How can ‘Eat Bulaga’ win back noontime show audience?
IF the entire “Madlang Pipol” (of It’s Showtime) could hardly believe that their noontime show now airs on GMA, how much more crushing its rival program Eat Bulaga in its April 6 episode to a pulp?
The said edition was doubly monumental for them all as it was Showtime’s inaugural episode upon its transfer from GTV to GMA. Albeit belated, it was its main host Vice Ganda’s 48th birthday celebration. And what a blast!
Even prior to its airing — to be honest — I was overly anxious for Eat Bulaga which I believed would bite the dust. True enough, Showtime pounced on the 44-year-old show with 9.7 percent in aggregated ratings vis a vis a dismal 4.4 percent share.
Was it sheer luck, plain and simple? Or was it Showtime’s content as its major winning factor?
Comparatively, let’s not forget that the April 6 “noontime showdown” involved — and will continue to involve — the joint forces of GMA and ABS-CBN as against TV5 (for at least six months as per contract with the Kapuso network).
It’s premature though to say there’s a guaranteed recurrence to this. Knowing Eat Bulaga’s creative synergy, it must be gearing up for more “pasabog” which they will detonate in the succeeding episodes.
In the meantime, its producers — Media Quest Holdings and TVJ Productions — are eyeing, says a report by bilyonaryo. com, Meralco Theatre as the new Eat Bulaga studio.
Presently at the TV5 Media Center on Reliance St. in Mandaluyong City with only a 250-seating capacity, EB is set to open its doors to more studio audience even accommodating as many as a thousand live viewers.
What remains to be seen though is how Eat Bulaga intends to beef up its personality-based content. It’s no redeeming fact that TV5 as a network lacks “star power.”
With GMA and ABS-CBN pulling their act together, it’s a feat to beat.
I can just imagine the two networks’ top honchos — most especially GMA — to be grinning from ear to ear, even laughing their way to the bank.
But more so, I can also fathom how ecstatic the whole Madlang Pipol led by Vice Ganda are as collective efforts to prove their worth are not in vain.
The main host was simply being realistic when she expressed her apprehension with regard to the “six-month deadline” within which to bring Eat Bulaga to heel. “I feel pressured!” was the Unkaboggable Star’s edgy line.
Showtime’s taking the lead as of now, however, does not diminish the Eat Bulaga fan in me. But whether we like it or not, as Kuya Kim Atienza aptly describes it: “Ang buhay, weather-weather lang.”
Without even looking far and wide, who would’ve thought Showtime’s original home would one day be down on its knees?
IT was after the pandemic onslaught that Vina Morales learned a valuable life epiphany.
This has a lot to do with reconciling her differences with the father of her nearly 15-year-old daughter Ceana, Cedric Lee.
Not only was their relationship back then turbulent, it was even worse that the singer-actress could imagine herself.
Already a thing of a bygone past, Vina can only look back smilingly: “After our pandemic experience, I realized there was no point in fighting. I’m more at peace now.”
Vina owes it to the fact that staying in the industry for more than four decades is blessing enough. Add to this is her now-harmonious relationship with Cedric with whom she has a good coparenting arrangement.