Inday Will Always Love You to Conclude Friday

Longer than expected.

For ‘Inday Will Always Love You’, airing 100 episodes is a surprising accomplishment considering it was produced by GMA Public Affairs, an outfit notorious for short-term but quality-laden dramas. But viewers embraced this series particularly well, even if the results say otherwise.

First aired on May 21, 2018, ‘Inday Will Always Love You’ starred Barbie Forteza and Derrick Monasterio and is set in Cebu. While the series is generally a romantic comedy, it did not shy away from showcasing some elements of seriousness seen in more mature teleseryes.

‘Inday Will Always Love You’ first aired opposite ‘Since I Found You’, ABS-CBN’s own romantic comedy. While it gave the latter a hard time in the ratings (at one point the margin was close to 1%), in the end ‘Inday Will Always Love You’ still fell short.

Next came ‘Halik’, a more seriously toned adversary. This time, it was a more lopsided affair, as ‘Inday Will Always Love You’ could not close the gap to 4% against ‘Halik’.

Despite these shortcomings, ‘Inday Will Always Love You’ was still good enough that it was extended on a few occasions. By the time it airs its finale Friday, it will have 100 episodes, a new high for a GMA Public Affairs-produced series.

With all things considered, ‘Inday Will Always Love You’ will go down as GMA Public Affairs’ most successful non-news series, both in terms of popularity and duration. Still, being produced by GMA’s news division had its fair share of doubters, and ‘Inday Will Always Love You’ did not quite receive its well-earned respect.

But as far as Cebuanos are concerned, ‘Inday Will Always Love You”s focus on the Visayan island’s culture is more than enough to make them proud. In many ways, the series was a showcase of sorts to witness the uniqueness and beauty of Cebu, an island that only rivals Manila in terms of population and cultural impact.

The focus of ‘Inday Will Always Love You”s final week centers on Happylou’s (Barbie) escalating feud with Amanda (Gladys Reyes) and Ericka (Kim Rodriguez). One can only hope that the climax will end just like Happylou’s name: a happy one.

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Inday Will Always Love You to Give Since I Found You a Run for Its Money

Talk about a lethargic follow-up.

After a strong premiere week, harsh reality hits the ABS-CBN primetime romantic comedy series ‘Since I Found You’. From averaging in the 20s its first week, its ratings are now down to around 18%.

To make matters worse, its closest competitor (in this instance GMA’s ‘The One That Got Away’) made an inspiring rally to pull to within 3%. Although it may not be enough to overcome the deficit by the time the series ends tonight, it should give ABS-CBN plenty of concern when it comes to the fourth teleserye in Primetime Bida’s lineup.

Starting Monday night, a new headache for ‘Since I Found You’ will come in the form of Barbie Forteza and Derrick Monasterio. Their new series ‘Inday Will Always Love You’ is set in Cebu and will feature the culture and the sights and sounds of this popular Visayan city.

In ‘Inday Will Always Love You’, Happylou (Barbie) is a Manileña lechon store assistant who decides to return to Cebu in search of her father and to help her impoverished family who lives near the train tracks. Encountering the rich and kind Sir Philip (Ricky Davao), she begins to take care of him after the latter suffered a heart attack, and in turn, he helps Happylou search for her father.

Sir Philip also introduces Happylou to Patrick (Derrick), his nephew, and the two begin to forge a healthy relationship. But Patrick’s mother Amanda (Gladys Reyes) and his girlfriend Ericka (Kim Rodriguez) will look to put a wrench in their plans, and when Sir Philip dies, they look to make Happylou’s life a living hell.

Also part of the cast are Juancho Trivino, Manilyn Reynes, Nova Villa, Tina Paner, Super Tekla, the “Lumen Twins” Charisse and Charlotte Hermoso, Kimpoy Feliciano, Buboy Villar and Fliptop artists Mzhayt and Price Tagg. It will be directed by Monti Parungao and Rember Gelera.

If the premise of ‘Inday Will Always Love You’ sounds familiar, then one should remember another locally-themed romantic comedy in ‘I Heart Davao’. Both series were produced by GMA Public Affairs and the setting was based on a popular tourist destination in the Philippines.

