REVISITING THE OLD NORMAL: TV5’s 2012 and 2016 highlights

2020 is about to end. It wasn’t as sweet as it was meant to be as it tasted too sour and bitter once more. And Kiel’s World understands about it but before we say “good riddance” or any uttering to release such frustrations from this annus horribilis, let’s all recall the milestones of TV5 in 2012 and 2016.

2012

For that year, TV5 continued to dominate the ratings as the No. 3 network. They started the year with The Biggest Game Show in the World Asia, hosted by Richard Gomez and took place in various parts of Southeast Asia. There was also a local version of Extreme Makeover with Paolo Bediones as host.

With their constant responce to the teleserye dominance of ABS-CBN and GMA, they aired the following soaps: a remake of the 90s classic Valiente on primetime and a mini-series with David Archuleta entitled Nandito Ako. In the afternoons they had Felina, a fantaseries with Arci Munoz who portrays a girl with cat looks. Isang Dakot na Luha was among the quintessential afternoon tearjerkers. Another fantaserye, Enchanted Garden, aired in July every early evenings.

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Later that year, Artista Academy was launched and aired daily. A reality show patterned after Star Circle Quest and StarStruck that aims to look for the next stars of TV5, this one launched the careers of Mark Neumann, Shaira Diaz, Chanel Morales and Vin Abrenica (who is incidentally a brother of SS graduate and now-Kapamilya star Aljur Abrenica).

Meanwhile, Talentadong Pinoy remained a force to be reckoned with. They put up a junior and a worldwide edition during that year.

In May, TV5 tried putting up a talk show in the afternoon entitled Sharon, Kasama Mo Kapatid. This supposed revival of the Megastar’s iconic self-titled talk show on ABS-CBN failed to impress viewers, as it constantly lost to the afternooon soaps of GMA and ABS.

In the variety show department, they had Sunday Funday which aired every Sunday afternoon from April to June and was catered to teenagers. Accepting defeat, they created a purely game-oriented noontime show entitled Game n Go in mid-June. Tagged as the union of game show masters in Joey de Leon, Edu Manzano and Arnel Ignacio, they proved to become a good alternative for the musicals offered by their rivals.

For the news and public affairs divisions, Sapul sa Singko and Aksyon JournalisMO were renamed as Good Morning Club and Pilipinas News as part of a major change in an effort to boost its competition. Insider, an investigative program was aired in February while Reaksyon, a news magazine and public affairs show hosted by Luchi Cruz-Valdes, aired in August. In early May, a scandal involving the Tulfo brothers and the Santiago brothers in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport demoralized the management. T3, the show they were hosting, was suspended by the MTRCB and temporarily replaced by Metro Aksyon. The court of Appeals issued a 60-day suspension and T3 returned in late June.

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Talent newsmakers this year include Derek Ramsay, a hunk actor from ABS-CBN who signed a contract with the network in April. He was tapped to be the ambassador of their London Olympics coverage and eventually became the host of The Amazing Race PH. Twink Macaraig jumped ship from ANC to join News5. Rufa Mae Quinto, a mainstay of GMA-7’s Bubble Gang, began hosting WilTime Bigtime. Before the year ended, they launched a website called Kristn which focused on different lifestyle topics.

2016

This can be described as TV5’s ‘worst year ever’ under MVP.

Chronologically, it started when the retrenchment in the previous year affected its in-house entertainment department and reached out to VIVA’s Vic del Rosario for its entertainment programs. The offerings included sineseryes such as Bakit Manipis ang Ulap and Ang Panday, a singing search entitled Born to Be a Star, and a music countdown, MTV Top 20 Pilipinas. Wattpad Presents was downgraded into a made-for-TV movie on Saturday nights, and Happy Truck moved to Friday nights as a gag show entitled HAPPinas Happy Hour. Neither of these strategies succeeded, and not even Claudine Barretto and Richard Gutierrez’ supposed comeback to the drama arena made an impact. Low viewership numbers, inconsistent scheduling, as well as the PBA affected their plans.

They replaced this ‘lost opportunity’ with foreign programming, including those from MTV and American series to air on non-PBA game days (The Walking Dead, Arrow, Nikita, Scandal). Ogie Alcasid’s exclusive contract got expired and eventually rejoined ABS-CBN. TV5 became badly known for being tempted to sportscasting commitments, including the FIBA Olympic Tournament and the Rio Olympics. The latter’s coverage was doomed since not all people subscribe to PLDT, Smart and Cignal. Unable to take account of the time difference, they failed to air the games in the wee hours of the morning. TV5 should have prioritized their coverage on free TV in the first place. October marked Gilas coach Chot Reyes’ ascension to the CEO position replacing Noel Lorenzana.

