Lip-Sync Battle Philippines Nears End

The end is getting closer for ‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’.

A few episodes remain for this franchised GMA celebrity talent show, whose finale will take place around September. A replacement, ‘Superstar Duets’, was officially announced by GMA a few days earlier (more on that in a future article).

In relation to that, Iya Villania-Arellano announced that she will take a maternity leave to prepare for the birth of her son with husband Drew Arellano. Thus she will leave behind not only her hosting duties with the ‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’, but also with ’24 Oras’.

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Officially on maternity leave!!! 😆Approaching d-day so taking the time now to get a trim to keep whatever freshness I can during labor 😂💇🏽 I've accepted that #Primo will be keeping me busy for the next couple of months so availing of the ME time before I push this watermelon out! 😝 The boy is still in my belly but already wants all of my attention 🙈😂 I wonder what he's doing in there?? Maybe he's moving to the beat of @BabyPlus 😝#AcrobatInMyBelly #Primo #BabyA #HesBusyInThere #MeTime 😝@studiofixbyalexcarbonell @milkandhoney.ph

A post shared by Iya Villania-Arellano (@iyavillania) on Aug 14, 2016 at 10:10pm PDT

The only question remains though, is whether or not GMA can ably replace Iya with another co-host for the final few episodes of ‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’. As it stands, host Michael V may have to do it all alone, which may either be a blessing in disguise or a bad case of overwork.

‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’ first premiered on February 27, and it featured celebrities dressed as iconic singers lip-synching to their hit songs. It was GMA’s first franchised show since ‘Don’t Lose the Money’ two years ago.

Though the show had promise, they were unable to make an impact in the ratings.  For the entirety of its run, ‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’ was pitted against ABS-CBN shows ‘Pilipinas Got Talent’, ‘The Voice Kids’, ‘We Love OPM: The Celebrity Sing-offs’ and ‘Pinoy Big Brother’, each of which posted better ratings than the former.

To make matters worse, Michael V found himself overexposed in the first few months of ‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’. Prior to the show’s timeslot change on July 2, it was aired back-to-back with ‘Pepito Manaloto’, which also starred Bitoy.

Overall, ‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’ was a good show. Notwithstanding its unimpressive ratings, the show was worth watching for those who know the art of lip-synching.

As the show comes to an end in September, one can only hope that it will make a final impression to its viewers. But it remains to be seen whether or not Michael V can hold the fort alone, that is unless GMA can find an able replacement for Iya.

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GMA Brings Lip-Sync Battle to the Philippines

One of America’s surprise viral hits is coming to the Philippines.

‘Lip-Sync Battle’, the popular American reality TV program, will have a Filipino franchise that will air on GMA starting this Saturday. Titled ‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’, the show will be hosted by Michael V and Iya Villania, and will pit GMA’s top celebrities against each other in hopes of impressing the audience with their lip-synching skills.

The upcoming show will mark the first time since ‘Don’t Lose the Money’ that GMA has a franchised program on their lineup. It will also be Iya’s first full-time program on Channel 7 since ‘Sunday All-Stars’ (not including her role as Chika Minute reporter on ’24 Oras’).

‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’ will have two rounds of competition: Strip Down and Full-Blown Concert. Celebrities can lip-sync any song of their choosing, and after two rounds, the crowd will determine the winner, who will receive a championship belt.

While GMA is usually reluctant to acquire foreign media franchises, they decided to take a risk on ‘Lip-Sync Battle’. Realizing how much of a hit the American version was, they now hope that the show’s success in America will carry over to the Philippines.

However, in the weeks leading up to its premiere, the timeslot of ‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’ became a big issue for the network. Initially, the show was slated to air after ‘Magpakailanman’, but in the end, GMA decided to place ‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’ after ‘Pepito Manaloto: Ang Tunay na Kwento’.

One possible reason for the last-minute change is that GMA wanted to see how can ‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’ match up with ‘Pilipinas Got Talent’. The latter show had been a high-rating show on ABS-CBN, and if the former can overcome PGT, it should boost GMA’s morale.

The problem with this change, however, is that Michael V is also a regular cast member on ‘Pepito Manaloto’, and giving him back-to-back shows is a bad case of overexposure. Just ask Billy Crawford, who had to give up hosting duties on ‘Celebrity Playtime’ (during its short-lived late-evening stint) in favor of the recently-concluded ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar’.

