A Look Back at GMA in 2010 and 2014

2018 is about to end. But before the calendar flips to 2019, let’s look back at what happened in Philippine television in 2010 and 2014. This part, we’ll travel to what happened on GMA during those 2 years.

2010

This year was a milestone year for them: it was their 60th anniversary. It was marked by a major concert at the Araneta Coliseum where they looked back at GMA’s history. Then they also made innovative programming: 1st musical drama (Diva), 1st reality sitcom (Pepito Manaloto) and 1st comedy bar on TV (Comedy Bar).

It was during those times that their programming gradually became on the rocks. ‘SIS’ and ‘SOP’ were cancelled due to declining ratings and they also lost the rights to air the Binibining Pilipinas pageant to ABS-CBN. They tried its best to make their programming formidable with the launch of a new variety show in ‘Party Pilipinas’ and the ‘Click’-esque ‘Tween Hearts’. The latter showcased the acting roles of their young artists back then.

Their sister channel, ‘Q’, brought back its mass appeal with the slogan ‘Buhay Q Kumpleto!’, and they received awards by winning 15 titles in the PMPC Star Awards and they had no title during the KBP Golden Dove Awards because they have left the organization 7 years earlier.

2014

This year was characterized by inconsistency in programming. On the public affairs side, ‘Reporter’s Notebook’ moved to Saturdays, and weekday late night public affairs programs were shifted to the late afternoons in order to compete against ABS-CBN.

GMA Telebabad was still an underwhelming performer for them, the mini-series ‘Ilustrado’ was the late 1990s classic ‘Jose Rizal’ reimagined as a soap opera. With the pre-AlDub Alden Richards taking the title role, the show failed to make an impact. Despite their claims as having won against AGB Nielsen, they were never a hit with the viewers.

Their weekend programming had a purge that wasn’t as tense as the previous year. The variety show ‘Sunday All Stars’ had a gradual retreat and changed timeslots from 12nn to 2pm. It was a sign that GMA has been scared of defeating ‘their rival’s ASAP’. ‘Startalk’ underachieved with its poor performance which is why they changed timeslots too. Trying to respond to ABS-CBN’s strategy, they re-aired ‘Jewel in the Palace’, ‘Coffee Prince’ as well as ‘My Name is Kim Sam Soon’ but these reruns flopped. They produced the likes of ‘Marian’, ‘Don’t Lose the Money’, ‘Bet ng Bayan’ and ‘Basta Every Day Happy’ just to counter ABS-CBN only to have produced negative results.

But at the positive side, they brought back the Sunday TV Mass after 3 years. They got the services of the Society of Divine Word – Mission Communications Foundation, Inc. (SVD-MCFI) to broadcast the weekly Mass every Sunday morning just for the network’s mass appeal, only to have been removed before the year ended. In terms of news, Vicky Morales was added to ’24 Oras’, joining the 10-year-old tandem of Mike Enriquez and Mel Tiangco. Pia Arcangel replaced Morales as Arnold Clavio’s co-anchor on ‘Saksi’.

The positives in entertainment? GMA Afternoon Prime emerged as a top performer every weekday afternoons. Comedies like ‘Bubble Gang’ and ‘Pepito Manaloto’ continued to sustain its loyal following. They produced another realistic drama entitled ‘Sa Puso ni Dok’ with Dennis Trillo and Bela Padilla, which earned critical praise.

This year was a homecoming for Iya Villania, who happened to be one of their teen royalties during the early 2000s. Upon signing a contract in November to join her then-recently married husband, she was given a stint on ‘Sunday All Stars’. And also, Willie Revillame was on the verge of reviving his hosting career, having made negotiations between Joey de Leon and Mike Enriquez to place his show every early weekday primetime, only to have came to fruition a year later, to high reception with the masses.

And the veteran celebrities which became their primary focus in Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes eventually tied the knot, whereas Jennylyn Mercado received an award at the Metro Manila Film Festival for Best Actress. The latter was also invited to perform at their ‘SOP’-esque New Year party at the SM Mall of Asia.

