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.

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Koreanovelas Return to ABS-CBN

What’s going on, ABS-CBN?

In an extremely unusual move, the Kapamilya network decided to bring back Koreanovelas after an eight-month absence. Their newest Koreanovela, ‘My Love Donna’ will air starting this Monday, and will replace ‘And I Love You So’ on the Kapamilya Gold block.

‘My Love Donna’ stars Joo Jin-Mo and Kim Sa-Rang. It will be the first Koreanovela since ‘Let’s Get Married’ and ‘My Lovely Girl’ to air on ABS-CBN.

Bringing back Koreanovelas on ABS-CBN doesn’t make sense. They already have the resources and technology to produce more local programming, so why do they still need to import foreign series when in fact interest in Koreanovelas are declining and there are some Star Magic artists who are waiting for opportunities to shine.

In addition, ABS-CBN is infamous for cutting a lot of good scenes when it comes to foreign dramas, so much so that their runs are shorter than originally indicated (remember ‘Ana Manuela’?). The fact that these dramas are short-term in nature doesn’t help ABS-CBN at all, and it only hurts their viewership whenever they are present.

By bringing ‘My Love Donna’ to Kapamilya Gold, ABS-CBN has made the wrong decision and the wrong time to bring back a Koreanovela. On the same day ‘My Love Donna’ premieres, GMA will bring in a new teleserye, the Andrea Torres-starred ‘The Millionaire’s Wife’, on the very same timeslot (more on that this Monday).

Remember, the Kapuso network only airs Koreanovelas in the morning and evening slots, and on Mondays to Thursdays as well. The presence of ‘Wowowin’ and longer teleseryes means that there is no place for them to add Koreanovelas in the afternoon.

That said, expect ABS-CBN to lose in the ratings with their newest Koreanovela. This is a definite mismatch for the Kapamilya network, and thus, it won’t help them at all.

What was thought to be the ‘end of an era’ for Koreanovelas on the network turned out to be false hope. Yes, ABS-CBN brought back a Koreanovela, but it won’t be long before they stopped airing them anew.

Other Notes: Speaking of Koreanovelas, GMA will have Korean movies every Monday to Thursday at 10:00 p.m. as part of the ‘Heart of Asia Presents’ series. It will replace ‘Temptation’ starting March 14.