My Fair Lady Remake to Air on TV5 Next Week

‘My Fair Lady’ airs starting this Monday at 9:30 p.m. on TV5. It will star Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Vin Abrenica and Luis Alandy. (Photo credit: TV5/My Fair Lady TV5 Official Facebook)

It seems like TV5 is having fun remaking Koreanovelas that were previously aired on another network.

After the remake of ‘The Baker King’, it is now the turn of ‘My Fair Lady’ to embrace the TV5 airwaves. The new adaptation will be led by Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Vin Abrenica and Luis Alandy, and will replace the former starting this Monday.

Like ‘The Baker King’, the original ‘My Fair Lady’ never aired on TV5. Instead, it aired on ABS-CBN in 2011, as part of the Kapamilya Gold block.

The original series first aired in Korea in 2009, and earned high ratings and numerous awards in its home country despite airing only 16 60-minute episodes. It starred Yoon Eun-hye, Yoon Sang-hyun, Jung Il-woo, and Moon Chae-won.

Unlike several hit Koreanovelas, ABS-CBN chose to relinquish the rights to ‘My Fair Lady’ due to its low ratings. TV5 picked up the rights to the series early last year, with the intent towards producing a remake.

The remake of ‘My Fair Lady’ will air for only 30 minutes, in contrast to its Korean counterpart. There will be a few tweaks along the way, but overall, expect the adaptation to not deviate from the style and approach of the original.

Joining Jasmine, Vin and Luis on ‘My Fair Lady’ will be Chanel Morales, Katrina Legaspi, Eddie Gutierrez, Marjorie Barretto, Jenny Miller, DJ Durano, Joross Gamboa, and Yayo Aguila. The series will be directed by Ricky Rivero.

It will be interesting to see how the fans of the original ‘My Fair Lady’ will respond to the remake. That said, the onus is now on TV5 to create something memorable for their loyal viewers.

‘My Fair Lady’ airs weeknights starting September 14 at 9:30 p.m. on TV5.

Thoughts on Drama Remakes Airing on Different Stations

‘Baker King’ premieres on TV5 this Monday. The said series is a rare example of a remake that aired on a different station from the original. (Photo credit: PEP.ph)

Not all remakes of drama series ended up airing on the same station as the original.

Such was the case for three telenovelas starring Thalia: ‘MariMar’, ‘Maria la del Barrio’ and ‘Rosalinda’. The first two originally aired on RPN-9 in the mid-90s, briefly giving the struggling station a ratings boost.

GMA then re-aired ‘MariMar’ in the late 2000s, while creating two local remakes of it: one starring Marian Rivera in 2007, and another still under pre-production this year. ABS-CBN never re-aired the original ‘Maria la del Barrio’, but was able to produce a remake in 2011 starring Erich Gonzales.

The Kapamilya network also aired ‘Maria Mercedes’ and ‘Rosalinda’ later in the 90s. But while they managed to create a local version of the former with Jessy Mendiola two years ago, the latter wound up in the hands of the Kapuso network, not only re-airing the original, but also producing a remake starring Carla Abellana in 2009.

This phenomenon is not restricted to telenovelas alone. It also happens to local dramas as well.

For instance, GMA aired the original ‘Anna Liza’ starring Julie Vega in the early 80s. Then over two decades later, ABS-CBN remade the series (retitled ‘Annaliza’) with Andrea Brillantes, running for nearly a year.

Another example was ‘Dyesebel’, which was remade into a GMA teleserye in 2009, only to be rehashed again by ABS-CBN last year. The former starred Marian Rivera while the latter starred Anne Curtis.

Now TV5 is doing something unprecedented, as a remake of the popular GMA Koreanovela ‘The Baker King’ is expected to premiere on the network starting this Monday. That said, even Asianovelas are not safe in the said phenomenon.

The original version of ‘The Baker King’ aired on the Kapuso network in 2011, and starred Yoon Shi-yoon, Eugene and Joo Won. The series earned decently good ratings for GMA that year.

Despite the success, GMA chose not to hold on to ‘The Baker King’, let alone create a local version of it. Instead, TV5 acquired the rights for the possible remake last year.

The remake of ‘The Baker King’ will star Mark Neumann, Shaira Mae and Akihiro Blanco, and will air on weeknights starting May 18 after the ‘Wattpad Presents’ series.

It is rare for a drama series to have a remake air on a different station. Whether it is due to lack of revenue, loss of desire or motivation, or declining ratings, keeping the rights to a particular drama is a something TV stations cannot avoid at times.

That said, it is one station’s loss and another’s gain when these things fall into place. Regardless of the result, these stations should be proud to have tried their hand at remaking these classics.