The most important negative of the year: it was Ramon Ang who made a negotiation with Felipe Gozon for the latter to sell the network for good. A month after the deal, Ang was able to grab 30% of the network’s stocks but exercised the influence by November. Plus controversies plagued them this year. Bong Revilla was arrested on the charges of malversation of funds as he was the first to be tagged on the PDAF swindle last June, hence ‘Kap’s Amazing Stories’ was cancelled. Aljur Abrenica and GMA’s news talents under the name ‘Talents Association of GMA’ filed lawsuits against the network for various complaints.

Conclusion

Overall, 2010 was still a lucky year for GMA, celebrating its 60th anniversary. Making a milestone was what they were proud of. With their then-precious assets like Regine and Ogie Alcasid having been married before the year ended, one must know that they have another chance against ABS-CBN as 2011 arrives. And Q-11 has been on the rocks as of late amid a new campaign, due to lower advertising revenue, and a news channel getting in the way called ‘GMA News TV’.

As for 2014, it was an abysmal year for them in terms of ratings, financial performance and quality standards. As ‘Second Chances’ went underway, things seemed like they still at least gave Felipe Gozon and company a second chance to survive. Everything remained to be seen if their offerings on the entertainment side would recover and regain the viewers’ interest, especially ‘StarStruck’ which also returns in 2019.

And another thing is that Bianca Umali, Miguel Tanfelix, Ruru Madrid and co. have a long way to go before being at par with Kathryn Bernardo, James Reid, Daniel Padilla and etc. as to become their promising young artists.

A Look Back at T5N in 2010 and 2014

2010

New shows, new campaign and a new management. Let’s look back at 5’s early history under Manny Pangilinan’s ownership. This year marked Associated Broadcasting Network’s “rebirth” as TV5 or the Kapatid network. MediaQuest, a company owned by Filipino tycoon Manny Pangilinan, acquired the network from Tonyboy Cojuangco and Media Prima Berhad of Malaysia and poised it to compete head on against giant networks ABS-CBN and GMA-7, abandoning their so-called ‘Iba Tayo’ programming approach, and bearing a new slogan in ‘Para Sa’ Yo, Kapatid!’. Many people expected MVP to rise to the level of a Gabby Lopez, Felipe Gozon or Charo Santos-Concio, considering the many long-term plans he envisioned.

Embellished with the color red and a new shining number 5 billiard logo which represented that they were prepared for the most important aspects of TV gameplay, it established themselves as third player in the TV landscape after an explosive launch at the World Trade Center in Pasay.

Under MVP’s ownership, his aim for the network was to ‘give viewers programming that provide less nonsense and will excite them’. Catering to the so-called ‘Bagong Pinoy’ audience, several stars from both ABS-CBN and GMA-7’s stables transferred to the new network such as Ruffa Gutierrez and JC de Vera. Paolo Bediones, a long-time Kapuso, also moved to TV5, anchoring the early years of ‘Aksyon’ with former Kapamilya Cheryl Cosim. TV5 also signed some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry such as Comedy King Dolphy and Diamond Star Maricel Soriano.

The Kapatid network was responsible for producing such programs such as “Face To Face” hosted by Amy Perez, the weekly entertainment talk show “Paparazzi,” which was hosted by Gutierrez, showbiz columnists Dolly Ann Carvajal and Cristy Fermin, and former Kapuso host Mo Twister, the fantasy series ‘Pidol’s Wonderland’ with the late Dolphy, the horror sitcom ‘My Darling Aswang’ starring Vic Sotto and Dayana Menezes, and even ‘P.O.5.’, a Sunday variety show. The latter 2 tried its best to keep up with ABS-CBN’s ‘ASAP’ and ‘The Buzz’ but fell short. They also launched a ‘StarStruck’-esque reality show in ‘Star Factor’ which launched the careers of Ritz Azul and Morissette, plus they created their first soap starring JC de Vera and Arci Munoz, entitled ‘My Driver Sweet Lover’.

