Road Trip: Another Short-Term Solution in GMA’s Late Sunday Afternoon Timeslot?

Instability has defined GMA’s late Sunday afternoon slot.

Since ‘Juan Tamad’ ended its 29-episode run in March 2016, five different programs were placed at the 4:45 p.m. slot on Sundays. They are:

• Alamat – six episodes from May 15 to June 19, 2016.
• Conan, My Beautician – 13 episodes from June 26 to September 18, 2016.
• Usapang Real Love – 14 episodes from September 25 to December 18, 2016.
• People vs. the Stars – 14 episodes from January 15 to April 16, 2017.
• Follow Your Heart – 13 episodes from April 23 to July 16, 2017.

Talk about running in the short term. With the exception of ‘Alamat’ which was only slated for six episodes, every program that GMA placed in the timeslot was given only 13 to 14 episodes to broadcast.

The fact that late Sunday afternoons are usually the least-watched period on Philippine television may have played a factor on why GMA continues to experiment with short-term programs in this timeslot. And come this Sunday, that experiment is expected to continue when they premiere a travel show called ‘Road Trip’.

Produced by no less than GMA News and Public Affairs, ‘Road Trip’ is a one-hour show that will feature celebrities and their friends and family going on a field trip to some of the country’s most breathtaking destinations. The program’s premiere episode will see Carmina Villaroel, Zoren Legaspi, and twins Mavy and Cassy go to Batanes.

Future episodes of ‘Road Trip’ will also feature the likes of Rochelle Pangilinan, Max Collins, Andrea Torres, Kris Bernal, Arny Ross, Jinri Park and Meg Imperial. So while news of celebrities going on vacation are a regular sight in tabloids and entertainment websites, GMA is now using it as a tool to create a reality series in ‘Road Trip’.

Now here is a very crucial question. Can ‘Road Trip’ survive past the 13th or the 14th episode?

On a normal basis, Filipino travel shows tend to last for only a few episodes. Case in point: ABS-CBN’s ‘G Diaries’ and TV5’s ‘Lakbai’, which lasted 13 and eight episodes respectively.

That said, it will not be a surprise to see ‘Road Trip’ conclude after only 13 or 14 episodes. But if this program manages to survive past those numbers, then it will be a huge morale boost for GMA.

‘Road Trip’ airs starting this Sunday at 4:45 p.m. on GMA.

Advertisement

GMA Pulls the Plug on People vs. the Stars

‘People vs. the Stars’ is no more.

GMA effectively cancelled the game show after its most recent broadcast last Sunday. It was clear that despite its encouraging use of audience and viewer participation, ‘People vs. the Stars’ never quite clicked with the people.

‘People vs. the Stars’, hosted by Drew Arellano and Iya Villania, first aired on January 15, 2017, and was GMA’s anointed answer to the popular yet controversial ABS-CBN franchised game show ‘Family Feud’. But a shaky premiere (11.5% compared to ‘Family Feud”s 16.9% according to Kantar) soon set the tone for the remainder of ‘People vs. the Stars” run.

On average, the margin between ‘Family Feud’ and ‘People vs. the Stars’ was around 4-5%, with ‘Family Feud’ winning all of their matchups. While ‘People vs. the Stars’ was praised for bringing audience participation back to a game show, viewers doesn’t seem to care about it at all.

What also hindered ‘People vs. the Stars’ was GMA’s questionable decision to air it once a week. It would have made sense for the game show to air every Saturday and Sunday to give ‘Family Feud’ a run for its money, but alas, GMA wanted none of it as they thought their current Saturday afternoon lineup is strong on paper (too bad it’s not).

In the end, ‘People vs. the Stars’ join a select list of GMA game shows that did not quite make it big. With only 14 episodes to its credit, it will surely make the ‘most forgotten game shows in the Philippines’ list if there is one.

So what is the next plan of action for GMA in the game show department? Considering their recent misfortune in the said genre, they may not have the motivation to make another one for a long period of time.

It’s a shame, since GMA prides itself in doing things ‘locally’ for the most part (unlike ABS-CBN which has depended more on franchised programs). With that, viewers can only hope for the best in GMA’s future endeavors.

People vs. the Stars Tries to Give Family Feud a Run for Its Money

The itch to topple ABS-CBN’s ‘Family Feud’ led GMA to unveil a game show of their own.

After months of witnessing ‘Family Feud”s rise into a popular yet controversial celebrity-exclusive game show, GMA decided to give ABS-CBN a harsh lesson in viewer and audience participation. This led to the network’s newest game show called ‘People vs. the Stars’, which premieres this Sunday.

Hosted by the husband-and-wife tandem of Drew Arellano and Iya Villania, ‘People vs. the Stars’ features a unique strategy. Celebrities have a chance to win P 200,000 by answering eight mind-boggling questions with an allotted value, and if they answer incorrectly, viewers have a chance to steal the prize by answering a ‘People of the Week’ question through text.

With that, ‘People vs. the Stars’ encourages viewer participation through each episode, something that its soon-to-be rival ‘Family Feud’ has not been able to do. Kudos to GMA for being more generous to its viewers.

However, if there is one thing that holds ‘People vs. the Stars’ back, it is its schedule. While ‘Family Feud’ airs every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, ‘People vs. the Stars’ was only given a Sunday afternoon slot as GMA continues to air ‘Imbestigador’ opposite ‘Family Feud’ on Saturdays.

The unusual weekend afternoon schedule will not help ‘People vs. the Stars’ at all. That said, if GMA were smart enough to compete with ‘Family Feud’, they would have been better off if they move ‘Imbestigador’ to an earlier timeslot (against ‘SOCO’, of all shows) and cancel the more dramatized and irrelevant ‘Wish Ko Lang’, in order to give way to ‘People vs. the Stars’.

Regardless of this situation, viewers who were fed up by ‘Family Feud”s celebrities-only approach should look at ‘People vs. the Stars’ and see why this game show is worth watching. After all, everyone is welcome to earn the big bucks just by watching and participating on this game show.

‘People vs. the Stars’ airs every Sunday at 5:00 p.m. on GMA.