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News5 also deserved criticism this year. Since Rodrigo Duterte got elected as President, Martin Andanar was the first anchor to leave as PCOO Secretary. Cherie Mercado followed suit as Transportation spokesperson, then came Ina Zara, Jun Loyola and Mia Reyes. Dino Apolonio, the head of production engineering, became the General Manager of People’s Television Network Inc.

Because of that, some Aksyon newscasts had to use a solo anchor formula. However, Luchi Cruz-Valdes stayed as head of the news division. Gladys Lana-Lucas was also in hot water after Radyo5 NewsFM failed to cover the House and Senate hearings on the Drug War and extrajudicial killings from September to December unlike DZBB and DZMM.

In September, the regional newscasts of Aksyon in Cebu and Davao were cancelled as part of the cost-cutting measures done by management, making a significant reduce in TV5’s regional presence.

CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK FOR THE FOLLOWING YEAR

2013 would be the year Willie Revillame’s variety show would move to noontime and it may also lead to competition in a 3-way battle. From that time, TV5 would create more innovative programming in the years to come.

Chot Reyes deserves to make TV5 totally different this 2017. With TV movies from renowned filmmaker Brillante Mendoza and the return of anime, he hopes that what’s in store for them under his wing will be more profitable, hoping to recover from last year’s difficulties.

Stay tuned for the next part, where I will discuss GMA in 2012 and 2016.

2011/2015 RECAP: T5N

2019 is about to end. But before we enter the sweet 2020, let’s look back at what happened in Philippine television in 2011 and 2015. This part, we’ll travel to what happened on The 5 Network during those 2 years.

2011

This was their first full calendar year as a mainstream network. Going head to head with ABS-CBN and GMA, they launched their first Teledrama, Babaeng Hampaslupa, which was like ‘Mano Po’ reimagined as a series, with Alex Gonzaga in the lead role.

They ventured into ‘sineseryes’ with ‘Ang Utol Kong Hoodlum’, ‘Bagets: Just Got Lucky’ and  ‘P.S. I Love You’. ‘Face to Face’ continued its reign during daytime, capturing the hearts of the barangay viewers showcasing fights between 2 people who encounter difficulties along the way.  Comedy galore was felt as they launched new sitcoms like ‘Sugo mga Kapatid’ and ‘The Jose and Wally Show’. The former would also be used for their regional tours, albeit it is entitled Sugod Mga Kapatid, based on the Sandwich song Sugod.

Its own reality talent search ‘Talentadong Pinoy’ continued to earn wide support from the Filipino audience. Season 2 grand champion Joseph the Artist, displayed artistic excellence using sand.

Their aggressive move through its own news and sports channel AksyonTV also got wide support with its round-the-clock broadcast.

Regarding their ‘negatives’, their primetime game show, ‘Willing Willie’ faced controversy after a 6-year-old boy named ‘Jan-Jan’ cried while dancing in front of the audience. It forced most advertisers to pull out, leading to its suspension. It returned on air in May, under a different title, as ‘WilTime BigTime’.

They also tried to strengthen their Sunday noontime slot with new shows replacing P.O.5, namely: Lucky Numbers, Fan*tastik and Celebrity Samurai. Unfortunately, only the latter was able to make it last until the following year. The former 2 were cancelled because it lacked support, though they tried their best to crash ASAP/Party Pilipinas.

In terms of talent newsmakers, they spent their resources getting big-name stars like Sharon Cuneta, Alice Dixson, Aga Muhlach, Lorna Tolentino and the homecoming Nora Aunor. They even acquired noontime show host Mariel Padilla and news personality Tintin Babao from ABS-CBN, as well as Gelli de Belen and young star Nadine Samonte from GMA. Aga was the host of the travel-edutainment show ‘Pinoy Explorer‘, while Gelli was tapped to host Gellicious. Nadine would do several dramas for TV5, such as ‘The Sisters’, Nora would do the miniseries Sa Ngalan ng Ina, while Lorna would star in its successor, Glamorosa.

2015

That year, it was a different story for TV5 as they distinguished from the Big 2 networks and continued being an alternative network.

Despite the teleserye dominance, it still encouraged TV5. They made the remakes of two K-Drama’s “The Baker King’ (with Mark Neumann) and “My Fair Lady‘ (with Jasmine Curtis) in May and September. However, the network did not air their dubbed, original Koreanovelas as the former belonged to GMA and the latter to ABS-CBN.

Following the cancellation of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ in early November due to the management change (see later paragraph), ‘Wattpad Presents’ became the network’s longest-running active entertainment program before the year ended, having been on the air for over a year. The youth-oriented anthology reached over a year thanks to an endless supply of new stories and a dedicated fanbase. It is considered a perfect alternative to the long and dragging storylines that a teleserye usually provides.