But if ‘I Heart Davao”s brief run is any indication, then ‘Inday Will Always Love You’ is in for a reality check. Still, with its incoming competitor ‘Since I Found You’ not doing exactly well in spite of its ratings, one can expect ‘Inday Will Always Love You’ will enjoy a longer tenure and perhaps steal some victories from its rival.

It will be interesting to see how ‘Inday Will Always Love You’ can change the primetime romcom arms race. With that, best of luck to this series.

‘Inday Will Always Love You’ airs weeknights after ‘Kambal Karibal’ on GMA Telebabad.

Big Blow for Tubig at Langis with Resignation of Vivian Velez and Entry of New Rival

The resignation of Vivian Velez forces ‘Tubig at Langis’ to make adjustments. (Photo credit: Vivian Velez official Facebook)

A lot of adjustments await the ABS-CBN drama series ‘Tubig at Langis’.

On Sunday, March 6, cast member Vivian Velez announced on Facebook that she would irrevocably resign immediately from the show. The official announcement is as follows, as seen on this post below.

In an exclusive conversation with PEP.ph, Vivian cited Cristine Reyes’ rude behavior as a reason behind her resignation. According to Vivian, during one of their recent tapings, she and Cristine shared a designated standby room, but Cristine asked her to leave and then threw a fit by slamming the door and shouting at her.

Both ABS-CBN and Cristine’s camp have yet to issue a statement regarding Vivian’s resignation.

Vivian’s departure from ‘Tubig at Langis’ will be a huge blow to the series. Prior to her resignation, she played the role of Conching, the mother-in-law of Irene (Cristine Reyes), and had a pivotal role in the character progression of the latter.

Now that Vivian’s out, the series’ production team has no choice but to make revisions to the story. Writing off the character of Conching won’t be easy though.

Meanwhile, ‘Tubig at Langis’ will have a new rival starting today. GMA’s upcoming Afternoon Prime series ‘Hanggang Makita Kang Muli’, starring Bea Binene and Derrick Monasterio, will take over the slot of the just-concluded ‘Buena Familia’.

In ‘Hanggang Makita Kang Muli’, Bea will play the role of Ana, a feral child who was kidnapped and forced to live in isolation her entire life. After escaping from the clutches of Odessa (Ina Feleo), she was found in the woods by a psychology student named Calvin (Derrick), where he would try to reintegrate Ana back into society and show her the real meaning of true love and compassion.

Also starring in ‘Hanggang Makita Kang Muli’ are Raymart Santiago, Angelika dela Cruz, Kim Rodriguez, Rita Avila, Ramon Christopher, Luz Valdez, Shyr Valdez, Marco Alcaraz, and Jak Roberto. Laurice Guillen will direct the series.

With all the recent events taking place, this will not be an easy walk in the park this week for ‘Tubig at Langis’. The combination of an upcoming rival and a cast member’s resignation over the rude behavior of another may cast a spell on the series’ ratings, so it’s up to them to deliver despite all the odds.

My Mother’s Secret Reprieved for Another Week

‘My Mother’s Secret’ will now end on August 7 with an additional four episodes ordered. (Logo courtesy of GMA Network)

‘My Mother’s Secret’ has lived to fight another week.

The series was supposed to end Friday, July 31. But with the State of the Nation Address extending beyond its allotted time of two hours, last Monday’s episode of ‘My Mother’s Secret’ was preempted and aired the next day.

Not wanting to end the series on the following Monday, GMA acted on the matter and added another week (or four more episodes) to ‘My Mother’s Secret’. Thus, the series finale will now air next Friday, August 7, and the six-pack Koreanovela plan of the Kapuso network will have to wait.

As noted in a prior article, ‘My Mother’s Secret’ had been a ratings failure for the network, fluctuating within the 10% mark in both AGB Nielsen’s NUTAM and Kantar Media. The series couldn’t beat ABS-CBN’s ‘Pasion de Amor’, whose sexy and lustful theme propelled it to success.

Despite the extension, ‘My Mother’s Secret’ will still fall short of the typical 80 episodes a teleserye takes these days. The series will end with 54 episodes produced, which is not respectable enough by teleserye standards.

With ‘My Mother’s Secret”s extension, its successor ‘Reply 1997’ will now air starting next Monday, August 10. It was supposed to begin this Monday, August 3, and was aimed at an August 4 premiere date if not for ‘My Mother’s Secret”s reluctant extension.

