It’s Showtime Has a More Appropriate Rival, and It’s Not Eat Bulaga

Consider ‘Eat Bulaga’ in the past tense as ‘It’s Showtime”s archrival.

While the two noontime shows have been at each other’s throats since ‘It’s Showtime’ moved to its current timeslot in 2011, recent events suggest that ‘Eat Bulaga’ may no longer consider itself a true rival of the former. Instead, another variety show (albeit on a later timeslot) has taken its place as ‘It’s Showtime”s arch-nemesis.

Enter ‘Wowowin’, the late-afternoon variety show hosted by Willie Revillame and is currently on the air for the past three years. For whatever reason, the ‘relationship’ between ‘It’s Showtime’ and ‘Wowowin’ can be summed up in one word.

Take it away, Spongebob Squarepants.

Throughout the year, most episodes of ‘It’s Showtime’ have run past its allotted three-hour period mainly due to Vice Ganda’s excessive bantering on ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’. As a matter of fact, one of its more recent episodes concluded at around 4:00 p.m., by far a record time for the noontime show.

GMA is usually strict when it comes to running time, but for some unexplained reason, they did not implement such strictness when it comes to ‘Wowowin’. In the event that ‘It’s Showtime’ goes overtime, GMA countered by allowing ‘Wowowin’ to go past its normal 90-minute duration so that both ’24 Oras’ and ‘TV Patrol’ can start at the same time.

Different timeslots, similar objectives. This is essentially a Willie Revillame and Vice Ganda thing.

Willie, for his part, was the master of working overtime, back when he was still on TV5 for ‘Willing Willie’, ‘Wil Time Big Time’ and ‘Wowowillie’. However, GMA made certain conditions when Willie signed a contract with the network three years ago, such as ‘Wowowin’ only airing on a ‘taped as live’ basis and running for only 90 minutes.

Suffice to say, GMA sort of unleashed the wild side of Willie this year. Which leads to Vice Ganda, who probably learned a thing or two from his frenemy Willie about talking too much.

And for whatever reason, ABS-CBN is simply letting him do the talking for as long as he wants. As a consequence, some of ABS-CBN’s afternoon and primetime programs began to suffer in the ratings, mainly because Vice spoke a little too long.

Perhaps the two can someday have a show of their own that combines the elements of both ‘It’s Showtime’ and ‘Wowowin’. But then again, they are not usually the best of friends, such as when Vice poked fun over Willie’s tirade a few years ago.

Still, wouldn’t it be great if the two variety show greats appear in public together and talk every once in while? That should make people forget about their excesses.

Either way, both ABS-CBN and GMA should do (and I mean DO) something about this ‘overtime’ thing. This is simply a time-waster and viewers are fed up with it.

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Wowowin Now on Weekdays

Willie Revillame is returning to a familiar spot, sort of.

Starting February 1, ‘Wowowin’ will air every Monday to Friday on GMA’s Telebabad block. The move was announced nearly two weeks after the said game show aired its final Sunday episode last January 17.

Most loyal followers of Willie Revillame are no stranger to his presence on primetime during weekdays. From 2010 to 2013, Willie hosted ‘Willing Willie’ and ‘Wil Time Big Time’ on TV5 six times a week, an attempt which did not go well for the Kapatid network.

During his time on TV5, Willie became embroiled in numerous off-stage and on-stage controversies. The most infamous of those events took place in March 2011, when a six-year-old boy performed a ‘macho dance’ that did not sit well with the majority, and led to the show’s brief suspension.

Even though ‘Wowowin’ enjoyed a resurgence since moving to an earlier timeslot on Sunday afternoons, it was clear that Willie was not satisfied with its success. Thus, at the urging of GMA Network executives, both parties decided to move ‘Wowowin’ to weeknights, a move which seems risky for the network.

Although ‘Wowowin’ will air much earlier than Willie’s prior shows on TV5, it will still face intense competition on its timeslot. The final four weeks of ‘Pasion de Amor’, in particular, will be ‘Wowowin”s first opponent, and based on the ABS-CBN teleserye’s constant success, it will not be easy for ‘Wowowin’ to topple.

Also, like the Sunday episodes, ‘Wowowin’ will only air for an hour, and will be aired on tape-delay. GMA made it clear from the start that ‘Wowowin’ will be strictly supervised so as to prevent any untoward incident that have affected Willie’s shows in the past.

Risks aside, for Willie Revillame and his loyal followers, this is a win-win situation. Now that ‘Wowowin’ will be aired five times a week, viewers can enjoy the same old ‘bigyan ng jacket’ style every day of the week, much like the old days.

‘Wowowin’ airs weeknights at 5:30 p.m. on GMA Telebabad, starting February 1.