Because of You Premieres Monday, To Face On the Wings of Love

‘On the Wings of Love’ will have a third rival in a span of 17 days.

Its original rival, ‘My Faithful Husband’, ended with a whimper last November 13. Its next opponent, ‘Beautiful Strangers’, is also expected to bow out quietly tomorrow night.

After failing to beat ‘On the Wings of Love’ with a pair of heavy dramas, GMA decided to make things a little lighter. But instead of pitting up-and-coming stars against one another, they opted for a tried and tested formula: putting veterans on the spotlight anew.

‘Because of You’ is the network’s latest attempt in trying to curb the JaDine phenomenon. The series will be led by Carla Abellana and Gabby Concepcion, with Rafael Rosell acting as the third wheel.

The story will revolve around the three actors, in which Andrea (Carla) will try to deny her true feelings towards her ex-boyfriend Oliver (Rafael). Eventually she found Jaime (Gabby), whom she fell in love in an unlikely setting.

‘Because of You’ will also include the likes of Valerie Concepcion, Celia Rodriguez, Iya Villania, Joyce Ching, Enzo Pineda, Kuh Ledesma, Vaness Del Moral and Bettina Carlos in supporting roles. Mark Reyes will be at the helm of this light-hearted series.

For Carla, it will be her first series without her usual on-screen and off-screen partner Tom Rodriguez, who is currently paired with Megan Young on the second remake of ‘MariMar’. It is also Gabby’s first project with the Kapuso network, after making a comeback several years ago with ABS-CBN.

Still, the odds are not in favor of the Kapuso series heading into Monday’s premiere. ‘On the Wings of Love’ continued to exceed expectations, and the duo of James Reid and Nadine Lustre are fast becoming bankable stars, something GMA couldn’t manage with their younger talent.

That said, ‘Because of You’ will have its work cut out for them. For Carla and Gabby, they hope to remain relevant even in the midst of an ongoing youth movement that is giving GMA a lot of problems.

‘Because of You’ premieres this Monday after ‘Little Nanay’ on GMA Telebabad.

New Rival for On the Wings of Love

‘On the Wings of Love’ is getting new competition starting this Monday.

For the past several months, James Reid and Nadine Lustre’s breakthrough series has been on a roll against its closest competitor, ‘My Faithful Husband’. Even though both series premiered on the same night (August 10), it is clear that GMA’s older generation of talents (Jennylyn Mercado and Dennis Trillo) are now a blip on the radar against ABS-CBN’s youngsters.

This Monday will be no exception, as they will once again emphasize experience over youth in their latest series, ‘Little Nanay’. The series will star Kris Bernal as an intellectually disabled 25-year-old mother, who will be taken care of by her own daughter, portrayed by Chlaui Malayao.

Speaking of experience, two Filipino showbiz legends will play major roles in ‘Little Nanay’. Nora Aunor will act as the rock star grandmother to Kris’ character, while Eddie Garcia will play the role of a rich and adoptive grandfather.

Other cast members of ‘Little Nanay’ include Bembol Roco, Mark Herras, Juancho Triviño, Keempee de Leon, Gladys Reyes, Hiro Peralta, Wynwyn Marquez, Sunshine Dizon, Rafa Siguion-Reyna, Jinri Park, Paolo Contis and Renz Fernandez. Multi-awarded actor and director Ricky Davao will be at the helm.

In contrast to the more serious tone of ‘My Faithful Husband’, ‘Little Nanay’ will be presented in a mostly comedic manner. This was GMA’s response to the more light-hearted approach of ‘On the Wings of Love’, which in turn was a departure from the mostly mature dramas that ABS-CBN aired in the 9:15 p.m. timeslot.

By all accounts, this will be a tough challenge for ‘Little Nanay’. With ‘On the Wings of Love’ still winning in the ratings game, it remains to be seen whether or not ‘Little Nanay’ will be able to keep up with the former.

That said, an imposing task awaits ‘Little Nanay’. It’s up to Kris Bernal to prove that GMA’s so-called ‘oldies’ are still goodies.

‘Little Nanay’ premieres this Monday at 9:15 p.m., right after ‘Beautiful Strangers’ on GMA Telebabad.

My Faithful Husband Down to Last Three Weeks

The series that premiered on the same night as ‘On the Wings of Love’ is down to its last three weeks.

‘My Faithful Husband’, the GMA teleserye starring Jennylyn Mercado and Dennis Trillo, will air its final episode on November 13. The series’ replacement is yet to be determined, but there is talk that ‘Little Nanay’, and not ‘Wish I May’, would replace ‘My Faithful Husband’.

Premiering on August 10, ‘My Faithful Husband’ was supposed to be Jen’s small-screen comeback following her blockbuster film success with ‘English Only, Please’. Unfortunately, the series premiered alongside ABS-CBN’s ‘On the Wings of Love, which starred an equally successful but younger big-screen duo in James Reid and Nadine Lustre.