For the viewers of ‘My Mother’s Secret’, this is their last chance to see what fate awaits the actress-turned-reluctant mother (played by Gwen Zamora) and her daughter (played by Kim Rodriguez). The final week of the series should be an interesting one, albeit only for the few and the loyal.

The now-official finale week of ‘My Mother’s Secret’ airs this Monday to Friday at 5:50 p.m., right before ’24 Oras’.

My Mother’s Secret Meets Its Painful Demise

The plug has finally been pulled from ‘My Mother’s Secret’.

GMA has announced that the early evening teleserye will be down to its final two weeks. This means that the series finale of ‘My Mother’s Secret’ will air on Friday, July 31.

‘My Mother’s Secret’ starred Gwen Zamora, Christian Bautista, Lotlot de Leon, Meryll Soriano and Kim Rodriguez. It was directed by Neal del Rosario.

The series premiered on May 25 with little fanfare. It was unexpected and hastily created to begin with, since GMA did not seriously hype ‘My Mother’s Secret’ in the weeks prior to its premiere.

As expected, the series was no match for the opponent in the ratings. ‘My Mother’s Secret’ lost badly to ‘Inday Bote’ in its opening week, but the series slumped even further once ‘Pasion de Amor’ entered the fray.

‘Pasion de Amor’, the local adaptation of ‘Pasion de Gavilantes’, became a surprise hit for ABS-CBN despite its sexually-charged theme and unlikely placement in the early evening slot. The Kapamilya series’ average rating of over 20% (based on Kantar Media) became a cause of concern to ‘My Mother’s Secret’.

It also didn’t help that ‘My Mother’s Secret’ can only muster single-digit ratings in most episodes. When it became clear that the series would be more of a hindrance to the primetime lineup, GMA decided to act accordingly.

Thus, after only 50 episodes (short of the typical 80 episodes of a modern teleserye), ‘My Mother’s Secret’ will officially take a bow after its final episode on July 31. The series did not deserve a second chance after all, with poor ratings the motive behind its demise.

The cancellation of ‘My Mother’s Secret’ is only the beginning for GMA Telebabad, though. Over the next few weeks, ‘Pari ‘Koy’, ‘Let the Love Begin’ and ‘The Rich Man’s Daughter’ will also be replaced, marking a month-long turnover for the embattled primetime block.

More on that in a future article.

My Mother’s Secret to Face Two Kapamilya Teleseryes in First Two Weeks

For the first time since ‘My BFF’, a local teleserye will kick off GMA Telebabad.

On Monday, May 25, ‘My Mother’s Secret’ will take over the slot that will be vacated by ‘My Love from the Star’ later tonight. This will mark the end of an eight-month lull for a lengthy local teleserye at the said slot, after GMA experimented with a pair of mini-series and a trio of Koreanovelas.

Directed by Neal del Rosario, ‘My Mother’s Secret’ will tell the story of an actress who is secretly pregnant, after which she sold her child in order to continue her showbiz career. A controversial scandal forced her to leave the industry and begin a family with her one-time boyfriend, but a liver problem threatened her husband’s life, and she was forced to find the child she once sold in order to help her husband.

Gwen Zamora, Christian Bautista and Kim Rodriguez will breathe life into the three primary characters of ‘My Mother’s Secret’. Kiko Estrada, Lotlot de Leon, Diva Montelaba, Shamaine Buencamino, Enzo Pineda, Joanna Marie Tan and Tricia Cabais will play supporting roles, while Meryll Soriano and Mark Herras will also appear in a special participation.

As mentioned earlier, ‘My Mother’s Secret’ will be the first local teleserye to kick off Telebabad since ‘My BFF’, which ran from June to October 2014 (‘Seasons of Love’ and ‘Elemento’ were only aired as a mini-series, and not as full-fledged teleseryes). Coincidentally, both series replaced ‘My Love from the Star’ on the same timeslot.

The first two weeks of ‘My Mother’s Secret’ will air against the finale week of ‘Inday Bote’ and the premiere week of ‘Pasion de Amor’. That said, the series will have its work cut out for them as they go up against two ABS-CBN teleseryes in as many weeks.

Once again, GMA goes to a local drama to begin Telebabad. But will it make a difference? Find out next week.

‘My Mother’s Secret’ premieres this Monday before ’24 Oras’ on GMA Telebabad.