In 100 Words: Legend of the Blue Sea Impresses Despite Limited Reach

Talk about quashing some pressing concerns.

Last Monday’s premiere of ABS-CBN’s newest afternoon Koreanovela ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ defied expectations and scored an impressive victory on its first try. This despite the fact that most regional networks receive localized versions of ‘TV Patrol’ in the afternoon instead of the Koreanovela.

Via ABS-CBN PR (source courtesy of Kantar Media Philippines):

Fans tuned in to the pilot episode of “Legend of the Blue Sea” starring Lee Min Ho as it scored a national TV rating of 15.5%, compared to “Wowowin” with only 11.8%.

Affected areas can still watch ‘Legend of the Blue Sea’ at 9:30 a.m. the next day. If not, subscribe to iWant TV to watch the Koreanovela within hours of original broadcast.

As for the primetime Koreanovela ‘Goblin’, it scored a 12.1 % rating on its first night, six better than fellow Koreanovela ‘Scarlet Heart’. Not bad.

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In 100 Words: Mixed Results for Wowowin’s New 90-Minute Format

Not even an additional 30 minutes helped ‘Wowowin’ in the national ratings. (Photo credit: GMA Network)

An extended running time for ‘Wowowin’ did not result in improved ratings.

Kantar’s national ratings for February 15 showed that ‘Wowowin’ earned a 14.6% rating. The show managed to beat ‘Kapamilya Deal or No Deal’ (11.1%), but still fell short to its regular rival ‘Pasion de Amor’ (18.1%).

The pattern continued over the next two days, as ‘Wowowin’ (16% & 15.3% respectively) won over ‘Kapamilya Deal or No Deal’ (12% & 10.9%), but lost to ‘Pasion de Amor’ (18.2% & 17.4%). While AGB Nielsen’s Mega Manila ratings indicate a decisive victory for ‘Wowowin’, the national ratings speak otherwise.

With ‘Pasion de Amor’ down to its final week (more on that in next week’s article), there is still hope for ‘Wowowin’ to catch up. But as ABS-CBN prepares for its replacement, things don’t seem to look so good for Willie Revillame on primetime.

In 150 Words: Banana Sundae Impressive, But Not Enough

The move to Sunday afternoons somewhat benefited ‘Banana Sundae’.

The final airing of ‘Banana Split: Extra Scoop’ last November 7 only garnered a 3.9% rating in Kantar, which is clearly affected by the presence of ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar’ and ‘Pinoy Big Brother: 737’. Upon moving to Sunday afternoons, however, the newly-rebranded ‘Banana Sundae’ showed some improvement, as they managed ratings of 14.4 and 12.7% in its first two weeks.

This was not enough to beat GMA’s ‘Wowowin’, though, as Willie Revillame’s game show earned ratings of 14.9 and 14.1%. The same can be said for AGB Nielsen in Mega Manila, as ‘Wowowin’ defeated ‘Banana Sundae’ in each of those weeks (20% and 16.6% vs. 9.8% and 8.3%, respectively).

Despite the defeat, ABS-CBN seems impressed with ‘Banana Sundae’. Nevertheless, Martin Nievera and a few other netizens did not approve of the network’s decision to move ‘Banana Split’ and cut ‘ASAP”s airtime, but let’s face it, it’s clear ABS-CBN needed something to perk things up since ‘ASAP’ is losing big time to ‘Sunday PinaSaya’.

Change is clearly in the offing for ABS-CBN on Sunday afternoons, and ‘Banana Sundae’ is one of them.