But there were some shows carried from the Ka-Shake era which tried to survive the changes in programming and management, such as ‘Talentadong Pinoy’, the local version of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’, ‘Juicy’, ‘Midnight DJ’ and ‘Lokomoko’.

This year also saw them air cartoons from Turner and Disney’s library after they lost their Nickelodeon rights to ABS-CBN, though they still aired independently-produced children’s programming (e.g. ‘Bob the Builder’, ‘Hi-5’ (Series 11), ‘Chuggington’).

Despite his legal battles against ABS-CBN, Willie Revillame and TV5 launched a new variety program entitled “Willing Willie.” The show, which aired at around 6:00 p.m. from Mondays to Saturdays, competing with ABS-CBN and GMA’s nightly newscasts, and is considered as a continuation of ‘Wowowee’, or it could also be ‘Eat Bulaga’ on primetime. TV5 also got then-Valenzuela Councilor Shalani Soledad as Revillame’s co-host. This year also, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, the sister of Anne Curtis was tapped as TV5’s new star, groomed to have been their own primetime princess, who back then still had a long way to go if she would be at Kim Chiu’s level.

And before the year ended, they launched an all-news radio station on the FM band, Radyo5 92.3 NEWS FM which bore the tagline ‘Iwanan Mo Na Ang Lumang Tunog ng AM’.

2014

TV5 went back to where they were before MVP bought them: an alternative station which used to be their formula during the Tonyboy Cojuangco ownership. They even bore a new slogan: ‘Happy Ka Dito!’.

This year, TV5 said many ‘yeses’ to sports coverage from Super Bowl to the Sochi Winter Olympics to Incheon Asian Games to NCAA’s March Madness and even the FIBA World Cup. This year also marked the full-time return of the PBA to TV5’s primetime schedule. On non-PBA game days, Movie Max 5 would be aired.

Viewers also witnessed the premieres of highly-praised weekly series ‘JasMine’ and ‘Trenderas’, as well as a franchised game show in ‘Quiet Please! Bawal ang Maingay’. TV5 also collaborated with both E! and Wattpad to broadcast ‘It Takes Gutz to Be a Gutierrez’ and ‘Wattpad Presents’, respectively, to good reviews. The latter was able to survive more than 1 year, being a hip anthology series for young audiences which became a more lighthearted counterpart to ABS-CBN and GMA’s soap operas. Gone were the ‘Weekend Do it Better’ and ‘Everyday All the Way’ program blocks, ‘Face the People’ and ‘Let’s Ask Pilipinas’ were cancelled just before 2014 ended.

At the same time, a second coming of ‘Shall We Dance’ in ‘Celebrity Dance Battle’ aired between March and June. ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, ‘Tropa Mo Ko’, and even ‘Wow Mali: Lakas ng Tama’ managed to survive the programming changes due to having developed a cult following. ‘Talentadong Pinoy’ also returned with the real-life couple Mariel and Robin Padilla at the helm but it failed to regain the popularity of its past seasons’ glory days.

In terms of acquired programming, they aired the Koreanovelas ‘Bride of the Century’ and ‘Cool Guys, Hot Ramen’ while mornings were dominated by Western cartoons such as Disney’s ‘Sofia the First’, “Gravity Falls’ and ‘Henry Hugglemonster’ which premiered during the time its program block turned 4 years old.

News5 saw a slight decline in quality this year. The Aksyon brand became universal by July and AksyonTV started to lack original programming and relied more towards TV5’s programming. The sex scandal that involved Paolo Bediones in September demoralized News5 management. He did return to host ‘Demolition Job’ and continued his duties as Rescue5’s head once the impact began to dissipate.

