Next Up for JoChard: My Guitar Princess

GMA’s search for a hit late-morning series continues.

After failing to hit paydirt with ‘Ang Forever Ko’y Ikaw’, GMA will once again try to give the popular JoChard (Jodi Sta. Maria and Richard Yap) love team a run for their money. Their latest attempt will come in the form of two young stars that will topbill the newest series ‘My Guitar Princess’, which premieres this Monday.

‘My Guitar Princess’ will be led by a pair of emerging Kapuso stars Julie Anne San Jose and Gil Cuerva. In this series, Celina (Julie Anne) is a promising but insecure 18-year-old singer and guitarist whose mother Adele (Sheryl Cruz) does not approve of her singing in front of an audience.

Amid her mother’s objection, Celina insists on performing even if it means tearing their relationship apart. Soon after, Celina’s talents caught the eye of two men who seek to fall in love with her: Elton (Gil), a 20-year-old singer based abroad whom fans call the ‘prince charming of pop’, and Justin (Kiko Estrada), Celina’s long-time confidant.

Completing the cast of ‘My Guitar Princess’ are Isabelle de Leon, Jazz Ocampo, Marika Sasaki, Marc Abaya, Ralf King, Kier Legaspi, Frank Garcia, Maey Bautista, Rob Sy and Lui Manansala. It will be directed by Nick Olanka.

The popular love team of Jodi Sta. Maria and Richard Yap (plus Robin Padilla as the third wheel) in ‘Sana Dalawa ang Puso’ will provide a very tough obstacle for Julie Anne San Jose and Gil Cuerva. After all, these are a pair of young Kapuso stars who have been long underappreciated by the masses despite their immense talent.

That said, the only hope for GMA is to can maximize the potential of Julie Anne and Gil. Of course, it also helps that an aggressive social media and promotional campaign will benefit the show and its lead stars considering the network’s weaknesses in the two departments.

Still, it will not be easy for ‘My Guitar Princess’ to overcome ‘Sana Dalawa ang Puso’. If GMA wants to avoid a repeat of ‘Ang Forever Ko’y Ikaw’, they need to push the right buttons, otherwise another short series is in the offing.

‘My Guitar Princess’ airs weekdays before ‘Eat Bulaga’ on GMA.

Advertisement

G.R.I.N.D.: A New Breed of Teen-Oriented Series

‘G.R.I.N.D.’ stars Bruno Gabriel, Ayra Mariano, Jazz Ocampo and Benedict Campos look to make a name for themselves in GMA’s latest weekly teen series. (Photo credit: GMA Network)

There have been plenty of youth-oriented series on Philippine television.

Some of the more iconic ones include GMA’s ‘TGIS’ and ABS-CBN’s ‘Gimik’. Later on, there was ‘Tabing Ilog’ and ‘Click’, and more recently, ‘Luv U’ and ‘Teen Gen’.

These youth-oriented series were showcased during weekend afternoons to great success. But as social media and changing viewership tastes prevailed, these programs were deemphasized and soon fell off the map.

Then came last Saturday night. In an effort to bring the youth back to the small screen, GMA decided to launch a new youth-oriented program called ‘G.R.I.N.D.’ (Get Ready It’s a New Day), starring up-and-coming Kapuso stars Benedict Campos, Jazz Ocampo, Ayra Mariano and Bruno Gabriel.

‘G.R.I.N.D.’ features a story of four young millennials and their struggles to find their place in society. Carlo (Bruno) is a thriving manager in an advertising company, Solanj (Jazz) is an owner of a cafe and Carlo’s best friend, Lui (Ayra) is a breadwinner who juggles different jobs to support her family, and RK (Benedict) is a gay man who also shifts through various jobs.

In essence, ‘G.R.I.N.D.’ is GMA’s reintroduction into the weekly youth-oriented series that has long been forgotten in this day and age. But unlike those previous teen-oriented series of decades past, GMA elected to air the program during late Saturday nights in hopes of attracting teens and young adults who usually stay up late during weekends.

As unfathomable as it seems, GMA has no other choice. Their Saturday afternoon lineup is already loaded though complicated, while their Sunday afternoon slots are not conductive to programs like ‘G.R.I.N.D.’ due to lack of viewership and interest.

Now that ‘G.R.I.N.D.’ is underway, will it actually make an impact in a not-so popular late-night slot? Also, will GMA’s low-key approach to promote this program be either boon or bane? Only time will tell.

A production of Wizpher Mac Productions, ‘G.R.I.N.D.’ airs every Saturday after ‘I-Witness’ on GMA.

