Precious Hearts Revival Series Continues with Los Bastardos

From ‘Araw Gabi’ to ‘Los Bastardos’.

On Monday, the revived ‘Precious Hearts Romances’ series will continue with a second pocketbook adaptation in ‘Los Bastardos’. And much like its predecessor ‘Araw Gabi’, ‘Los Bastardos’ will showcase mature and sensual themes that is typical of the ‘Precious Hearts Romances’ franchise.

‘Araw Gabi’, which starred JM de Guzman, Barbie Imperial, Phoebe Walker, Jane Oineza, Vina Morales, Rita Avila, and Raymond Bagatsing among others, premiered on April 30 and will air its 119th and final episode later today. The series enjoyed a decent run with an average of around 15% in the ratings.

‘Araw Gabi”s satisfactory performance prompted ABS-CBN to continue with the ‘Precious Hearts Romances’ adaptations. This time, five of the Kapamilya network’s male heartthrobs will grace the small screen with ‘Los Bastardos’.

‘Los Bastardos’ will be led by Jake Cuenca, Diego Loyzaga, Marco Gumabao, Albie Casiño, and Joshua Colet, who will play five brothers born and raised by one father (Ronaldo Valdez) and five different women who fell in love with him. The series will look at how these five half-brothers discover their origins and fight for the right and power of his family.

Based on the Precious Hearts Romances pocketbook ‘Cardinal Bastards’, ‘Los Bastardos’ tells the story of Don Roman (Ronaldo), a rich man who lived a happy life with a small family. But a severe tragedy forces him to make love with four different woman which will bear him four different sons to go along with a fifth from his own family.

The five brothers are Isagani (Jake), his long-lost son from his first love; Joaquin (Diego), the only son who will grow up under his care; Marco (Matteo), who will grow up alongside Don Roman’s rival family; Connor (Joshua), a conman hellbent on destroying Don Ramon’s wealth; and Lucas (Albie), who grows up not knowing about the man he serves is his own father.

Also part of ‘Los Bastardos’ are Marijoy Apostol, Mica Javier, Jane Oineza, Maxine Medina, Ritz Azul, and Kylie Verzosa. Completing the supporting cast are Perla Bautista, Ana Abad Santos, Joyce Ann Burton, Pinky Amador, Jeffrey Santos, Isabel Rivas, Lito Pimentel, Rosanna Roces and Bert Reyes.

For what it’s worth, ‘Los Bastardos’ will have its hands full following up the success of ‘Araw Gabi’. But if there is any indication about Kapamilya Gold’s recent streak of good fortune, expect this series to do just fine.

‘Los Bastardos’ airs weekdays after ‘Kadenang Ginto’ on ABS-CBN’s Kapamilya Gold.

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The Promise of Forever Enters Its Final Week

Long-awaited, short-lived.

Turns out ‘The Promise of Forever’ wore out its welcome as soon as it began. The ABS-CBN drama series had been in the production pipeline for months prior to its premiere, but once it got underway, the series underachieved and only managed a measly 55 episodes once it wraps up this Friday.

First aired on September 11, ‘The Promise of Forever’ marked the Kapamilya debut of former TV5 discovery Ritz Azul, who was paired alongside Paulo Avelino. This series was supposed to be a breath of fresh air for viewers who were fed up with the network’s overreliance on ‘kabitseryes’.

Instead, ‘The Promise of Forever’ failed to make the grade. More often than not, it was rival GMA afternoon drama ‘Haplos’ that came out on top, and the former’s seemingly high expectations went up in smoke.

Not since ‘Walang Iwanan’ has an ABS-CBN afternoon series run for such a short period of time. Despite the fact that it took months for ABS-CBN to convince that ‘The Promise of Forever’ is ready to air, they only managed to produce 55 episodes during that span, an underwhelming total by Kapamilya standards.

The struggles of ‘The Promise of Forever’ gave even further indication that Kapamilya Gold is on a decline. It was clear that viewers are frustrated over the direction of Kapamilya Gold, and the performance of said block in recent months is something that ABS-CBN must urgently address.

It also didn’t help that Ritz Azul appear overwhelmed by the limelight. The series’ long wait, not to mention her first acting experience in a full-on drama series in years, made Ritz look rusty and unprepared at times.

Overall, while ‘The Promise of Forever’ was not bad, its performance leaves a lot to be desired. That said, with such a long wait and low episode turnout, ABS-CBN should realize that ‘cautious optimism’ does not work on Philippine television these days, especially when it comes to short-lived dramas such as ‘The Promise of Forever’.

This week will be the last chance for ‘The Promise of Forever’ to impress. As ABS-CBN ponders its next move, one must wonder what might have been had the network air ‘The Promise of Forever’ much earlier and not suffer the low ratings that it did today.

