drama, entertainment, Philippines, television

Asawa Ko, Karibal Ko and Ika-5 Utos Falter Despite Swapping Timeslots

It’s just another blunder for the much-maligned GMA Afternoon Prime.

Despite a change in timeslots, the performance of ‘Ika-5 Utos’ did not change drastically. The series continues to falter in the ratings, with ‘Ika-5 Utos’ averaging only 12% compared to 17% for ‘Kadenang Ginto’.

Even ‘Asawa Ko, Karibal Ko’, the series that took over ‘Ika-5 Utos” previous timeslot, is underachieving as well. Its premiere episode last October 22 managed only an 11.2% rating compared to 16.7% for ‘It’s Showtime’.

‘Asawa Ko, Karibal Ko”s first foray into Saturday afternoons was somewhat respectable, as it came within 2.1% of ‘It’s Showtime”s rating last October 28. However, the following Saturday’s episode felt like a repeat of the weekday episodes performance-wise as ‘Asawa Ko, Karibal Ko’ fell to 10.7% whereas ‘It’s Showtime’ rose to 18.1%.

So far, ‘Asawa Ko, Karibal Ko’ averages only 11% while ‘It’s Showtime’ scores at around 17%. To their credit, though, the ratings disparity between the weekday and Saturday episodes is not as drastic compared to its previous occupant ‘Ika-5 Utos’.

Still, it did not change the fact that GMA continues to wear its viewers down with a six-a-week teleserye. They tried it successfully with ‘Ika-6 na Utos’, but after that, it grew stale.

Let’s face it, pitting a teleserye against Vice Ganda and company is an exercise in futility. And considering how strong ‘It’s Showtime’ is right now, GMA is making themselves pay for this risk-or-reward move.

While it’s still too early to judge ‘Asawa Ko, Karibal Ko’, its poor start may have set the tone for yet another underachieving GMA Afternoon Prime drama. Unless it turns things around like what happened to ‘Ika-6 na Utos’, GMA may as well cut short ‘Asawa Ko, Karibal Ko’ if it continues that way.

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drama, entertainment, Philippines, television

Demoted: Ika-5 Utos to Move to Second Slot of Afternoon Prime

After only 36 episodes, ‘Ika-5 Utos’ will move to a new timeslot next week and will no longer air on Saturdays as it continues to underachieve in the ratings. (Photo credit: GMA Network)

Talk about ending a relationship before it even started.

Starting Monday, October 23, ‘Ika-5 Utos’ will air in the second slot of GMA’s Afternoon Prime to make way for the upcoming series ‘Karibal Ko ang Asawa Ko’ (more on that later this week). The series will take over the timeslot that will be vacated by ‘The Stepdaughters’.

‘Ika-5 Utos’ was initially placed in the leadoff slot of Afternoon Prime when it first premiered last September 10. The spiritual successor of the successful ‘Ika-6 na Utos’, many expected ‘Ika-5 Utos’ to be as competitive and as formidable as its sister series.

Instead, ‘Ika-5 Utos’ never lived up to the hype. Its premiere episode only scored 10% while ‘It’s Showtime’ managed 16.2%.

From that point forward, ‘Ika-5 Utos’ barely hit the 10% mark in some of its episodes while ‘It’s Showtime’ scored around 15% or better. However, things only got worse once Saturday arrived.

On average, ‘Ika-5 Utos’ only scored 6% less than ‘It’s Showtime’ every Saturday; in contrast, its weekday episodes average 4-5% less. Considering these factors, it is clear that viewer fatigue is starting to set in and they grew disinterested with another episode on Saturdays.

Overall, ‘Ika-5 Utos’ will have aired 36 episodes by the time the show moves to a new timeslot next week. The good news for the series moving forward is that there will be no more Saturday episodes, a day in which ‘Ika-5 Utos’ tends to underachieve more.

It will also mean a new opponent for ‘Ika-5 Utos’. Instead of getting humiliated by Vice Ganda, the series will now have to face Beauty Gonzalez, Dimples Romana, Adrian Alandy and Albert Martinez of ‘Kadenang Ginto’.

