GMA’s ‘Bet ng Bayan’ Premieres This Sunday

The schedule for ‘Bet ng Bayan’ is out.

GMA announced this week that ‘Bet ng Bayan’ will start on October 5, replacing ‘Sa Puso ni Dok’ in its timeslot. The talent show will also have a 15-minute ‘daily strand’ show on weeknights.

‘Bet ng Bayan’ was promoted in advance by the network, with auditions running throughout August and September. Initially, the show was to have a Filipino-themed logo featuring the ‘three stars and a sun’ motif, but in mid-September, a new, more futuristic logo was revealed on its Facebook account, and was duly promoted during commercial plugs.

‘Bet ng Bayan’ will also award three different winners instead of one. There will be one winner each in the singing, dancing and extreme talents categories, which will be determined week after week until the grand finals.

Looking ahead to the show’s premiere, things do not look good for the Kapuso network. ‘Bet ng Bayan’ will go up against the successful yet controversial ‘Gandang Gabi Vice’, and based on the show’s overwhelming success against GMA’s other programs, this is a potential disaster waiting to happen.

Had they cut ‘Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho’ to an hour (similar to rival ‘Rated K’), ‘Bet ng Bayan’ would have fared better against ‘I Do’. Instead, they are placed on a timeslot that is unfavorable to talent shows.

Also not looking good is ‘Bet ng Bayan”s overall schedule. Instead of airing a Saturday edition, GMA decided to utilize brief 15-minute updates every weeknights.

The aforementioned ‘Bet ng Bayan’ updates will take on the Kapamilya network’s ‘Aquino & Abunda Tonight’, thus giving GMA Telebabad equal footing to ABS-CBN’s Primetime Bida. But it remains to be seen if the 15-minute tablet approach will pay off, considering shows like ‘Pinoy Idol’ and ‘Protege’ never became successful when utilizing this format.

‘Bet ng Bayan’ is definitely GMA’s latest attempt towards making a successful talent show. Having seen ABS-CBN and TV5 step up a notch with the likes of ‘Pilipinas Got Talent’ and ‘Talentadong Pinoy’, the pressure is now on ‘Bet ng Bayan’ to deliver the same kind of success as the two aforementioned programs. This is a hit or miss situation for GMA, so good luck to them.

 

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Of Gandang Gabi Vice and GMA’s Inability to Beat the Show

Sunday nights have not been kind to GMA in recent years, thanks to shows like ‘Gandang Gabi Vice’. (Logo courtesy of ABS-CBN)

‘Gandang Gabi Vice’ has victimized GMA programming for the past three years.

Not only is GGV a top-rater on ABS-CBN and a social media hit, but it also forced GMA to make some changes in an attempt to beat the program. Still, no matter how many changes GMA would make, Vice Ganda’s show will always find a way to stay on top.

Among the notable victims of GGV’s success were a pair of Manny Pacquiao’s programs in ‘Show Me da Manny’ and ‘Para Sa ‘Yo Ang Laban Na ‘To’, the ill-fated talk show ‘Pare & Pare’, the sitcom ‘Andres de Saya’, and most recently the public affairs program ‘Imbestigador’.  All of the aforementioned programs, save for ‘Imbestigador’ which moved to a new timeslot, were axed by GMA.

Making it even worse for GMA is the guesting of their prized talents on Vice’s program. While contracted GMA artists Richard Gutierrez and Dingdong Dantes managed to make an appearance on GGV to promote their films (and subsequently get high ratings), the same cannot be said for Marian Rivera, who last year turned down a guesting stint on GGV out of respect for her mother network.

Nevertheless, the guestings of Chard and Dong will always prove that GGV is welcome to all artists, no matter which network they belong. Even the embattled Aljur Abrenica, who recently filed a case to void his GMA contract, is welcome to guest on Vice’s program.

Moving on, ‘Gandang Gabi Vice’ will have a new opponent two Sundays from now. ‘Sa Puso ni Dok’, the upcoming medical docudrama on GMA, will premiere this Sunday night, but with the finale of ‘Pinoy Big Brother: All-In’ expected to run for two hours, the rivalry between the two shows will have to wait for another week.

The new series, starring Dennis Trillo and Bela Padilla, follows a similar formula that was used on critically-acclaimed GMA News docudramas ‘Katipunan’, ‘Bayan Ko’ and ‘Titser’. ‘Sa Puso ni Dok’ was originally slated to air on GMA News TV, before it was decided that the show will instead air on GMA in order to attract a bigger audience.

Whether or not ‘Sa Puso ni Dok’ will overcome the juggernaut that is ‘Gandang Gabi Vice’ remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: ‘Gandang Gabi Vice’ will always be a formidable and strong opponent, no matter what show it faces.