Born for You to End in Two Weeks

There is not enough time for GMA’s ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ to warm up.

That is because its opponent, ABS-CBN’s ‘Born for You’, will end in two weeks’ time. The Kapamilya series starring Elmo Magalona and Janella Salvador will air its final episode on September 16.

‘Born for You’ had been on the air since June 20, when it replaced the Kim Chiu and Xian Lim-starrer ‘The Story of Us’. The series marked the first time that Elmo (a former GMA star and current off-screen boyfriend of Janine Gutierrez) and Janella were paired on television.

Though ‘Born for You’ consistently won over ‘Juan Happy Love Story’ in the ratings game, it seems like ABS-CBN is not happy with its performance. The show started strong on its very first week, getting an average of 18%, but after that, ratings hovered between 16-17% during July and early August.

Then in the past two weeks, ‘Born for You”s ratings fell to around the 14% mark. This gave ‘Juan Happy Love Story’ a fighting chance, and though they still fell short, on some nights, they managed to narrow the gap to 1% or less.

Overall, ‘Born for You’ will become a rarity among ABS-CBN dramas. With only 65 episodes, it is one of the shortest-lived dramas ABS-CBN has ever produced, and considering that it aired on the top-rating Primetime Bida block, it is even rarer for a series to air that short on primetime.

The underwhelming performance of ‘Born for You’ could force ABS-CBN to consider breaking up the on-screen love team of Elmo Magalona and Janella Salvador. Given the inexperience of the duo together, and the fact that Elmo is still linked to Janine Gutierrez in real life, ABS-CBN may need to find another role for both he and Janella, but not as a love team.

Still, the Kapamilya network may give them another chance together. But that will only depend on both proper timing and a right story that will help them grow and mature as actors.

Only two weeks remain in the run of ‘Born for You’. They need to prove that they can still win big, or else, it will be the trio of Lovi Poe, Tom Rodriguez and Max Collins in ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ who will be the ones smiling.

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A Not-so Happy Ending for Juan Happy Love Story

Tomorrow night will be the end of a tale for ‘Juan Happy Love Story’.

The GMA Telebabad series, starring Heart Evangelista, Dennis Trillo and Kim Domingo, will air its finale September 2. It will mark the last of the comedy-infused teleseryes that GMA produced in the last several months, as it will revert back to a more serious tone on ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’.

‘Juan Happy Love Story’ first premiered on May 16, replacing another comedy-infused drama in ‘Because of You’. The series failed to captivate viewers from the start, as it lost to the Kim Chiu and Xian Lim-starred ‘The Story of Us’ on a consistent basis.

Things did not improve for ‘Juan Happy Love Story’ once ‘Born for You’ entered the picture. The latter series, which starred former Kapuso star Elmo Magalona and rising ABS-CBN talent Janella Salvador, scored victory after victory over their more veteran counterparts in the national ratings.

Overall, ‘Juan Happy Love Story’ will have aired for 80 episodes, a norm for GMA dramas these days. Still, despite the decent amount of episodes produced, it was clear that GMA failed to win back their viewers by using a more comedic approach to their teleseryes.

It also did not help that GMA cast a pair of veterans in Dennis Trillo and Heart Evangelista to star in ‘Juan Happy Love Story’. And to make matters worse, GMA did not actively promote the series (via upcoming episode trailers) after the second week, as was the norm in more recent teleseryes.

That said, the flaws in GMA’s talent development, storytelling and programming promotion are once again on display. The Kapuso network’s lack of improvement in these aspects have been a constant issue for Lilybeth Rasonable, and it continued with this series.

Come this Friday, a ‘happy ending’ may be in store for ‘Juan Happy Love Story’ story-wise, but not in terms of performance. Nothing will be expected here, just relief that this comedy-styled approach will mercifully end tomorrow night.

The Story of Us Down to Final Week

The story of Macoy and Tin comes to an end this week.