Die-hard anime fans who are keyboard warriors have answered their pleas over the Anime’s “El Niño” of 2014 in January, the return of AniMEGA initially aired on weekend mornings.

Two programs on News5 aired on different platforms of the network for the year. The first is the digital series, Kontrabando, a news satire and free-to-air weekly game show series, Barangay Utakan. However, one of the common presenters of the said new shows, Ramon Bautista, was under fire for hypocrisy (i.e. criticizing the presidential candidate then but later endorsing him on a music video.)

The 1999 Australian children’s show, entitled ‘Hi-5‘ approved the first full franchise in Southeast Asia and got a go signal to air, beginning in June. It aired every day: twice per weekday and once each weekend. As a prelude to the local edition, they aired repeats of the original series’ 2011 edition.

Throughout the rainy season, TV5 made shows with diverse genres ranging to kid-friendly with a techie twist (LolaBasyang.com) to comedic horror (ParangNormal Activity). Both were aired on Saturdays and were produced by The IdeaFirst Company, helmed by Director Perci Intalan. Not to forget, Kano Luvs Pinay, also on Sundays, made into the small screens.

VIVA Entertainment’s CEO, Vic Del Rosario replaced Wilma Galvante as the chief strategist for entertainment in October. This came at a time when their entertainment division temporarily dissolved due to the major retrenchment, and when TV5 started relying on blocktimers for their entertainment content.

Bloomberg finally ink the deal with TV5 for a local franchise on March 25. On that day, was launched as the first business news channel round-the-clock but the second global network to set a localized channel. This channel gave amazing insights on the APEC Summit, while dismaying the network’s other channels.

After 15 years off the air from IBC under Vintage Enterprises, on that day, Blow by Blow is currently hosted by Manny Pacquiao, one of its featured homegrown boxers. However, objections were raised over his hosting but the answer was clear that this presentation did not breach his exclusive contract with GMA.

On the negative side, AksyonTV decided to allocate their airtime to Shop Japan. This surprise strategy remained with the introduction of Pilipinas Commercial Basketball League (PCBL) and Filsports Basketball Assocation (from PTV). That said made Channel 41 unreliable to cover the APEC Summit last November.

KIS Pinoy broke the hearts of K-Pop fans for the second time under a new venture on TV5. The first venture under PTV last year was not fully materialized due to misunderstanding with the network and obvious programming priority. Originally aired on Saturday night and hosted by Richard Gutierrez, the said talent show aired only three episodes from July 11-25 until YU&IQ International, the producer of the program, on that day over Facebook, decided to cease production due to financial difficulties.

The talent newsmakers for this year are: Lee O’Brian, an American who became Tuesday Vargas’ on-screen partner in Kano Luvs Pinay and Aira Binas, Alex Reyes, Rissey Reyes, Gerard Pagunsan and Fred Lo, the hosts of Hi-5 Philippines.

In April, Janno Gibbs finally took a bow from GMA 7 for three decades in order to join his old friend, Ogie Alcasid. On June 14, Happy Truck ng Bayan premiered and acted as a response to ASAP and Sunday All Stars. However, it is not aired live but recorded the day before, giving the certain and obvious factor of the truck travel and the coverage constraint. Atty. Rod Nepomuceno also rejoined the TV5 camp, transferring from 9TV in order to join the then-newly launched Bloomberg TV Philippines.

Conclusion and Outlook for the Following Year

In 2011, TV5 was fast gaining momentum as a worthy contender to ABS-CBN and GMA, while enjoying their time then getting big-name stars. They were planning to do more reality shows the following year, with the likes of ‘Extreme Makeover‘ and ‘The Biggest Game Show in the World’ going underway.

Four years later, it will be very hectic for TV5 on both news and sports division. On News5, their division’s “Bilang Pilipino” has disseminated through programs such as “Politics for Beginners” and reviving B.A.Y.A.W. (starring Jun “Bayaw” Sabayton) election fillers on its plugs.

On Sports5, they have the official broadcast rights to cover the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Following the Gilas Pilipinas’ qualification after losing to China in the finals on FIBA Asia Championship in the latter’s city of Changsha, the bidding and hosting of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament for men’s basketball will be committed to air live.

Specifically on January, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will begin to cover under the new broadcast rights on this network that will aid their dormant sports channel, Hyper.

With the new entertainment strategist, their responsibility center would be easy to deliver but it would be rather be difficult to materialize, since PBA remains their primetime strength. More sineseryes are coming up, with Bakit Manipis ang Ulap? and Ang Panday leading the way, with viewers looking forward to the return of Claudine Barretto and Richard Gutierrez.

A Look Back at T5N 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 The 5 Network during those 2 years.

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.