MANILA, Philippines – Starting July 1, a new noon variety show war is going to begin in Philippine television. 

It’ll be TAPE’s Eat Bulaga! on GMA 7 vs TVJ’s still-to-be-named noon show on TV5 vs ABS-CBN’s It’s Showtime on GTV (Channel 11) and A2Z – all fighting for viewership, ratings, and advertising revenues. 

The noontime slot is considered also prime time by many advertisers as this is when many Filipinos – housewives, drivers, kasambahay, Overseas Filipino Workers, young kids – are glued to their TV sets to get entertained while having lunch.  

The new war is a win-win situation for the Kapuso, Kapatid, and Kapamilya organizations. But the Jalosjos family’s Television and Production Exponents Inc. (TAPE) is the likely loser in this stiff competition. 

Recall that the Romeo Jalosjos-led production company has a blocktime agreement with GMA Network Incorporated until end of 2024 for the noon to 2:30 time slot on GMA-7. This means TAPE has to pay GMA for the two-and-a-half-hour air-time regardless of whether it gets enough ad revenues. Thus, GMA has nothing to lose in this arrangement. 

Despite this, however, GMA CEO Felipe Gozon still agreed to house ABS-CBN’s It’s Showtime on GMA-7’s sister channel on free tv, Good Television or GTV (formerly GMA News TV). 

Those who’ve worked with Gozon isn’t surprised by this move. He takes his job as head of the publicly-listed company seriously, and he hates to see the network’s ratings take a hit. 

After Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, Joey de Leon and the Dabarkads’ (Eat Bulaga! mainstays) falling out with TAPE, Eat Bulaga! (EB) on GMA-7, as well as its new hosts, got a severe beating on social media. TVJ loyalists called the show various names like “Fake Bulaga” or “Eat Bulagta (Eat Fall Flat).” Social media influencer Maine Mendoza labelled those who left TAPE the “Legit Dabarkads (Legitimate Friends),” implying that those who stayed with TAPE were like eskirols (workers who cross a picket line during a strike).  

Not only did Eat Bulaga’s ratings decline after TVJ left TAPE on May 31, EB on GMA-7 also saw a significant drop in commercial advertisements for TAPE. Tito Sotto and Joey de Leon earlier claimed that a number of advertisers, including supermarket chain Puregold’s Susan Co, had expressed their support to their transfer.

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As entertainment website pep.ph’s editor-in-chief JoAnn Maglipon predicted last week, the falling out between TVJ and the Jalosjos family “might just make TAPE lose millions before they can gain some.”

One analyst told Rappler that Gozon’s move to take in It’s Showtime is the CEO’s way of telling the Jalosjos family to shape up and get better ratings. And if EB’s ratings continue to fall, the question will be how long it can survive the competition, and how long the Jalosjos family is willing to lose money as a blocktimer. 

For the Kapamilya organization, It’s Showtime’s new channel, GTV (Channel 11 on free tv), means wider reach compared to what it had before on TV5 plus A2Z. GTV is currently the second leading channel on free tv next to GMA-7, with better signals on analog tv in remote areas compared to TV5 and A2Z.

This could mean higher advertising revenues that the Lopez-led company needs as it struggles to cut its losses and repay its debts after it lost its franchise and free tv frequencies three years ago, courtesy of former president Rodrigo Duterte and the House of Representatives.

ABS-CBN now has the best of both worlds since the Kapamilya-Kapatid partnership will still continue despite the loss of It’s Showtime on TV5.

As Jane Basas, MediaQuest CEO, said on Tuesday, June 20, the Kapatid organization remains to be the biggest distributor of Kapamilya shows. TV5’s prime time block has three ABS-CBN teleseryes, including the highly popular, FPJ’s Batang Quiapo. The Coco Martin-Lovi Poe teleserye is the second leading program in the country despite ABS-CBN not having a free tv channel. Aside from TV5, it also airs on Eddie Villanueva’s A2Z channel, digital tv channels, and online platforms.

For Manny Pangilinan’s TV5, the entry of TVJ Productions Incorporated, chaired by Tito Sotto, will mean a rich source of content creators it needs as the network tries again to be sustainable with entertainment, sports, and news programs. Its previous strategy of sports-heavy and news programming under former TV5 president, basketball coach Chot Reyes, was a big disaster for the company. 

As TV5 executives said in the “mediacon” on Tuesday, June 20, the addition of TVJ and the Dabarkads significantly boosts their content offerings not only on TV5 but also its other media assets such as Cignal TV, the country’s leading Direct-To-Home satellite tv provider with at least 4 million subscribers.

Aside from TVJ’s new noon show, MediaQuest is discussing with comedian Joey de Leon reviving his former long-running gag show, Wow Mali, which used to air on TV5. De Leon has also suggested a cooking show on the Kapatid network with his wife, Eileen. Another possible revival is the variety show, Student Canteen, the precursor of Eat Bulaga. A movie collaboration with TVJ Productions has also been raised.

Surprisingly, therefore, in this post-ABS-CBN franchise era three years on, the ultimate winner is the Filipino viewer. Those still watching on free tv, estimated at around 50-70% of the population, now have more choices for entertainment. 

As TV5 president Guido Zaballero said on Tuesday, when asked about It’s Showtime leaving their channel, “We respect the decision that they [ABS-CBN] made. Ang pinakaimportante kasi (What’s important) is at the end of the day, panalo ‘yung (the winners are the) Filipino viewers. This is a good day for TV. It proves that TV is really alive.” 

On the same question, Tito Sotto noted that when they started Eat Bulaga in 1979, the Philippines’ population was only 47 million, and now, it’s 110 million, so “there’s room for everyone.” 

“Ang pinakamaganda ay mapasaya natin ang ating mga kababayan (The most beautiful thing is we’re able to make our countrymen happy),” he said. – Rappler.com