That said, GMA needs to figure out a way to fit ‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’ into their scheme of things. The concept may be engaging, but unless it has a good timeslot to thrive on, things may turn ugly quick.

‘Lip-Sync Battle Philippines’ premieres this Saturday on GMA.

Deal or No Deal Returns, Plus Umaganda’s Slump Continues

‘Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal’ returns with a new format this Monday. (Photo credit: ABS-CBN)

‘Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal’ returns for a new season with a new twist.

The popular ABS-CBN game show will have its fifth season premiere on February 9, with Luis Manzano again taking over hosting duties. This time around, a different format will encompass KDND’s latest season.

Gone are the ’26K Girls’ that held the show’s briefcases in previous seasons. Instead, celebrity guests will be holding the briefcases containing an unknown amount of money, and will be dubbed as the ’20 Lucky Stars’.

In addition, the day’s studio player will be selected from the aforementioned 20 celebrities via a roulette. The said player has the choice of keeping or trading briefcases with the other 19 ‘Lucky Stars’.

As was the case in prior seasons, the objective of the game is for the player to open each briefcase in hopes of getting a better offer from the unnamed banker.

The new season of ‘Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal’ will replace ‘Bet on Your Baby’ beginning this Monday. The second season of the latter game show will have its final episode aired tomorrow afternoon.

Also down to its final episode tomorrow is ‘The Singing Bee’. The long-running game show was a consistent top-rater for the Kapamilya network for the majority of its run, dispatching rival GMA game show ‘Don’t Lose Your Money’ and talk show ‘Basta Every Day Happy’ in the process.

But its success paled in comparison to the rest of the shows on Umaganda, especially Team Animazing. And starting this Monday morning, expect Umaganda’s quality to get even worse with the return of ‘Kapamilya Blockbusters’.

The temporary movie block will replace both ‘The Singing Bee’ and ‘Pedro Penduko’ on Umaganda. And if that was not enough, ‘Kapamilya Blockbusters’ will take on supposedly weaker competition in GMA’s ‘Corazon Indomable’ and ‘Women in the Sun’.

That said, the return of ‘Kapamilya Blockbusters’ should give ABS-CBN more problems than solutions. Unless they quickly find a replacement program or two in the soonest possible time, expect Umaganda to grow even staler while giving GMA some much-needed breathing room in the mornings.

This is definitely not a good way for ABS-CBN to cement its dominance as the No. 1 network in the country with all the moves they make these days.

FTT Year 2014 in Review: GMA

Another year is about to end. But before the calendar flips to 2015, here is a look back at the year that was in television and radio. This article will focus on the GMA Network, who endured yet another frustrating year.

Positives

In a year where anything could go wrong, only a few bright spots remained on the corner of EDSA and Timog Avenue.

GMA’s Afternoon Prime emerged as the network’s top performer on weekdays, with ‘Villa Quintana’ and its successor ‘The Half Sisters’ leading the way. Also enjoying impressive performances were ‘The Borrowed Wife’, ‘Yagit’, ‘Innamorata’ and ‘Ang Lihim ni Annasandra’.

Afternoon Prime’s predecessor ‘Eat Bulaga’ remained a force on noontime, gaining some notoriety for its ‘Suffer Sireyna’ segment. Fellow long-running programs ‘Bubble Gang’, ‘I-Witness’ and ‘Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho’ also continued to impress viewers.

Perhaps the most welcome sight on the Kapuso network this year was the return of the Sunday TV Mass after a four-year absence. In response to criticisms that GMA was biased towards Catholics, they got the services of Society of Divine Word – Mission Communications Foundation, Inc. (SVD-MCFI) to broadcast the weekly mass every Sunday morning, thus appeasing their Catholic viewers for now.

And finally, GMA earned numerous awards in both local and international award-giving bodies. GMA News and Public Affairs, in particular, continued to garner praise for its excellent journalistic work by winning another Peabody Award, in addition to numerous New York Festival awards.

Negatives

If there is one network who deserves much of the blame for its failures, it is GMA. And 2014 was just another tough year for the No. 2 network.