TV Remake of ‘Sinungaling Mong Puso’ to Air Starting This Monday

Big things are indeed coming for Rhian Ramos.

The beginning of July saw Rhian make her debut as a cover girl for FHM. Then came the series that could make or break her, ‘Sinungaling Mong Puso’.

Much like her first-ever sexy pictorial on FHM, ‘Sinungaling Mong Puso’ will portray a more mature and serious Rhian. Her role as Clara is simple: she was abused by a womanizer in Roman (Rafael Rosell), then ended up falling in love to Jason (Kiko Estrada), who is not happy with his marriage to Hannah (Jazz Ocampo).

Clara and Jason’s love affair was soon exposed, however. And as the series rolls on, that revelation could pose a severe threat to their own lives.

Also joining the cast of ‘Sinungaling Mong Puso’ are Michael de Mesa, Glydel Mercado, Cheska Diaz, Sherilyn Reyes, Stephanie Sol, Gee Canlas, JC Tiuseco, and Gab de Leon. The series will be directed by Ricky Davao.

‘Sinungaling Mong Puso’ the drama series is a remake of the 1992 hit film directed by Maryo J. Delos Reyes. The film was headlined by Vilma Santos, Gabby Concepcion, Aga Muhlach, and Aiko Melendez.

But if the film version was a blockbuster, what chances will the TV remake have in store? As far as the entire nation is concerned, all eyes are on Julia Montes and ‘Doble Kara’ every weekday afternoon, and its domination of the 3:15 p.m. slot has not been a good sight for a Kapuso fan everywhere.

Indeed, GMA is wasting time producing these dramas without any sufficient promotion. Just look at the series ‘Sinungaling Mong Puso’ will replace, ‘Hanggang Makita Kang Muli’, which at the beginning was heavily promoted by the network only to cease further support after the first week of airing.

With ABS-CBN’s ‘Doble Kara’ nearing its one-year anniversary this August, it will be interesting to see if ‘Sinungaling Mong Puso’ can fare well against this afternoon juggernaut. Yes, Rhian Ramos is about to take the next step in her evolution as an actress, but will this translate to impressive ratings?

Find out starting this Monday, as ‘Sinungaling Mong Puso’ premieres after ‘Magkaibang Mundo’.

That’s My Amboy Premieres Tonight

The AnBie love team takes its act to primetime.

Fresh from a successful run on ‘The Half-Sisters’, Andre Paras and Barbie Forteza now gear themselves up for their first lead role in a primetime series. The duo star in ‘That’s My Amboy’, a light-hearted series that airs starting tonight.

‘That’s My Amboy’ tells the story of Maru (Barbie), a young but determined girl, and Bryan (Andre), a rising actor. Their story began when Bryan was blamed for the accident that involved Maru’s stepfather, and in order to pay for the damages, Maru was hired as his personal assistant.

At first, Maru and Bryan’s relationship was tense and jittery. But an incident that affected Bryan soon brought the two together, and the once distant relationship turned into a friendly, and eventually, lovely one.

Also starring in the series are Tonton Gutierrez, John Arcilla, Donita Rose, Kiko Estrada, Jazz Ocampo, Matet de Leon, Meryll Soriano, Maritoni Fernandez, Jerald Napoles, Pam Prinster, Jan Manual, Philip Lazaro, Pauline Mendoza, Kryshee Grengia, and Rob Walcher. It will be directed by Bb. Joyce Bernal, with the help of Dominic Zapata.

‘That’s My Amboy’ was slated to replace ‘MariMar’ in the network’s Telebabad block (the latter ended January 8). However, the series premiere was delayed for two weeks due to a conflict of interest, since ‘The Half-Sisters’ was still ongoing at the time.

That led to a rather unusual programming lineup on Telebabad, where the block only had two teleseryes, a movie block, and a two Koreanovelas. This week, Telebabad will go back to its usual lineup of three teleseryes and two Koreanovelas, and thus, changes in schedule will be utilized.

‘That’s My Amboy’ will be placed opposite ABS-CBN’s ‘Pangako Sa ‘Yo’, which means that the KathNiel-starred series will have faced all three ongoing Telebabad dramas in a three-week span. Although ‘Pangako Sa ‘Yo’ will only have two more weeks in its run, it remains an imposing challenge to ‘That’s My Amboy’, considering the series has beaten ‘Little Nanay’ and ‘Because of You’ in those three weeks.

That said, the AnBie love team will have its work cut out for them. Although they’ve been successful in the afternoon, primetime is a very different animal, which only adds pressure to the duo.

‘That’s My Amboy’ premieres later tonight after ‘Little Nanay’ on GMA Telebabad.

‘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.

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.