Can The Promise of Forever Help Reverse Kapamilya Gold’s Slide?

ABS-CBN may be the country’s most-watched network last month, but weekday afternoons are a different story.

Over the last few weeks, GMA’s Afternoon Prime became the most-watched block from 2:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. While ‘Ika-6 na Utos’ remains the most-watched program during weekday afternoons, its follow-up dramas ‘Impostora’ and ‘Haplos’ were not far behind in dispatching the opposition.

The recent change of fortune in the weekday afternoon slots should cause plenty of concern within the ABS-CBN camp. Both ‘Pusong Ligaw’ and the soon-to-conclude ‘The Better Half’ were derisively labeled ‘kabitseryes’, and viewers became fed up with the direction ABS-CBN is taking.

Looking to address concerns that Kapamilya Gold is becoming increasingly stale, ABS-CBN decided to change things up with a new teleserye that is drastically different from the recent norm. Enter ‘The Promise of Forever’, starring Paulo Avelino and the network’s new addition Ritz Azul.

‘The Promise of Forever’ tells the story of Nicolas (Paulo), an immortal man who saves Sophia (Ritz) from a burning house and years later fall in love with each other. However, inside Nicolas lies a curse that prevents him from entering into a relationship while at the same time preventing him from feeling the pain of loss.

Moreover, Sophia’s lover Philip (Ejay Falcon) and Nicolas’ descendant Marlon (Tonton Gutierrez) were out to ruin their lives. With that in mind, it will be up to Nicolas to overcome the curse while preserving his relationship with Sophia.

‘The Promise of Forever’ will also star Cherry Pie Picache, Amy Austria, Benjie Paras, Susan Africa, Ynna Asistio, and Nico Antonio. It will be directed by Darnel Villaflor and Hannah Espia.

The lead-up to the premiere of ‘The Promise of Forever’ is a cautionary tale of biding one’s time. A trade trailer for the series was released in November of last year, but it took nearly ten months before ABS-CBN realized that the time is finally right.

However, with Kapamilya Gold mired in a slump, is ‘The Promise of Forever’ worth the long wait? One can only hope that this series will turn things around for the suddenly beleaguered block and in turn restore the faith of viewers that had betrayed the network of late.

‘The Promise of Forever’ airs weekday afternoons on ABS-CBN’s Kapamilya Gold. Timeslot to be determined.

TV5 Pushes Through With Misterless Misis, Plus Fate of Vacated KISPinoy Slot

TV5’s 9:00 p.m. slot on weekends will have a different look this week.

On Saturdays, it’s back to good ol’ Tagalized foreign films through ‘Movie Max 5’. As mentioned in a prior article, ‘KISPinoy’ was abruptly cancelled due to financial losses on the part of blocktimer YU&IQ International.

In the past, TV5’s 9:00 p.m. Saturday slot was filled by either a game show, a sitcom, a reality show, or reruns of former programs. Now with no other options, they decided to go with ‘Movie Max 5’, though it could have been better if they continue to air more recent Filipino films like they did more recently on Sunday nights.

As a result, ‘History with Lourd’, formerly of the defunct KBO block, will move to 10:30 p.m., right before ‘Kaya’. The lone survivor of the KBO block currently airs new episodes since July of this year.

Here’s how TV5’s Saturday primetime schedule will now look like:

7:00 p.m. – LolaBasyang.com

8:00 p.m. – #ParangNormal Activity

9:00 p.m. – Movie Max 5

10:30 p.m. – History with Lourd

11:00 p.m. – Kaya

Then on Sundays, a new sitcom will make its way into the Kapatid network. Titled ‘Misterless Misis’, the series will feature six actresses who will try to cope up with the problems of being single, widowed and divorced women.

‘Misterless Misis’ stars Andi Gomez, Lorna Tolentino, Mitch Valdes, Ritz Azul, Gelli de Belen and Ruffa Gutierrez. The sitcom will be directed by Mark Meily.

In total, two sitcoms will air on TV5 every Sunday night. In addition to the upcoming ‘Misterless Misis’, TV5 also airs ‘No Harm No Foul’, a sitcom starring Ogie Alcasid and a host of basketball stars.

Here’s how TV5’s Sunday primetime schedule will now look like:

6:00 p.m. – Nike Rise

7:00 p.m. – No Harm No Foul

8:00 p.m. – Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

9:00 p.m. – Misterless Misis

10:00 p.m. – Sports 360

This should be an interesting weekend for TV5 and its loyal and happy viewers. Good luck.

TV5’s New Programs for October (Part II)

TV5 recently unveiled new weeknight programs to be aired starting tomorrow. In Part I, I discussed the news programs under the Karunungan, Balita at Opinyon block, along with changes on ‘Good Morning Club’. For Part II, I will discuss the programs under the ‘Everyday All the Way’ block.