The biggest issue that came from the camp? Departure of some superstars with the network. This year, they lost Aga Muhlach, Nora Aunor and Sharon Cuneta to freelance status. Muhlach left first in March when TV5 announced they won’t renew his contract due to a change in programming that was about to happen. Cuneta followed suit in August when TV5 realized that her contract became pre-terminated. At that time, she was busy taping a sitcom with Richard Gomez but it shelved due to heavy production budgets. Finally, Aunor left in October because she seemed more interested doing indie films rather than television acting. Plus at the same time, their internet experiments Balut Radio and Kristn ended service.

Conclusion

Overall, the year 2010 proved to be a good start for TV5 to gain momentum in all aspects, as its tried hard to counter what ABS-CBN and GMA offered back then.

TV5 did not have a bad year in 2014, but sportscasting commitments became a hindrance for them to sustain its entertainment assets. They eventually decided to create a New Year party of their own to be held at the Quezon City Memorial Circle with the help of the local city government, as it becomes a very crucial way to promote what would have been in store for them the following year. It’s time they tried to maintain their niche in the TV landscape by spreading inspiration and delight to Filipinos who got tired of the heavy and problem-laden TV shows. Amid the departure of high-profile talents, they were ‘the only major TV network that airs basketball on primetime’, according to an Inquirer report. They also produce more light entertainment shows, especially the comedy type, as the New Year comes.

Many young viewers looked forward to AniMEGA’s return of giving them anime and even the return of the Aussie children’s show ‘Hi-5’ after 3 years, but this time bringing back the classic hits, especially, ‘L-O-V-E’, ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ and ‘Ready or Not, I’m Gonna Find You Again’, so what more for Noel Lorenzana, Ray Espinosa and friends, especially MVP? Then, invite someone like Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Stevie Nicholson or Lauren Brant to sing ‘What Shall We Plan Today?’ or ‘Trying On These Plans’ with 5’s management team.

A Look Back at ABS-CBN in 2010 and 2014

ABS-CBN

2010: It was a great year for the Kapamilya network. According to Gabby Lopez on their annual report, they benefited from the overall growth of Philippine economy, and they remained as benchmark of Philippine TV programming, suiting the tastes and reflecting the values of the Filipino people.

It was during those times that IWanTV was launched to cater viewers who miss any show on ABS-CBN. Last May, after their historic coverage of the presidential elections entitled ‘Ako ang Simula’ wherein they showcased use of holograms, they changed their corporate name to ABS-CBN Corporation which means they have moved beyond broadcasting. As they celebrated 60 Years of Pinoy Soap Opera, dramas like ‘Agua Bendita’, ‘Imortal’, the reboot of ‘Mara Clara’, ‘Kung Tayo’y Magkakalayo’, ‘Habang May Buhay’, ‘Magkaribal’ and ‘Noah’ were able to impress viewers on primetime. It was also the year they revived ‘Wansapanataym’ and ‘Kokey’ for those who missed those well-received programs. In the afternoon, Precious Hearts Romances (PHR) showcased the top-caliber performances of its then-second-tier stars.

Moving beyond teleseryes, on the reality show side, ‘Pilipinas Got Talent’ was also launched, with Jovit Baldivino emerging as its first grand winner. In April, ‘Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Clash 2010’ managed to launch the careers of Ryan Bang, Devon Seron and James Reid. Original creations in Sharon Cuneta’s ‘Star Power’ and even the return of ‘Star Circle Quest Kiddie Edition’ also caught viewers’ attention and were able to launch the showbiz careers of Angeline Quinto and Clarence Delgado.

There was a fair share of problems when it comes to noontime shows. Willie Revillame left ‘Wowowee’ in May due to disagreements with Jobert Sucaldito causing the show’s downfall and the launch of ‘Pilipinas Win na Win’. But the latter fell short to ‘Eat Bulaga’ and it underwent a series of changing timeslots and host line-ups and was reduced to 1 hour during their final months. One of their final hosts happened to be Rico J. Puno who passed away eight years later.

