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.

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In 150 Words: Weightlifting Fairy Finale on ABS-CBN

Short and sweet.

This week will officially close the book on the ABS-CBN Koreanovela ‘Weightlifting Fairy’. Starring Lee Sung-kyung, Nam Joo-hyuk, Lee Jae-yoon and Kyung Soo-jin, the series first aired on Monday, July 10, and will finish with around 40 episodes when it’s all said and done.

One of the Philippines’ most highly anticipated Koreanovelas and one of the most successful Korean series ever, ‘Weightlifting Fairy’ tells the story of struggling weightlifter Kim Bok-joo who fell in love with swimmer Jung Joon-hyung. However, Bok-joo was soon charmed by Joon-hyung’s brother Jung Jae-hyi, and the chase for both love for work and love for someone is on.

Like ‘Love in the Moonlight’ and ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’, the success of ‘Weightlifting Fairy’ could result in the series getting reaired on ABS-CBN in the near future. But even without an impending rerun, Koreanovela fans should be satisfied with how ‘Weightlifting Fairy”s story turned out.

Love in the Moonlight Rerun Adds to ABS-CBN’s Death Slot Problems

The mess that is ABS-CBN’s 5:00 p.m. weekday slot continues.

Beginning today, the Kapamilya network will re-air the Koreanovela ‘Love in the Moonlight’ in its so-called ‘death slot’. The series originally aired on Primetime Bida from March 6 to May 5, 2017, spanning 43 episodes.

Unlike its original run which was seen in every household in the country, ‘Love in the Moonlight”s rebroadcast will only be seen in Metro Manila, select regional areas and on digital, cable and satellite subscription services. The rest of the country will receive regional versions of ‘TV Patrol’ while the Koreanovela airs at 9:30 a.m. the next day.

The problems surrounding ABS-CBN’s 5:00 p.m. slot has been well-documented in this blog. While ‘TV Patrol”s regional versions are only a part of the issue, there are other concerns that jeopardize this timeslot.

As stated earlier, programs that are affected by the broadcast of regional ‘TV Patrol’ are aired the following morning at around 9:00 or 9:30 a.m. Unfortunately, not all shows were aired in full.

In the last two Junes, both ‘We Will Survive’ and ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ saw numerous episodes preempted due to the NBA Finals. To make matters worse, those preempted episodes were never aired at all in ABS-CBN’s regional stations, leaving non-iWanTV subscribers perplexed and unsatisfied

If ABS-CBN were smart enough to realize these issues, they would have done these three things:

1. Air ‘O Shopping’ as permanent filler.
2. Bring News and Current Affairs shows back to the 5:00 p.m. slot (with a replay after ‘Bandila’ to satisfy the rest of the country).
3. Produce a Metro Manila version of ‘TV Patrol’.

But as it stands, ABS-CBN is simply too stubborn to resist change in its approach. They somehow rectified that with a rerun of the Koreanovela ‘Love in the Moonlight’ (as reruns are considered filler), but still, it would mean sacrificing success in favor of short-term fixes.

There is still time for ABS-CBN to correct whatever issues they face every weekday afternoon. That said, viewers can only hope for the best, no matter how slim it may be.

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.

Love in the Moonlight Marks Return of Asianovelas to ABS-CBN Primetime Bida

For the first time in nearly two years, a Koreanovela will occupy the penultimate slot on ABS-CBN’s Primetime Bida.

Tonight will mark the premiere of the popular Korean series ‘Love in the Moonlight’, starring Park Bo Gum and Kim Yoo Jung. The series enjoyed an impressive run in its native Korea, and it won a number of awards such as Best Couple, Best Excellent Actress, and Best Actor awards in the 2016 KBS Drama Awards.

Prior to ‘Love in the Moonlight’, Primetime Bida has not had a Korean drama since ‘My Lovely Girl’, whose last episode was aired in June 2015. In between, two seasons of ‘Pinoy Big Brother’ (737, Lucky 7), the teleserye ‘You’re My Home’, and the American series ‘Jane the Virgin’ were aired on that slot.

‘Love in the Moonlight’ is just one of several Korean dramas whose rights were acquired by ABS-CBN a few weeks ago. Others in the pipeline include  ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’, ‘Hwarang’, ‘Goblin’, ‘Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo’, ‘W’ and ‘Doctors’.

In premiering ‘Love in the Moonlight’, ABS-CBN crushed the notion that Asianovelas on Channel 2 were essentially extinct. Their last Korean drama was ‘My Love Donna’ last year, and many thought the network finally moved on from the genre once sister channel CineMo began to import its own set of Koreanovelas later that year.

Instead, ABS-CBN surprised many, including Koreanovela fans, by acquiring the aforementioned hit Korean dramas. And considering how rival GMA loaded themselves up with more Asianovelas (including those airing on sister station GMA News TV), ABS-CBN made it clear that they are still indeed the ‘First and True Home of Asianovelas’.

The question now is whether or not ‘Love in the Moonlight”s success in Korea will translate over to the Philippines. With ABS-CBN having not aired a Koreanovela on primetime in nearly two years, this will be a huge test to see if their decision to bring them back is all worth it.

‘Love in the Moonlight’ airs weeknights after ‘A Love to Last’ on ABS-CBN Primetime Bida.