At 4:30 p.m., ‘Face the People’ tries to solve personal problems and conflicts with the help of the audience. The program replaces ‘Face to Face‘ and will be hosted by Gelli de Belen and Tintin Bersola-Babao. After ‘T3: Reload‘ and ‘Aksyon‘, TV5 continues ‘Everyday All the Way’ with ‘Madam Chairman’, a dramatic comedy teleserye starring Sharon Cuneta as a barangay chairman/loving mother and wife struggling to cope up with both politics and family life.

Originally ‘The Gift’ was scheduled to debut tomorrow, but is rescheduled after the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals. Starring Ogie Alcasid and Joshen Bernardo, the teleserye tells the story of a musician who adopted an orphaned son of his lover. The game show ‘Let’s Ask Pilipinas’ is a local franchise of ‘Let’s Ask America‘, and host Aga Muhlach challenges homeviewers to win P500,000 by answering various question using only laptops, tablets or other mobile devices. The game show was supposed to air at 8:00 p.m., but due to the postponement of ‘The Gift’, it was moved to 7:00 p.m. bumping ‘Madam Chairman’ to the 7:30 p.m. slot.

TV5’s ‘Sine Ko Singko’ movies will continue to air at 8:30 p.m., but on Thursdays, it will give way to a pair of weekly miniseries. ‘Positive’ stars Martin Escudero as a call center agent infected by the HIV virus, and whose life will revolve around tracing the person who infected him. It will be followed by ‘For Love or Money’. The series, starring Derek Ramsay, Ritz Azul and Alice Dixson, will be a story about a decision-changing move involving both wealth and relationships.

In only two months TV5 has made a pair of game-changing moves that catered to a younger and more educative audience. Weekend Do It Better proved to be a hit, and now the Kapatid Network will try to do the same with the ‘Karunungan, Balita, Opinyon’ (KBO) block and the ‘Everyday All the Way’ block.

New and Returning Shows on TV5

Changes are in the air once more for TV5, this time in hopes of attracting a younger audience.

As early as July TV5 has hinted of the changes in their programming lineup, in hopes of attracting a younger audience. With shrinking revenue threatening TV5’s long-term plans, it was revealed that the Kapatid network will cut back costs and focus on a younger viewership in an effort to gain revenue profits within three years. With that in mind, here are several new and returning programs that TV5 will unveil within the next few weeks.

As previously reported, Ogie Alcasid signed a new deal with TV5, not only as a Kapatid talent, but also as the head of the music business unit. Alcasid will headline two shows on TV5: ‘The Mega and the Songwriter’, and ‘Tropa Moko Unli’. On the former, Alcasid will join forces with Sharon Cuneta in the upcoming variety show, and on the latter he will be paired with old ‘Tropang Trumpo‘ castmate Gelli de Belen and young stars Vin Abrenica, Ritz Azul, Eula Caballero, Empoy, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Alwyn Uytingco, Edgar Allan Guzman, Valeen Montenegro,  and Tuesday Vargas. Cuneta will also star in her own teleserye ‘Madam Chairman’.

Alcasid’s former ‘Bubble Gang’ castmate Michael V will likewise have a new show on the Kapatid network. The current Kapuso mainstay will host the Filipino version of ‘Killer Karaoke’, a game show that test the contestant’s ability to sing while overcoming various obstacle courses. Other new programs expecting to debut soon include the showbiz talk show ‘Showbiz Police’ and the midnight musical/talk show ‘What’s Up Doods?’.

The ‘Pinoy Henyo’ duo on GMA’s ‘Eat Bulaga’ will also make their return to TV5. Joey de Leon will once again play host to a new version of ‘Wow Mali‘, titled ‘Wow Mali Pa Rin’. Like its prior incarnations, the returning show will again feature practical jokes, bloopers, and other forms of accidental comedy starring people from all walks of life. And Vic Sotto returns with a brand new season of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’, this time featuring new lifelines and game strategies that will bring new life to a long-running game show. And finally, the adventure show ‘Pinoy Explorer‘ returns for its second season, with host Aga Muhlach again travelling around the world in hopes of educating people regarding a variety of global cultures.

Meanwhile, it looks like TV5 has not found a replacement for ‘Face to Face’. Reruns of the program have been airing for nearly two months now and it seems that no effort was given to either tape new episodes or cancel altogether. I have written about the possible axing of ‘Face to Face’ before, but it appears that TV5 is not giving up on the said program. As it stands, there were still no reports at the moment regarding the status of ‘Face to Face’.

TV5’s September shakeup was just the beginning of the needed changes that the network will adopt for the next few months. Expect more news regarding the programming situation within the Kapatid network.