Beyond entertainment, their sports division entered into partnership for cheerleading and football. They became the broadcast partner for the National Cheerleading Championship and the Philippine Football Federation. Their UHF network, Studio 23, started to cater to the mass audience with its new slogan: IbaKabarkada! in August.

2014: On the positive side, it was a year full of high viewership numbers, top trending topics on social media and a wide line of awards, meaning it was another impressive year for the Mother Ignacio folks.

For its daytime programming, the musical game show ‘The Singing Bee’ moved to weekdays while the Jodi Sta. Maria-starred ‘Be Careful with My Heart’ eventually bade farewell. ‘It’s Showtime’ continued to dominate noontime viewing while ‘Give Love on Christmas’ became their second Christmas special drama after ‘Ikaw Ay Pag-Ibig’ a few years earlier.

On Primetime Bida, the year 2014 became the year of the “wives” with two controversial teleseryes on their third slot. ‘The Legal Wife’, top billed by Jericho Rosales, Angel Locsin and Maja Salvador, became a controversial teleserye and well-known of its weird promo prize of Uni-Pak sardines. TLW’s ending was unique among other teleseryes: no happy ever after series but a happy scene of poetic justice made by Locsin. Two Wives is based on the SBS Korean drama five years ago, starring Kaye Abad, Jason Abalos, Erich Gonzales and Patrick Garcia. Both series were able to gain high ratings, beating their GMA counterparts. Ikaw Lamang, topbilled by Coco Martin, Kim Chiu, Jake Cuenca, Julia Montes and KC Concepcion, was the only teleserye that spanned more than six months on primetime TV during that year (7.5 months to be exact). It was replaced by Enrique Gil and Liza Soberano’s first drama as a love team, entitled ‘Forevermore’, shot in the Ilocos Region.

In the reality show department, Pinoy Big Brother: All In‘s housemate selection drew flak by netizens, trending with #PBBScripted. During the four-month stay, there are issues provoking within the Big Brother house including the intimidation of a nude painting challenge. In the end, on August 24, the latecomer Daniel Matsunaga was crowned as the Big Winner, while as far as singing contests were concerned, last July 27, during The Voice Kids’ premier season, judges and the plebs chose Lyca Gairanod as the winner instead of Darren Espanto due to her pitiful socioeconomic background.

Their sports division had a successful year, beginning with the end of Studio 23 and the start of ABS-CBN Sports + Action. Because the UAAP and the NBA sustained its higher ratings that year, it led to another 5-year contract for the 2 leagues’ broadcast rights.

In other programming, this year saw the return of the legal drama ‘Ipaglaban Mo’ while ‘ASAP’ celebrated its 19th anniversary with two shows outside the Philippines: Dubai in January and Los Angeles in October. The latter also introduced new groups like ‘IG’ (the second coming of It Girls) and ‘Homegrown Divas’. A late-night talk show premiered last February, entitled ‘Aquino and Abunda Tonight’, wherein Boy Abunda and Kris Aquino would deliver the top stories in showbiz and politics for just 15 minutes. The showbiz talk show ‘The Buzz’ celebrated its 15th year which is why the title ‘Buzz ng Bayan’ got scrapped. Can’t you imagine Boy, Kris and Toni Gonzaga all together every Sunday afternoon?

It was also a year of homecoming celebrities. Jolina Magdangal and Maxene Magalona returned to their first home in TV career after 12 years of projects on GMA. The former began her TV career in 1992 as a pioneer Ang TV teen, whereas the latter returned to her first home as April Mae of Dream Dad (starring Jana Agoncillo, Zanjoe Marudo and Beauty Gonzalez) after 19 years of working with the rival network, except for her 2005 guest stint on ASAP Fanatic (just a mere asterisk). Like Jolina, Maxene started her career as an Ang TV kid during its second season.

There were also things on the negative side, however. While Primetime Bida dominated the primetime slot, they had a fair share of busts. Julia Barretto’s debut teleserye Mirabella failed to impress, while the reboot of ‘Dyesebel’ and ‘Sana Bukas Pa ang Kahapon’ never met expectations.