After all, Philippine television is always a cautionary tale for a station’s decisions.

GMA Again Answers Meteor Garden with Jewel in the Palace

‘Jewel in the Palace’ will again be aired on GMA starting next Monday. The Asianovela was a ratings hit in the mid-2000s.

‘Meteor Garden”s re-run on ABS-CBN has been a tremendous boost to the network’s weekday afternoon programming. And with the said Asianovela continuing to rake in high ratings, GMA needs a quick response.

They got one, in the form of their own highly-rated Asianovela in ‘Jewel in the Palace’.

The re-run of ‘Jewel in the Palace’ is slated to air starting May 26 on GMA, replacing ‘Mischievous Kiss’. The said Asianovela first aired in the mid-2000s, and during its initial broadcast, the show provided a boost in GMA’s teleserye dominance at the time. It was so successful that it was later re-run on the Kapuso network.

The theme song of the initial broadcast of ‘Jewel in the Palace’ was Faith Cuneta’s version of ‘Pangarap na Bituin’, which was later remade by Sarah Geronimo for the ABS-CBN teleserye of the same name. However, it was not used in the first re-run, and it is still unknown if the title song will again be used for the upcoming re-run.

‘Jewel in the Palace’ was considered the first of a series of highly-rated GMA Asianovelas in the 2000s, one that later included ‘My Name is Kim Sam-Soon’, ‘Jumong’, ‘Full House’, ‘Endless Love’, ‘Stairway to Heaven’, ‘The Baker King’, ‘Coffee Prince’, and ‘Attic Cat’. These shows, along with GMA’s fantaseryes, contributed to the network’s dominance in the middle part of the decade.

But more importantly, the success of ‘Jewel in the Palace’ helped Kapuso viewers forget about ‘My MVP Valentine’, GMA’s first Asianovela which flopped against ‘Meteor Garden’ in its initial broadcast.

It remains to be seen whether or not ‘Jewel in the Palace’ will once again become a ratings hit. But for GMA, they seem to have found a perfect way to celebrate their own 10th anniversary of bringing Asianovelas to Filipinos, and a perfect antidote to the success of ‘Meteor Garden’.

TV5’s First New Shows of 2014

TV5’s ‘Obsession’ follows the same blueprint used in ‘Positive’, this time tackling the issue of cosmetic surgery.

Next week on ‘Everyday All the Way’, TV5 will unveil a new weekly drama series in ‘Obsession’. Like ‘Positive’, ‘Obsession’ will tackle issues concerning the health of the human body. This time, the series divulges into the world of cosmetic surgery, where the main character obsessed with her former lover assumes a new post-surgical identity. The series will be headlined by Bianca King, Neri Naig, Marvin Agustin and Martin Escudero, and will replace ‘For Love or Money’ at the 8:00 p.m. slot.

Cycle 2 of ‘Asia’s Next Top Model’ will also be seen on TV5. The Asian adaptation of ‘America’s Next Top Model’ will have a pair of Filipinos in Jodilly Pendra and Katarina Rodriguez compete against 14 other aspiring models in hopes of becoming the next top model. The series airs starting tonight replacing ‘Positive’ at 9:00 p.m.

In addition, TV5 has also unveiled a mix of new and returning programs that will be seen over the next few months. Returnees include ‘Talentadong Pinoy’ (albeit without original host Ryan Agoncillo), ‘The Amazing Race Philippines’, and ‘The Million Peso Money Drop’. Upcoming titles will include ‘For All the Boys’, ‘My Pirated Family’, ‘Minamahal’, ‘The Baker King’, ‘My Fair Lady’, ‘Pretty Little Liars’, ‘Jasmine’, ‘One Boy’, ‘Beki Boxer’, ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ and ‘Celebrity Dance Battle’. Details of the new shows should arrive once the teasers are revealed.

And even as TV5 unveiled new programs, some existing ones had to go. Both ‘What’s Up Doods?’ and ‘The Mega and the Songwriter’ were presumably cancelled by management for ‘not living up to expectations’. And there is also the uncharacteristically early sign-offs on nights without PBA games, after AksyonTV original programs like ‘Cocktales’, ‘Crime Klasik’, ‘Wasak’ and ‘Chef vs. Mom’ were cancelled. Simply put, the management handled by Noel Lorenzana and Wilma Galvante have a long way to go before stabilizing the network’s programming.

Nevertheless, both ‘Asia’s Next Top Model’ and ‘Obsession’ should give TV5 something to look forward to this year. They may still be in the experimental stage, but with the way viewers have responded, it appears that this experiment is headed in the right direction.