GMA Telebabad continued to be an underwhelming performer for the Kapuso network. Virtually every teleserye GMA threw at its disposal failed to make an impact, including the four-week long historical drama series ‘Ilustrado’, who performed badly against its rivals from Mother Ignacia.

The 19-year old ‘Startalk’ also underperformed this year, with timeslot changes to blame for its poor performance. Neither a return to Sundays (vs. ‘Buzz ng Bayan’/’The Buzz’), nor a transfer back to Saturdays (vs. ‘Ipaglaban Mo’ and ‘Failon Ngayon’) helped ‘Startalk”s performance this year.

An ongoing purge to GMA’s weekend programming proved to be not as tense as last year, although the slumping ‘Sunday All Stars’, a clear candidate for cancellation, moved to a later time to avoid ‘ASAP’. Three movie blocks on Sundays, along with ‘Asian Horror Stories’ on Saturdays, did not help GMA at all.

Being the king at answering ABS-CBN’s every move, GMA countered ‘Meteor Garden’ and other Kapamilya throwback Asianovelas by re-airing ‘Jewel in the Palace’, ‘Coffee Prince’ and others, none of which were successful. GMA also countered ABS-CBN by airing ‘Marian’, ‘Bet ng Bayan’ and ‘Don’t Lose the Money’ versus its rival’s programs, again to negative results.

Controversy also affected GMA in 2014. Both Aljur Abrenica and embattled GMA employees under the name ‘Talents Association of GMA’ filed lawsuits against the network for various complaints, while Sen. Bong Revilla’s arrest due to the PDAF scandal prompted the network to cancel ‘Kap’s Amazing Stories’ to avoid any negative publicity.

Overall, it was an abysmal year for GMA, both in terms of ratings, financial performance, and standards of quality.

Outlook

Ramon Ang may have taken some of the shares, but GMA’s fortunes continue to revolve around their aging pair of owners in Felipe Gozon and Gilberto Duavit. So expect another difficult and trying year on the corner of EDSA and Timog Avenue.

‘Second Chances’, a long-overdue series, will kick off GMA’s slate of new programs this 2015, but it remains to be seen whether or not will there be second chances for the said network this year. One thing’s for sure: a wild ride continues for the men and women inside the GMA Network Center.

The Singing Bee Returns Anew, Responds to Don’t Lose the Money

All hail the quick return of ‘The Singing Bee’ on ABS-CBN.

After taking only a two-week break for the 2014 FIBA World Cup, the hit game show resumes today with a brand new season. Again hosted by Roderick Paulate and Amy Perez, the latest season of ‘The Singing Bee’ will now employ an updated format from the previous season.

A new round called ‘2 Beecome 1’ will be implemented, in which the contestant with the highest cumulative score from the ‘To Bee Continued’ and ‘Beedeoke’ rounds will face the defending champion. The survivor of the said round will win P20,000 and will also proceed to the ‘Final Countdown’, where as always, he or she will have to correctly guess three of the seven missing lyrics in order to win the day’s pot money.

‘The Singing Bee’ will also air on a new timeslot. The game show will now be seen at 10:30 a.m., with a running time of over 60 minutes.

The return of ‘The Singing Bee’ was in response to GMA introducing their own morning game show called ‘Don’t Lose the Money’. Hosted by Kapuso hearthrob Tom Rodriguez, the upcoming program will air starting September 22 at around the same time as ‘The Singing Bee’.

Prior to ‘Don’t Lose the Money’, GMA aired the talk show ‘Basta Every Day Happy’ on the timeslot opposite ‘The Singing Bee’. However, the program proved to be a mismatch from the start ratings-wise, mainly due to GMA’s bone-headed decision to place ‘Basta Every Day Happy’ in the late mornings as opposed to a more favorable early morning slot, where they would have served well against the lowly-rated ‘Kris TV’.

Now GMA will pin their hopes on ‘Don’t Lose the Money’ to fare better against ‘The Singing Bee’, which has demolished not only ‘Basta Every Day Happy’, but also ‘Tunay na Buhay’, and ‘Startalk’ during its earlier run on Saturdays. Whether or not ‘Don’t Lose the Money’ will be an improvement over ‘Basta Every Day Happy’ remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: ‘The Singing Bee’ has a worthier rival now.