On Friday, June 17, ‘The Story of Us’ will air its final episode. Throughout its 78-episode run, viewers witnessed the on and off love story of Macoy (Xian Lim) and Tin (Kim Chiu), whose trials and tribulations from childhood friends to estranged lovers took them to El Nido and all the way to America.

When it premiered on Monday, February 29 as a replacement to the top-rating series ‘On the Wings of Love’, not much was expected for ‘The Story of Us’. Still, it didn’t stop them from averaging nearly 19% in the national ratings, which is close to 6% better than that of either GMA’s ‘Because of You’ and ‘Juan Happy Love Story’.

While ratings for ‘The Story of Us’ were decently impressive, the fact that it ran so short became a surprise to many. Considering the fact that some of ABS-CBN’s more recent hit teleseryes were able to exceed the 100-episode mark, it was unexpected to see ‘The Story of Us’ run for only 78 episodes.

But ABS-CBN has its own reasons for ending the series so soon. Kim Chiu had been assigned to host season 3 of ‘The Voice Kids’, and juggling between the two shows could slow her down.

The KimXi tandem will also have a new movie coming up, and Xian Lim will prepare for an upcoming concert. To top it all off, ABS-CBN only gave ‘The Story of Us’ a 16-week threshold, hence the short run.

As ‘The Story of Us’ marks its conclusion, expect the love team of Kim Chiu and Xian Lim to do their absolute best. The series has been impressive so far, and it’s up to the viewers to finish off another successful run for the KimXi duo.

Can Macoy and Tin’s on and off relationship take them to a place where it all began? Find out on the final week of ‘The Story of Us’, which airs after ‘Dolce Amore’ on ABS-CBN’s Primetime Bida.

Juan Happy Love Story Debuts Tonight, To Face The Story of Us

GMA continues to have fun with romantic comedies.

Their latest, ‘Juan Happy Love Story’, takes it even further with the addition of a more daring and naughty approach. Premiering tonight on GMA Telebabad, the series stars Dennis Trillo and Heart Evangelista as two lovers with differing views in both romance and life.

In ‘Juan Happy Love Story’, Juan (Dennis), a responsible businessman and a ‘chick boy’, and Happy (Heart), a feisty family-oriented woman who relied on signs to find her true love, were two individuals with contrasting perspectives. Still, they fell in love and tied the knot, but unfortunately, they cannot bear a child of their own.

Instead, they found a bubbly six-year-old orphan named Katkat (Leanne Bautista), but marital problems intervened and they separated. Nevertheless, Happy allowed Juan to live with her in hopes of legally adopting Katkat, however, their relationship was put to the test with the entry of Bob (Joross Gamboa) and Agatha (Kim Domingo).

Bob, a childhood friend of Happy, and Agatha, a business partner of Juan, attempted to court the two individually. With their relationship in doubt, it is up to Juan and Happy to put their differences aside and reconcile anew, hoping to finally live a normal life with their adopted daughter.

Joining the extended cast of ‘Juan Happy Love Story’ are Gloria Romero, Nick Lizaso, Gardo Versoza, Lotlot de Leon, Erika Padilla, Dominic Roco, Vincent Magbanua, Rob Moya, Arianne Bautista, Koreen Medina, and Vince Gamad. The series is directed by Lord Alvin Madridejos.

‘Juan Happy Love Story’ should have an uphill battle to begin with. Its opponent, ABS-CBN’s ‘The Story of Us’, has been on a roll, and with the love team of Kim Chiu and Xian Lim already well-established to the viewing public, it’s going to be a daunting task for both Dennis Trillo and Heart Evangelista to find a niche early on.

This is a light-hearted romantic series that GMA cannot afford to lose. After failing to hit paydirt with ‘Because of You’ and ‘That’s My Amboy’, their last ray of hope now rests on ‘Juan Happy Love Story’, whose success will depend on how viewers will welcome this new mix of comedy and raunchiness.

