‘Instadad’ Bids Farewell; Two New GMA Shows to Replace

‘Instadad’ ran for four months and 14 episodes, with little success. It will be replaced by ‘Heart of Asia Presents’ and ‘Alamat’ this coming Sunday. (Photo credit: GMA Network)

So long, ‘Instadad’.

The comedy-drama series that starred Gabby Eigenmann, Gabbi Garcia, Ashley Ortega and Jazz Ocampo aired its final episode Sunday afternoon. Overall, ‘Instadad’ aired for only a mere 14 episodes, from April 5 until yesterday.

‘Instadad”s pilot episode was pitted against ‘The Buzz”s finale, and had an impressive start as far as ratings are concerned. But when ABS-CBN moved ‘Luv U’ to a later timeslot the following week, ‘Instadad’ failed to keep up to its new rival.

Not even the premiere of ‘Wowowin’ nearly a month later helped ‘Instadad’ regain its opening day fortunes, nor did the former’s suddenly declining ratings in subsequent weeks. In the end, GMA’s latest attempt at a teen-oriented series was doomed as a failure once again.

Now that ‘Instadad’ is already out of picture, both Gabby Eigenmann and Gabbi Garcia can now focus on their primetime projects in ‘Pari ‘Koy’ and ‘Let the Love Begin’, respectively. At least they still have something to keep busy with.

Moving on, GMA has lined up a pair of programs to replace ‘Instadad’. They are:

Heart of Asia Presents

If five Asianovelas on weekdays are not enough, then a weekend with GMA’s ‘Heart of Asia’ block should satiate the desires of Asianovela fans. As the title suggests, ‘Heart of Asia Presents’ will feature special presentations of various Asian dramas, particularly from Korea.

‘Heart of Asia Presents’ airs every Sunday at 4:30 p.m. starting July 12.

Alamat

GMA dubs it as the first-ever local animated anthology series. Produced by GMA News and Public Affairs, ‘Alamat’ will feature a some of the greatest myths and legends the country has ever told, and will be voiced by some of the country’s most popular and distinguished personalities.

‘Alamat’ airs every Sunday at 5:00 p.m. starting July 12.

This should be another acid test for GMA’s predictably weak Sunday offerings. ‘Alamat’ and ‘Heart of Asia Presents’ may pack some potential, but it remains to be seen if they are definitely good enough for viewers to see.

With that, good luck to both shows.

The Buzz Bids Farewell, For Now

‘The Buzz’ officially bade farewell last Sunday afternoon, after a run of nearly 16 years. (Photo credit: ABS-CBN)

An unexpected announcement awaited the viewers of ABS-CBN’s ‘The Buzz’.

On Sunday, April 5, host Boy Abunda announced that ‘The Buzz’ would go off the air and take a long and indefinite hiatus, citing changes in showbiz reporting, production staff and the viewing public. The cancellation ends the show’s initial 15-year run.

First airing on June 13, 1999, ‘The Buzz’ became one of the network’s top-rated and long-running shows. The show’s lineup of hosts would change over the years, but ‘The Buzz’ will always be identified with the duo of Kris Aquino and Boy Abunda.

‘The Buzz’ lengthy run is only rivaled by ‘Startalk’, now entering its 20th year. The two shows briefly faced off early last year, with ‘The Buzz’ (then called ‘Buzz ng Bayan’) prevailing in the ratings.

As ‘The Buzz’ takes a break of sorts, expect ABS-CBN to counterprogram against GMA’s upcoming game show ‘Wowowin’ and its succeeding program ‘InstaDad’. It is possible that ‘Kapamilya Blockbusters’ will take over ‘The Buzz”s slot from April 12 onwards, but no confirmation is made at the moment.

It should also throw the network into a state of uncertainty. Even though ‘The Buzz”s hiatus was intended to be a temporary one, there also remains a possibility of a new talk show taking the place of ‘The Buzz’ instead.

Another likely scenario will be the tweaking of schedules on ABS-CBN’s weekend afternoon lineup. Declining ratings of ‘The Buzz’ in recent months may play a big role in convincing the network to change their programming approach on weekends.

Any of these possibilities may come into play, but for now, sacrifices will have to be made on the Kapamilya camp.

For nearly 16 years, ‘The Buzz’ stood tall for its credibility, balance and truthful showbiz reporting, one that gave the show high ratings and numerous awards. But with the show now taking a much-needed break, viewers can only wonder when and what time will it return.

Overshadowed By Willie, InstaDad Finally Premieres on Easter Sunday

The new GMA Sunday drama ‘InstaDad’ premieres on April 5. (Photo credit: InstaDad Official Facebook)

The announcement of Willie Revillame’s return on GMA may have caught the cast of ‘InstaDad’ off-guard.

After all, the upcoming weekly drama was supposed to premiere last Sunday, if not for a breaking news announcement that shook the entire country. But with Willie returning to the limelight in a few weeks, GMA decided to make a revision to their plan.

As a result, the pilot episode of ‘InstaDad’ will now be seen this Easter Sunday. It may be long overdue, but for Kapuso fans, it would be worth the wait.

‘InstaDad’ stars Gabby Eigenmann as a popular chef and eligible bachelor. In the main plot, Kenneth (Eigenmann) opted to stay single after breaking up with his first love, but then learned that he had three daughters in Marikit (Gabbi Garcia), Mayumi (Ash Ortega) and Maaya (Jazz Ocampo).

The three daughters’ contrasting personalities will pose a huge challenge to Kenneth as he tries to raise all of them by himself. Along with their adjustment to a new set-up, they must also deal with a variety of issues regarding both teenage and family life.

Joining ‘InstaDad’ in supporting roles are Matet de Leon, Juancho Triviño and Prince Villanueva. The series will be directed by Neal del Rosario.

‘InstaDad’ marks the return of Sunday afternoon dramas on GMA. Their last such drama was ‘TeenGen’, which ended two years ago.

For a network whose programming on Sunday afternoons has been mostly mediocre (thank you ‘Kapuso Movie Festival’ and ‘GMA Blockbusters’), ‘InstaDad’ is one program badly need to wake up a rather sleepy block. Then again, with ABS-CBN’s and ‘The Buzz’ getting in the way, it remains to be seen if the viewers finally woke up to GMA’s senses.

Still, ‘InstaDad’ is a good first step for GMA to reestablish some order into their Sunday lineup. This is definitely a must for the Kapuso network, since they have been heavily criticized of late for their poor programming options, especially on Sundays.

And with ‘Wowowin’ coming up, who knows what will happen next.

‘InstaDad’ airs every Sunday at 4:30 p.m. starting April 5.