But this does not mean the end of ‘Ika-5 Utos” troubles. If the pilot episode is of any indication, then ‘Kadenang Ginto’ could become a difficult hurdle for ‘Ika-5 Utos’ to overcome.

Next week will be a new place and a new time scenario for ‘Ika-5 Utos’. But can a change of scenery help ‘Ika-5 Utos’ reverse its fortunes?

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drama, entertainment, Philippines, television

In 100 Words: Ika-5 Utos Underachieves in Pilot Week

Maybe Vice Ganda should extend his invitation to the cast of ‘Ika-5 Utos’ on ‘It’s Showtime’.

After all, the new GMA afternoon series started off on a disappointing note. The premiere episode of ‘Ika-5 Utos’ last September 10 only registered an 11% rating while ‘It’s Showtime’ fared better at 16.2%.

The trend would continue for the remainder of the week. In fact, the first Saturday episode of ‘Ika-5 Utos’ only scored a 10.3% rating compared to ‘It’s Showtime”s 16.6%.

Overall, it was not a good start for ‘Ika-5 Utos’. Still, it is too early to tell if this series will become a flop considering that the sample size is only six episodes so far.

Who knows, maybe some kind of an ‘Ika-6 na Utos’-like comeback can give this series new life. We’ll just see.

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entertainment, Philippines, talent show, television, variety show

Another Installment of Tawag ng Tanghalan Could Burn Out Viewers After Short Hiatus

That didn’t take long too.

Only a few weeks after crowning Janine Berdin as the second adult champion of ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’, ‘It’s Showtime’ wasted little time in once again presenting the ever-popular singing competition. But the question is, will this cause a ‘burnout’ to the madlang pipol?

Since its return to the small screen on January 2, 2016, there have been four separate editions of ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ that took place on ‘It’s Showtime’. A look at the following editions suggest that ‘It’s Showtime’ has been holding the competition at a seemingly non-stop pace.

  • Tawag ng Tanghalan 1: January 2, 2016-March 11, 2017 (370 days); won by Noven Belleza
  • Tawag ng Tanghalan Kids: March 13-June 10, 2017 (75 days); won by Jhon Clyd Talili
  • Tawag ng Tanghalan 2: June 12, 2017-June 2, 2018 (303 days); won by Janine Berdin
  • Tawag ng Tanghalan 3: June 25, 2018-present (4 days and counting)

In all, ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ accumulated a total of 752 episodes. That total alone is equal to around nine 80-episode teleseryes combined.

The only time the competition really took a break was from June 4-23, and that was when ‘It’s Showtime’ tried to experiment with the Talent Olympics segment to appease the viewers. However, the segment only lasted a few episodes and it forced the show to bring back the Season 2 finalists for a return engagement.

Even though ‘It’s Showtime’ continues to win over ‘Eat Bulaga’ (and even ‘Contessa’) in the ratings behind ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’, at this point the segment’s biggest concern is its staying power. Having held almost non-stop for over two years, the least that the show could have done is to take a long breather, but instead, ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ was back on track after a rather pedestrian three weeks.

That said, can viewers remain invested in the competition? After all, holding a popular singing competition for the last two years can be cause for exhaustion, impatience and boredom.

The least that ‘It’s Showtime’ can do now is to maintain if not enhance the ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ experience, but not to the point of going overtime like they have been doing of late. That’s easier said than done though, and if they make a mistake or two of dragging the product to the limit, viewers may lose interest.

The next few months will be a litmus test to see if ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ will still have some juice left after over two years of virtually non-stop competition. With that in mind, it is up to ‘It’s Showtime’ to either keep the good times going or suffer the consequences (we’re looking at you, Vice Ganda).

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comedy, entertainment, humor, Philippines, television, variety show

Tawag ng Tanghalan 2 Finale Scores Big, But Not Big Enough

Talk about a complete turnaround.

Saturday’s ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ finale on ABS-CBN’s ‘It’s Showtime’ scored a whopping 31% in the Kantar ratings. On the other hand, GMA’s ‘Eat Bulaga’ earned a paltry 9.5% as it tried to keep up with Seen-A-Like, Sing-A-Like, Guhit Bulaga and other promotional gimmicks.