The last two quarters of 2014 saw the decline in quality of Kapamilya Gold. The network’s last two afternoon soaps, ‘Galema: Anak ni Zuma’ and ‘Moon of Desire’, were replaced by a combination of Asianovela reruns, ‘Bet on Your Baby’, the ill-fated ‘Ana Manuela’, and ‘Kapamilya Blockbusters’, a sign that ABS-CBN was letting their rival GMA dominate the afternoon slot.

Speaking of reruns, ABS-CBN re-broadcast the highly successful ‘Meteor Garden’ to rave reviews. Later reruns of Asianovelas like ‘My Girl’ and ‘Lovers in Paris’ and even classic Asian cartoons ‘Princess Sarah’, ‘Marcelino Pan Y Vino’ and ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ were considered as flops in the daytime slot.

Finally, regarding their sports and news divisions, they also had some negative moments. On the sports side, WWE fans in the Philippines cried foul over the missing Wrestlemania XXX, thinking it was just one special that will be skipped last March. However, it was confirmed that WWE’s local broadcast rights has been moved to Fox Sports, meaning that the new Sports + Action will focus on real action on sports (hence, UFC was retained) and not mostly entertainment on sports (where WWE devotes more on discourse and less on value-added activity). In June, the coverage of all five NBA Finals games of San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat delayed in favor of Kris TV. Three months later, the FIBA World Cup in Spain was accredited but the Gilas games are delayed by an average of a day than TV5’s live coverage. Netizens cried foul over few delayed Azkals matches last November due to priority of NBA games. Whereas on the news side, February saw the weekday late night news program Bandila deliver the unconfirmed news item on the communicable “mysterious flesh-eating disease” in Pangasinan which triggered mass panic and prayer on national trends, and a month before the year ended, on December 3, during the banter segment on TV Patrol, Korina Sanchez was once again in the spotlight of controversy when she prayed that the Typhoon Ruby will swerve to Japan. Four days later, Atom Araullo once again braced his bravery on the intense effect of the typhoon in Samar on DZMM Teleradyo. As the typhoon diminished into a tropical depression, sparing Metro Manila, Kim Atienza explained during the interview on Aquino & Abunda Tonight (where it began last January) that the strong Amihan monsoon was credited for the weakening of the typhoon.

Conclusion

What was funny for them? None other than Marc Logan provided humour to each viewer every late Saturday afternoon with ‘Mga Kwento ni Marc Logan’ which premiered during the month of August but ended September last year. But seriously, ABS-CBN still bannered in most aspects that year amid the controversies and problems they have faced, especially when they have ended the year gracefully with an above 30% audience share nationwide according to what Kantar Media has gathered.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where I will tackle about T5N (The 5 Network) in 2010 and 2014.

My Opening Blog

Hi! My name is Lorenzo Kiel M. Cerin, I am a PHTV and radio enthusiast and an avid fan of Ralphierce’s From The Tube, as well as Timow’s Turf. There’s only a few days left in 2017, so I have to make up my own blog before this year ends. Hopefully I will get to know what is happening on the landscape of TV and radio. Good luck!

A Look Back at TV5 in 2013

TV5 nowadays has been a sports channel in the mood of ABS-CBN’s S+A, thanks to its partnership with ESPN under the Chot Reyes era.

But a few years ago, they were a balanced channel, having the perfect mix of entertainment, news and sports. 2013 was a transition year for the Kapatid network, they enjoyed a slow start, claiming that they were raring to go under their battlecry, ‘Go5!’, before rebounding with a respectable fourth quarter.