‘Juan Happy Love Story’ airs weeknights at 9:15 p.m. after ‘Once Again’ on GMA Telebabad.

So Long, Because of You

‘Because of You’ is calling it a series.

Tonight is the final episode for the mostly feel-good GMA drama series. First aired November 30, 2015, ‘Because of You’ ran for a total of 117 episodes, and became one of GMA’s longer-running teleseryes in recent memory.

Despite its uncharacteristically long run, ‘Because of You’ did not exactly enjoy tremendous success in the ratings. From day one, the series was matched up against ABS-CBN’s ‘On the Wings of Love’, and as it turned out, the ever-popular JaDine (James Reid and Nadine Lustre) was too much for both Carla Abellana and Gabby Concepcion to handle.

The low point came February 26 when ‘Because of You’ earned a paltry 13.2%, while ‘On the Wings of Love” got an impressive 27.8% rating on its final night. The losses continued from there.

Even when JaDine gave way to KimXi (Kim Chiu and Xian Lim) and ‘The Story of Us’, the script stayed the same. Although ‘The Story of Us’ was not much of a hit as its predecessor, they still outperformed ‘Because of You’, but only by a few points.

As its ratings became too hard to bear, GMA decided that enough is enough. Like ‘That’s My Amboy’, GMA quietly distanced themselves from promoting ‘Because of You’ at the beginning of April, and in its place came ten-second advisories which proved to be the last straw for the series.

Overall, ‘Because of You’ was a good series that suffered from better competition and, in its final weeks, lack of promotion. It’s a shame that a series as promising as ‘Because of You’ would go down meekly, and GMA’s decision to not actively promote the teleserye became all the more poetic as its struggles escalate.

Now that ‘Because of You’ is about to air its finale, the priority at this point is to finish strong. GMA may have limited its promotion towards the end, but for the cast, producers and fans, it’s all about concluding the series on a positive note, and even in defeat, they should be proud.

‘Because of You’ will be replaced by ‘Juan Happy Love Story’ on GMA Telebabad. Stay tuned to From the Tube for more information.

 

American Series Return to ABS-CBN via Jane the Virgin

The unthinkable has happened.

On March 28, ABS-CBN will bring ‘Jane the Virgin’ to Channel 2 as a replacement to ‘You’re My Home’. This will mark the first time in over a decade that Channel 2 had an American series on its lineup.

‘Jane the Virgin’ stars Gina Rodriguez as the titular 23-year-old virgin woman. She was accidentally inseminated artificially with sperm samples of a wealthy and married hotel owner Rafael (played by Justin Baldoni), disrupting her plans of keeping her virginity.

The incident eventually led to the two becoming a couple and raising a child of their own. Still, it didn’t help that her plans to marry her detective boyfriend (Brett Dier) ended in ruin because of it.

In the United States, ‘Jane the Virgin’ airs on the CW and has a total of two seasons and 36 episodes since premiering in the autumn of 2014. It was recently renewed for a third season thanks to good ratings and positive reviews.

Due to the fact that ‘Jane the Virgin’, like all other American series, airs weekly and only on a seasonal basis, broadcasting the series will be a problem for ABS-CBN. Because of that, they might need to produce or import a replacement as soon as possible, due to these circumstances.

And even if ‘Jane the Virgin’ was renewed for another season or two, the Kapamilya network may not even make a long-term commitment. That said, their decision to air ‘Jane the Virgin’ will depend on its performance and how willing are they to take a risk.

The truth is, Filipino viewers have no penchant for patience, and for ABS-CBN, this may turn out to be a big mistake. After all, such seasonal series only caters to the upper and middle class, and for a station with a mass following, this might not help at all.

‘Jane the Virgin’, dubbed in Filipino, airs weeknights starting March 28 after ‘The Story of Us’ on Primetime Bida.

FTT Advisory: From the Tube will take a break in observance of Holy Week. Regular posts resume on March 28. Have a wonderful and blessed Holy Week.