.5%) vs. Ghost Fighter (5.9%) / Pokemon Xy (6.7%) / Bleach (7.1%)

March 13, 2017

Magandang Buhay (8.2%) vs. Ghost Fighter (6.3%) / Pokemon Xy (6.9%) / Bleach (7.5%)

March 14, 2017

Magandang Buhay (8.3%) vs. Ghost Fighter (5.8%) / Pokemon Xy (6.5%) / Bleach (6.9%)

March 15, 2017

Magandang Buhay (7.8%) vs. Ghost Fighter (5.7%) /  Pokemon Xy (6.9%) / Bleach (6.7%)

So what is the common denominator in these five episodes? Basically ‘Magandang Buhay”s guests came from ABS-CBN’s three top-rated shows in ‘It’s Showtime’, ‘Ang Probinsyano’ and the recently concluded ‘Pinoy Big Brother: Lucky 7’, and the constant top-notch performances of the three shows carried over to the former.

On the other hand, anime’s declining interest on free-to-air television is hitting Astig Authority hard. The fact that Filipino anime fans are moving over to cable and internet for their anime needs, not to mention GMA’s constant overreliance on old anime, is something that the network has yet to realize at this point.

One can only look at ABS-CBN’s controversial decision to cease airing anime in June of last year. The only difference here is that ABS-CBN has the digital TV channel Yey! and the cable channel Hero to back them up, whereas GMA doesn’t have the benefit of sister cable channels to constantly commit to a variety of anime.

Speaking of relying too much on reruns, GMA just announced that a long-awaited Filipino redub of ‘Voltes V’ (voiced by young GMA stars) will hit the airwaves next Monday. This should only make things worse for Astig Authority, as the classic Japanese mecha anime has been re-aired multiple times since 1977.

That said, unless GMA plans a new programming strategy, the slumping fortunes of Astig Authority may continue to last for a longer period. For a network once proud of bringing successful anime titles to the Filipino mainstream, this is unacceptable to say the least.

In the end, GMA must accept reality and move on, because airing anime on free TV is no longer a thing at this point (unless you’re TV5 and you’re willing to bring new animes with it). No offense, but the time is now for GMA to have something else to offer every weekday morning.

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ABS-CBN Wins All Timeslots Last Monday According to Kantar

Not even AlDub’s much-anticipated primetime debut can stop ABS-CBN from reaching an immaculate record.

On Monday, February 27, all ABS-CBN programs defeated their respective GMA counterparts in the ratings, according to Kantar Media. This includes a rare victory for ‘Magandang Buhay’ (8.1%), as it swept all of GMA’s Astig Authority block (‘Ghost Fighter’ (5.9%), ‘Pokemon XY’ (6.7%) and ‘Bleach’ (7.3%)) and the European fantasy series ‘Wolfblood’ (6.8%).

As always, ABS-CBN’s usual suspects dominate the list, with the network continuing to prevail from late morning to late night. Six of the top ten slots belong to ABS-CBN programs, with ‘Ang Probinsyano”s 42.8% leading the way.

Even the network’s programs in the wee hours earned a victory as well. The 4:00-5:30 a.m. slot was won by ‘O Shopping’ (0.4%) and a rerun of ‘Mga Kwento ni Marc Logan’ (1 %) over ‘Reporters Notebook’ (0.9%), while the 11:45-1:00 a.m. slot was won by ‘Mission Possible’ (1.8%) and ‘O Shopping’ (0.9%) over ‘The 700 Club Asia’ (1.2%) and ‘EZ Shop’ (0.6%) respectively.

But the highlight of the day was the matchup between newcomer ‘Destined to Be Yours’ and ‘My Dear Heart’. The former, starring Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza, entered the night with high expectations, and considering the duo’s popularity in the last two years, the series was poised to get off to a sizzling start.

Instead, it was fellow young star Ria Atayde who turned heads. Her debut as Margaret’s (Coney Reyes) daughter Gia helped ‘My Dear Heart’ defeat ‘Destined to Be Yours’ 29.1 to 20.2%.

And finally, two shows that are normally affected by ABS-CBN Regional’s own programming managed to beat the odds. Both ‘Umagang Kay Ganda’ (5.2%) and ‘Minute to Win It’ (14%) prevailed over ‘Unang Hirit’ (4 %) and ‘Wowowin’ (13.7%) respectively, despite getting preempted by ABS-CBN Regional morning shows and ANR-produced ‘TV Patrol’.

Overall, it was thorough domination on the part of ABS-CBN. No one knows when will this rare wire-to-wire win will take place again, but one thing is for sure: ABS-CBN continues to reign as the Philippines’ top network.

No Talk Show Rivalry for GMA, Again

‘Yan ang Morning’ will not go up against ‘Magandang Buhay’ after all.

GMA made that clear when it announced its new morning lineup last Monday. And with the premiere of ‘Yan ang Morning’ this Monday, this is how their current lineup looks like:

• 7:30 a.m. – Astig Authority block
  • ‘Shaman King’
  • ‘Yo-Kai Watch’
  • ‘Bleach’
  • ‘Dragon Ball Z’
  • ‘Knock Out’
• 10:00 a.m. – ‘Mako Mermaids’
• 10:45 a.m. – ‘Yan ang Morning’

That’s right, 10:45 a.m. For some reason, GMA decided not to have ‘Yan ang Morning’ face ‘Magandang Buhay’ head-to-head (the latter currently airs at 7:30 a.m.), and instead air the former in a timeslot that was traditionally occupied by previous long-running talk shows (e.g. ‘Today with Kris Aquino’, ‘SIS’).

There are some good and bad news on this decision. The good news is that despite some good reviews and strong showing in social media, ‘Magandang Buhay’ has not been able to make an impact in the ratings (much like ‘Kris TV’ before it), losing to the entire Astig Authority block by a wide margin.

As far as GMA is concerned, their anime block is doing just fine, even if they continue to air reruns of several beloved animes. For them, there is no point in sacrificing Astig Authority’s timeslot in favor of another program since the block continues to have a strong following.

The bad news? After Astig Authority, ratings for GMA in the morning slip predictably, as ‘Kapamilya Blockbusters’ kickstart a momentum swing for ABS-CBN that would continue for the rest of the day.

That said, GMA’s ratings woes after Astig Authority will put significant pressure on ‘Yan ang Morning’. Considering that their previous talk show ‘Basta Every Day Happy’ did not fare well, ‘Yan ang Morning’ could have a hard time making an impact in its current timeslot.

Would GMA be better off if ‘Yan ang Morning’ go one-on-one with ‘Magandang Buhay’? We’ll never know, but then again, anything can happen, and if ‘Yan ang Morning’ is able to thrive in its current timeslot, that could help GMA’s morale.

Hopefully they win, otherwise another failure of a talk show is in the offing.

Hosted by Marian Rivera, with Boobay as her sidekick, ‘Yan ang Morning’ airs weekdays starting May 2 at 10:45 a.m. on GMA.