MANILA, Philippines – Who won the noon show battle launch between It’s Showtime on GTV, EAT on TV5, and Eat Bulaga! on GMA-7 last July 1, Saturday?

TV5’s EAT won the television ratings battle against It’s Showtime on GMA Network Incorporated’s GTV channel, based on Nielsen TV ratings. ABS-CBN’s noon show trumped Tito Vic and Joey (TVJ) in combined views in various social media accounts, according to one study. Television and Production Exponents Incorporated’s Eat Bulaga! on GMA-7 was the clear loser in both tv ratings and social media.

A day after the July 1 shows, TV5 posted Nielsen ratings data on Twitter showing EAT’s average program rating at 8.4%, while It’s Showtime had a combined 3.94% on its main channels, GTV (2.39%), A2Z (1.28%), and the Kapamilya Channel on cable providers (0.27%). TAPE’s Eat Bulaga registered a 2.62% rating. 

This means 8.4% of Philippine TV households watched the return of Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, Joey de Leon (TVJ) and the “Legit Dabarkads” (Legitimate Friends) to free tv via TV5. As of posting, GMA has not disputed the data.

EAT’s high ratings could be attributed to the fact that the entertainers had not been seen for a month after they left TAPE on May 31, with many of their loyal viewers excited to see their return on free tv, Jose Bartolome, a senior lecturer on broadcast communications at the UP College of Mass Communications, told Rappler. 

TV5 management also pulled out all the stops to expand viewers’ access to the show, including making TV5 Standard Definition (SD) Channel 5 free for all its subscribers, with or without load, on digital satellite television from July 1 to 8.

“Thanks to Cignal’s nationwide coverage, TVJ’s noontime show will now reach even the most remote areas of our country. From Batanes to Jolo, subscribers can simply switch on their Cignal or SatLite boxes to watch and enjoy the first week of TVJ’s highly anticipated noontime show,” said TV5 before the July 1 show.

Cignal TV is the Philippines’ biggest satellite tv provider with over 4 million subscribers, while SatLite is a prepaid digital tv service powered by Cignal.

TV5 also held viewing parties in select cities and towns nationwide in what looked like the Philippines waiting for and getting treated to a free viewing of a Manny Pacquiao boxing match. 

Most of the viewing parties were held inside SM and Robinsons malls, but others were held outdoors including one at an evacuation center in Tabaco City, Albay.

Social media war

On the competition on social media, TV5 said that the total views of the July 1 show on TV5 and TVJ’s Facebook and YouTube accounts reached 10 million total views as of July 1, 5:30 pm. Viewership peaked at 500,000 on TV5 and TVJ’s Facebook and YouTube.

As a result of TVJ joining TV5, TV5 Manila’s Facebook page got an additional 83,000 followers; TV5’s YouTube channel got 51,000 new subscribers; TVJ’s Facebook page got 229,000 new followers, and TVJ’s YouTube channel got 9.6 thousand new subscribers as of July 1. 

Entertainment website LionhearTV, which monitored the July 1 episodes, had TVJ winning the live viewership on social media as EAT set a new record of 521,000 live concurrent viewers at 12:32 pm. 

It’s Showtime, on the other hand, set its own new high with 255,000 live concurrent viewers on Facebook and YouTube, LionhearTv said.

“Without a solid following yet on Facebook and YouTube, TAPE Inc.’s new Eat Bulaga struggled to attract online viewers. The show streamed live via Isko Moreno Domagoso and Paolo Contis’s official Facebook pages, each drawing a measly 1,000 viewers,” LionhearTV added.

ABS-CBN Corporation has not released official data on It’s Showtime’s July 1 episode marking the show’s transfer from TV5 to GMA’s GTV channel.

Using a different methodology, Kapamilya Kingdom, a blog on ABS-CBN shows and stars, had It’s Showtime trumping EAT and TAPE’s Eat Bulaga!.  

This study used combined views on the social media pages of ABS-CBN, It’s Showtime, GMA, Eat Bulaga!, including social media users who used clips about the July 1 episode without permission. 

Based on Kapamilya Kingdom’s study, these pages, in 24 hours, had a combined 75.3 million views for It’s Showtime, as opposed to 56 million views for EAT, and 2 million views for Eat Bulaga!.

It’s Showtime

• YouTube: 3,754,596 views
• TikTok: 40,177,200 views
• Facebook: 10,166,500
• Twitter: 20,093,946 views
• Instagram: 1,119,831 views

Total: 75,312,073 views

E.A.T.

• YouTube: 2,086,421 views
• TikTok: 28,386,348 views
• Facebook: 24,472,200 views
• Twitter: 855,203 views
• Instagram: 252,823 views

Total: 56,052,995 views

Eat Bulaga!

• YouTube: 283,675 views
• TikTok: 352,226 views
• Facebook: 1,461,027 views
• Twitter: 192 views
• Instagram: 289 views

Total: 2,097,409 views

@abscbnpr #ViceGanda sumayaw sa harap ng GMA sa opening number ng #ItsShowtime. #gnagsashowtime #showtime #gma #vice #tnt #fyp #foryoupage #kapamilya #kapuso #gtv ♬ original sound – ABS-CBN PR

“Ilan sa most-viewed clips ng episode na ito ng It’s Showtime ay ang performance ng Unkabogable Superstar na si Vice Ganda sa GMA compound, ang pagbati ng Kapuso Primetime Princess na si Barbie Forteza sa Madlang People, at ang pag-welcome ng It’s Showtime family sa mga Kapuso stars sa kanilang show,” Kapamilya Kingdom said.  

@abscbnpr G NA G ang Kapuso primetime ladies na sina #BarbieForteza at #SanyaLopez sa #ItsShowtime!!! Tara at makisaya na sa It’s Showtime sa Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live, A2Z, at GTV! #GnaGsaShowtime #ABSCBN #GTV #GMA #ABSCBNPR #Kapamilya #Kapuso ♬ original sound – ABS-CBN PR

(Among the most-viewed clips of the It’s Showtime episode are the performances of the Unkabogable Superstar Vice Ganda inside the GMA compound, the greeting of Kapuso Primetime Princess Barbie Forteza for the Madlang People, and the welcome of the It’s Showtime family of Kapuso stars on their show.)

A television industry observer told Rappler that if these metrics are accurate, it could be a sign of the shifting demographic difference on social media: since it’s older people who now use Facebook, EAT had good numbers on this platform, while It’s Showtime’s metrics show that young people are more into Tiktok.

EAT had 24 million views on Facebook while It’s Showtime got 10.1 million views. On TikTok, It’s Showtime who won with 40.1 million views, EAT got 28.3 million views, based on Kapamilya Kingdom’s study. – Rappler.com

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