Remake of Meteor Garden on ABS-CBN, Plus Local Adaptation of Boys Over Flowers on GMA

Two series based on the manga ‘Hana Yori Dango’ will return to the Philippine small screen soon.

A remake of the hit Taiwanese series ‘Meteor Garden’ will air on ABS-CBN next year, the network announced this week. The new ‘Meteor Garden’, slated to air in Taiwan in 2018, will star Darren Cheng, Dylan Wang, Connor Leong, and Caesar Wu as F4 while Shen Yue will play the role of Shan Cai.

The original version of ‘Meteor Garden’, starring Barbie Hsu and the original F4 (Jerry Yan, Van Ness Wu, Vic Chou and Ken Chu), was aired on ABS-CBN in 2003 to popular acclaim and has been rebroadcast numerous times since. ‘Meteor Garden’ also aired on GMA in 2007, but with a different dub that was not well-received by fans.

Many loyal fans of ‘Meteor Garden’ have long clamored for a Filipino remake of the hit series. However, ABS-CBN has yet to announce any plans to adapt the story to suit Filipino tastes.

Speaking of GMA, they announced that the Korean series ‘Boys Over Flowers’ will have a local adaptation coming soon. The network recently signed an agreement with JU Entertainment Movie and Drama Inc. for the rights to produce the local version of ‘Boys Over Flowers’.

Like ‘Meteor Garden’, ‘Boys Over Flowers’ is based on the manga ‘Hana Yori Dango’. The original series was not aired on GMA however, as ABS-CBN picked up the rights to air ‘Boys Over Flowers’ in 2009.

The original ‘Boys Over Flowers’ starred Lee Min-Ho, Kim Hyun-Joong, Kim Bum, Kim Joon and Koo Hye-Sun as Korea’s version of F4. Hye-Sun likewise reprised the role of Shan Cai as Jan Di.

Even though a local remake of ‘Meteor Garden’ will not come to fruition anytime soon, loyal fans can at least feel some solace that ‘Boys Over Flowers’ will be adapted locally in the near future. That said, anticipation for both series should only grow higher once their respective premiere dates (which will be announced soon) draw near.

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Legend of the Blue Sea to Reair on ABS-CBN’s Primetime Bida

Another Koreanovela rerun will take place on ABS-CBN this week.

Beginning Monday, ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ will take over the timeslot of ‘Weightlifting Fairy’ on the network’s Primetime Bida block. The Koreanovela previously aired from May 8 to July 14 on the Kapamilya Gold block.

With this announcement, ABS-CBN’s slate of Koreanovelas now consist entirely of reruns. In an ironic twist of fate, ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ was succeeded by the rerun of ‘Love in the Moonlight’, and now the two reairing series share the spotlight.

‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ stars Korean pop star Lee Min-ho and Jun Ji-hyun, with a story centering on a con artist and a mermaid who traveled across the ocean to find him. The series earned six SBS Drama Awards, spawned a soundtrack album and aired in various countries around the world.

Although the initial run of ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ was a success in the ratings, the series faced some obstacles. Since it was assigned to Kapamilya Gold’s 5:00 p.m. ‘death slot’, only a few select areas received the Koreanovela largely due to ABS-CBN Regional’s ‘TV Patrol’.

To make matters worse, the 9:00 a.m. next-day airing of ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ in these affected areas was often preempted due to the 2017 NBA Playoffs last May and June. The end result were skipped episodes that left some viewers with a bitter taste in their mouths.

For the most part, it was a good thing for ABS-CBN to reair ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ on primetime to benefit those affected by the preemptions. After all, the series is too popular and too good to be interrupted, and they owed these viewers every single episode of it.

Still, for those who have watched every single episode of ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’, is it worth a second look? Probably, but considering the fervent fanaticism of Filipino Koreanovela fans, ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ truly deserves another go-round.

‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ airs after ‘A Love to Last’ on ABS-CBN Primetime Bida.

In 100 Words: Legend of the Blue Sea Impresses Despite Limited Reach

Talk about quashing some pressing concerns.

Last Monday’s premiere of ABS-CBN’s newest afternoon Koreanovela ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ defied expectations and scored an impressive victory on its first try. This despite the fact that most regional networks receive localized versions of ‘TV Patrol’ in the afternoon instead of the Koreanovela.

Via ABS-CBN PR (source courtesy of Kantar Media Philippines):

Fans tuned in to the pilot episode of “Legend of the Blue Sea” starring Lee Min Ho as it scored a national TV rating of 15.5%, compared to “Wowowin” with only 11.8%.

Affected areas can still watch ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ at 9:30 a.m. the next day. If not, subscribe to iWant TV to watch the Koreanovela within hours of original broadcast.

As for the primetime Koreanovela ‘Goblin’, it scored a 12.1 % rating on its first night, six better than fellow Koreanovela ‘Scarlet Heart’. Not bad.

Asianovelas Goblin and Legend of the Blue Sea to Premiere Monday on ABS-CBN

The revenge of the Kapamilya Asianovela continues.

On Monday, ABS-CBN will premiere not one, but two Asianovelas on the same day. The two series are as follows:

Legend of the Blue Sea

Starring Lee Min-ho and Jun Ji-hyun, ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ tells the love story of a con-artist and a mermaid who travels across the ocean to find him. The series aired in its native Korea from November 2016 to January 2017 and earned six SBS Drama Awards.

‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ also spawned a soundtrack album starring some of Korea’s top artists. More importantly, the series is aired in syndication in select Asian countries, the United States, and Canada.

Goblin

Best known in its native Korea as ‘Guardian: The Lonely and Great God’ and known internationally as ‘Goblin’, this drama tells the story of an immortal goblin who, along with an amnesiac grim reaper, takes care of the afterlife and evaluates all souls who pass here. However, a woman with an innate ability to see ghosts soon falls in love with the goblin and ended up becoming engaged with him.

The series stars Gong Yoo, Kim Go-eun, Lee Dong-wook, Yoo In-na, and Yook Sung-jae. It ran from December 2016 to January 2017 and was popular (though controversial at times) in both Korea and international markets.

‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ will be assigned to the Kapamilya Gold block replacing ‘Minute to Win It’, while ‘Goblin’ will be placed on Primetime Bida’s final slot to replace ‘Love in the Moonlight’. While ‘Goblin’ will have no problems filling in on primetime, ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ will have their hands full considering that not all areas will receive the Koreanovela at the same time.

Nevertheless, the premiere of two Kapamilya Asianovelas this Monday should add more excitement to KDrama fans. After several years of on-and-off Koreanovelas, all signs indicate that ABS-CBN’s FTHA (First and True Home of Asianovelas) slate is back in business.

Is ABS-CBN Set to Join GMA and TV5’s Bandwagon?

A re-run of ‘The Heirs’ will air this Sunday morning on ABS-CBN.

In recent years, ABS-CBN has stayed away from airing re-runs of teleseryes and dubbing foreign films in the Filipino language. But when they aired ‘Transporter 3’ in Filipino last week, it appears as if ABS-CBN has joined the bandwagon that was started by their rivals TV5 and GMA.

Soon after, ABS-CBN followed the lead of its arch-rival thanks to this announcement.

ABS-CBN decided to air a ‘Royal Rewind’ of ‘The Heirs’, the hit Koreanovela starring Lee Min Ho, beginning this Sunday. This was in response to GMA’s highly-rated re-run of ‘My Love from the Star’, which outrated the NBA Playoffs, Pinoy Pride and Nonito Donaire boxing matches, and Kapamilya Blockbusters on the same timeslot.

Curiously, neither program air on the same timeslot during weekdays. ‘The Heirs’ is matched up against the re-run of ‘Jewel in the Palace’, while ‘My Love from the Star’ opposes ‘Mirabella’.

The re-run of ‘The Heirs’ is basically a retaliation made by ABS-CBN. GMA, for their part, has capitalized on the former’s delayed broadcast of sporting events to gain some high ratings for ‘My Love from the Star’, unlike before when their Tagalized movies in the morning rate less than ABS-CBN’s. And it was only logical, since people with internet connection would know the results in real time.

But with the NBA season about to end, and with the next ‘Pinoy Pride’ still a few months away, ABS-CBN decided to retaliate by counterprogramming GMA’s Asianovela with one of their own, all for the sake of getting high ratings on the timeslot they failed to dominate of late. If this is one of those ‘bandwagon’ acts that ABS-CBN committed, so be it.

Going back to ABS-CBN’s airing of ‘Transporter 3’ in Filipino, it is rare to have the network air a movie on Sunday nights. After all, 3/4 of ‘Sunday’s Best’ broadcasts is concentrated on concerts, live events and documentaries. But when they aired ‘Transporter 3’ in Filipino last week, it was a stab in the back, considering that the network has avoided the same route as TV5 and GMA’s ‘masa’-oriented English-language films.

For ABS-CBN, it is a matter of staying away from the rivals’ desperation tactics. Even though the network is now the undisputed No. 1 ratings-wise, viewers can only hope that the Kapamilya network will continue to stick to what works best, and that is airing unique programs that will appeal to all classes.

Asianovela Nostalgia Continues with Lovers in Paris

‘Lovers in Paris’, the original Korean series, will re-air beginning in late June on ABS-CBN.

First there was ‘Meteor Garden’ on ABS-CBN. Then came ‘Jewel in the Palace’ on GMA. And now the Kapamilya network is bringing back another classic Asianovela, in what has become a seemingly endless exchange for both networks.

It was announced earlier this week that ABS-CBN will bring back the original Korean version of ‘Lovers in Paris’. The series, considered as the first Koreanovela aired in the country, was a huge hit with viewers when it first aired in 2005. Its success would later translate to an equally popular Filipino adaptation, starring KC Concepcion and Piolo Pascual, which aired in 2009.

The popularity of ‘Lovers in Paris’ also led to a response from the Kapuso network. Their answer was ‘Jewel in the Palace’, which also became a huge hit in the same year, and is currently re-aired in the late weekday afternoons.

As the title suggests, ‘Lovers in Paris’ is a story of a businessman named Carlo (Park Shin-Yang) who fell in love to a film student/housekeeper named Vivian (Kim Jung-Eun) in the French capital of Paris. The couple’s relationship would blossom, but not without some challenges to overcome.

‘Lovers in Paris’ is expected to premiere around late June, and is likely to replace the Lee Min-Ho starrer ‘The Heirs’ in the late afternoon slot.

For nostalgic Koreanovela fans, this is another classic series to watch and reminisce. ‘Lovers in Paris’ proved to be a big hit the first time around, so a lot is expected for the show once it airs again this month. But then again, ABS-CBN has been strong in the ratings game, so there is no doubt that the encore presentation of ‘Lovers in Paris’ will become a hit again.