The finale of ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ saw 16-year-old Janine Berdin outlast five other aspiring singers to win P2 million, a house and lot and a management contract among other prizes. Her final piece saw her belt out a medley of hits from Bamboo, which immediately trended on social media and received millions of views on YouTube.

Despite the blowout win, ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan”s 31% rating was still a far cry from the 40.1% rating of ‘Eat Bulaga”s Sa Tamang Panahon in 2015. Nevertheless, ‘It’s Showtime’ should be more than satisfied with the finale’s ratings considering the segment’s consistently strong performance since its 2016 debut.

For now, though, ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ will not continue after a run of over two years (this includes two adult editions and a kids’ edition). Instead, ‘It’s Showtime’ will devote its time to a couple of other segments such as Miss Q&A and Mini Me.

But without ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ to hold the fort, it remains to be seen if ‘It’s Showtime’ will remain a winner despite the temporary hiatus of its most popular segment. That said, an imposing challenge awaits this noontime show as it tries to pick up the pieces post-‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’.

As for ‘Eat Bulaga’, there is nothing to worry about its poor ratings that day. Considering the show has no chance of pulling off the upset, the best that they did was to reveal a couple of old tricks to satisfy its loyal fanbase (being a show that is nearing 39 years old, it looks like they have nothing left to prove).

Oh, and one more thing: stop putting Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza together once and for all. With all due respect to AlDub Nation, they have outlived their usefulness as a love team (in fact, Maine already said that she and Alden were only friends and not in a relationship) and they should be better off thriving on their own.

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drama, entertainment, news, Philippines, politics, public affairs, television, variety show

It’s Showtime Going Overtime Not a Good Sign for ABS-CBN

Overtime has become a trend for ‘It’s Showtime’ of late.

The ABS-CBN noontime show normally runs for three hours at best. But in recent episodes, ‘It’s Showtime’ went beyond that allotted time duration and ended up lasting for another 20-30 minutes (see most recent episode video below).

As a result, the rest of ABS-CBN’s lineup wound up airing at a later timeslot than they usually do. Not a good sign for a network that prides itself for excellence and consistency from morning till night.

Take for instance, ‘TV Patrol’. ABS-CBN’s flagship newscast usually begins at 6:28 p.m., but because of ‘It’s Showtime”s extended run, it was now pushed to 6:45 p.m.

While its ratings were not affected at the moment, many feared that the late start of ‘TV Patrol’ could push more viewers to switch to GMA’s ’24 Oras’. And worse, the longer-than-expected run of ‘It’s Showtime’ could give GMA Afternoon Prime (or at a lesser extent ‘Eat Bulaga’) a much-improved spike in its ratings.

‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ may be ‘It’s Showtime”s most popular segment right now (and the one that essentially ended AlDub as a formidable tandem), but the unnecessary banter could drag the noontime show’s viewership down. And the fact that ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ runs opposite ‘Ika-6 na Utos’ is perhaps the biggest concern coming out of ABS-CBN management.

No offense to Vice Ganda and company, but the trio of Sunshine Dizon, Ryza Cenon and Gabby Concepcion is having ‘It’s Showtime”s number, particularly once ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ takes place. One thing ABS-CBN would like to do is to eliminate most of the talking and focus solely on the singing itself in order to save a lot of time and viewers.

In doing so, ‘It’s Showtime’ will return to its normal three-hour duration and perhaps add motivation to a struggling Kapamilya Gold. Not only that, ‘TV Patrol’ will be able to start on time and save whatever grace it has left.

But the decision to reduce some of the talk on ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ will only depend on management convincing Vice Ganda and company to lessen all the banter. Which is not an easy thing to do considering Vice’s mass appeal.

Still, preventing the inevitable loss of viewership is a must for ABS-CBN, particularly when it comes to ‘It’s Showtime’. They may be the No. 1 network in the country ratings-wise, but even ABS-CBN has its own weaknesses that needs to be addressed.

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