HOT

T3: Reload, one of the top-rating public affairs shows of the network at that time, rebounded in 2013 with a more toned-down approach, yet maintaining the same ol’ nastiness that the Tulfo brothers constantly address to the bullies and anomalous officials. It was suspended in the first half of 2012 thanks to a brawl that happened in NAIA among the Barretto and Tulfo families. This year also saw Radyo5 welcome Ben Tulfo and his ‘Bitag sa Radyo’ program after its departure from UNTV, in the process uniting the three brothers on the same umbrella, with Erwin also co-anchoring ‘Punto Asintado’ with Martin Andanar and Raffy hosting ‘Wanted sa Radyo’ with Nina Taduran.

In June, TV5 hired Noel Lorenzana in an effort to overhaul its programming. The end result were three program blocks a few months later: ‘Weekend Do It Better’, ‘Everyday All the Way’, and ‘KBO: Karunungan, Balita at Opinyon’. This alternative programming approach almost bore fruit by the end of the year, as several of its programs finished among the Top 15 in the Nielsen Media Research ratings. In addition, the network’s willingness to reach out to a younger audience also paid dividends, as programs such as ‘SpinNation’ became one of the most talked-about shows on social media.

TV5 also scored big in its sports coverage, with the recent airings of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup and Governors’ Cup Finals, and the Gilas Pilipinas games at the FIBA Asia Championship earning high viewership figures. And to cap off a resurgent finish to the year, TV5 officially christened the new TV5 Media Center in Mandaluyong City.

NOT HOT

Under Perci Intalan, TV5 tried to compete against more established powers GMA and ABS-CBN. However, it only resulted in revenue losses. None of TV5’s own teleseryes (‘Kidlat‘, ‘Undercover’, ‘Cassandra: Warrior Angel’, ‘Misibis Bay’, ‘Enchanted Garden‘, ‘Never Say Goodbye’) even made noise in the teleserye wars, and programs such as ‘Jeepney Jackpot’, ‘Kanta Pilipinas‘, ‘Alabang Housewives’ and ‘Boracay Bodies’ were critical failures, mainly because they lack the finances and reach to sustain them. They even attempted to air a Sunday noontime show in ‘Game n Go’ but it didn’t work out, thanks to the war of ‘ASAP’ and ‘Party Pilipinas’. Eventually they slowed down the launching of new shows for the first half of the year to reduce expenses.

But perhaps the most crucial reason behind the reformat was ‘Wowowillie‘. The noontime show, a symbol of the Intalan era, finally left the airwaves in October after three years, numerous controversies and massive losses. Host Willie Revillame would ‘retire’ shortly afterwards. In addition, TV5 originals ‘Face to Face’, ‘Lokomoko’ and ‘Talentadong Pinoy‘ were also cancelled; these became victims of the shakeup under the new management. ‘Face to Face’ welcomed back Amy Perez as its host last April after a maternity leave and it became the first-ever ‘talakserye’ wherein she and Gelli de Belen offer advice to local citizens who are experiencing conflicts, while ‘Lokomoko’ seemed like a modern-day reincarnation of ‘Tropang Trumpo’, and ‘Talentadong Pinoy’ with Ryan Agoncillo tried to give ‘Pilipinas Got Talent’ a run for its money, and its last episode aired in August of that year, while ‘PGT’ had its finale a few months earlier. ‘TP’ would later return the following year with husband-and-wife tandem Mariel and Robin Padilla as hosts.

TV5 also encountered numerous problems with its sports coverage. In May, they cut block-time ties with IBC-13, but were urged to stay until the PBA Governors’ Cup eliminations. As a result the NCAA was forced to air its nightly games on AksyonTV; the long-delayed finals was aired on TV5 in the early afternoon. And to cap off, many PBA fans were angered when TV5 decided to air only the ‘marquee’ games of the ongoing Philippine Cup live during weeknights and Saturdays, leaving the signal-deficient AksyonTV to air the rest.

Outlook

The motto for TV5 by 2014 would have been ‘There’s nowhere to go but up’. With Noel Lorenzana spearheading the rebuilding project back then, TV5 still committed to producing shows that were favorable to younger and socially active citizens. And as they opened the TV5 Media Center, it appears that things were on the upswing.

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