The entry of JaDine was bad timing for the Kapuso network. The timeslot that ‘On the Wings of Love’ occupied was previously reserved for more mature and sexually-oriented teleseryes, which ‘My Faithful Husband’ typifies.

As expected, ‘My Faithful Husband’ proved to be no match for ‘On the Wings of Love’ in the ratings. Caught in a mismatch, GMA then decided to release some teasers for the upcoming ‘kilig’-oriented drama, ‘Wish I May’, only to hold off the project for the foreseeable future.

Perhaps Jen would be better off focusing on the big screen first, since her recent movie ‘The Pre-Nup’ became a box-office hit, and a teaser for her Metro Manila Film Festival entry ‘Walang Forever’ is also going viral on social media. Pairing with talents from other networks (Derek Ramsey, Sam Milby, Jericho Rosales) may be an even better idea for her.

In any event, ‘My Faithful Husband’ has officially conceded defeat to ‘On the Wings of Love’. And with the latter now extended to early 2016, GMA needs to find another way to halt the momentum of ‘On the Wings of Love’.

On the Wings of Love Extended Till Early 2016

More JaDine madness is coming to the small screen.

ABS-CBN has announced that ‘On the Wings of Love’ will run until the first quarter of 2016. This means that the series will go beyond the norm of 80 episodes by the time it finishes.

‘On the Wings of Love’ has consistently ranked among the top ten programs in the country, with ratings of over 20% in both AGB Nielsen’s NUTAM and Kantar. The show’s popularity also translated into high merchandising sales, strong overseas viewership among OFWs, regular trending topics on Twitter, and most views on iWanTV.

It only shows that the tandem of James Reid and Nadine Lustre have come a long way since debuting together in the movie ‘Diary ng Panget’. Their popularity has now spread like wildfire, and fans took notice.

The overwhelming success of ‘On the Wings of Love’ proved to be a serious problem for GMA’s ‘My Faithful Husband’. Even though it premiered on the same day (August 10) as ‘On the Wings of Love’, it was never able to capture the hearts of viewers the same way the former did.

And with ‘On the Wings of Love’ now extended, ‘My Faithful Husband’ may not even end at the same time as its rival. Which is why GMA immediately went back to work and decided to go younger once again, hoping to prove themselves once more.

They called upon the youthful BiGuel (Bianca Umali and Miguel Tanfelix) tandem to star in the upcoming series ‘Wish I May’, whose teasers were released recently. The series premiere is still to be determined, but there is a possibility that it could replace ‘My Faithful Husband’ on the primetime slot.

Let’s just hope that GMA will figure out a way to curb the overwhelming popularity of ‘On the Wings of Love’. The Kapamilya series is on a roll, and it’s up to GMA to deal with it.

A Not-So ‘InTENse’ Premiere for Beautiful Strangers, My Faithful Husband

‘InTENse’ is not the kind of word that is expected in GMA’s new-look Telebabad.

Contrary to what GMA claims in the plugs (see video above) for the upcoming series ‘Beautiful Strangers’ and ‘My Faithful Husband’, the ‘inTENse’ moniker seems to apply more towards its two rival teleseryes on ABS-CBN. ‘Pangako Sa ‘Yo’, for one, has been the obsession of many since episode one, and now they are joined by ‘On the Wings of Love’, another potential top-rater.

‘On the Wings of Love’ has been in every viewer’s radar since the project was announced last February, and now the can’t-miss series has been given the green light. It will be the first teleserye for the love team of James Reid and Nadine Lustre (a.k.a. JaDine), but for those familiar of their work, they should be no strangers to success.

After all, JaDine starred in the hit movies ‘Diary ng Panget’, ‘Talk Back and You’re Dead’, and more recently ‘My Hopeless Romantic’. The duo also starred in ‘Wansapanatym”s ‘My App Boyfie’, fueling their popularity even further.

But ‘On the Wings of Love’ will not be the only series that GMA needs to worry about. The ever-popular ‘Pangako Sa ‘Yo’ will be bolstered further with the arrival of Bea Bianca, portrayed by Sarah Carlos, whose role is to be the third wheel in the Angelo-Yna (Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo, respectively) love affair.

Both ‘Beautiful Strangers’ and ‘My Faithful Husband’ should have their hands full facing KathNiel and JaDine, respectively. While the two series will have a good amount of star power (Heart Evangelista, Lovi Poe, Jennylyn Mercado, Dennis Trillo), they are still at a disadvantage.

A one-two punch on ABS-CBN’s Primetime Bida awaits the two premiering series on GMA Telebabad. For a network that still lives in the past when it comes to its stars, this is a mismatch in hell.