THE PROMISE/PANGAKO SA YO returns to African screens via Televista Nigeria

Already, there are outstanding local support infrastructure to Pinoy showbiz in many parts of the world. I use them as frontline sources in my research for this blog. Though I dig as deep to the broadcast stations themselves to get the facts & scan regularly the local blogoshere to detect the trends. I love doing it, I consider it as just a web offshoot of my love for travel, places & languages.

In Africa, you can not go wrong with Africa Fans of Philippine Teleserye. Curiously, it has better Pinoy showbiz coverage than most Pinoy showbiz blogs that I actually  learn from it what I know most about Pinoy stars (The blogger regularly comments in our blog too, btw). I got the picture below  from this site.

The Promise has been shown in almost the whole of Subsaharan Africa last year. Televista is a Nigerian broadcast station that regularly releases teleserye reruns.

MI DOBLE VIDA/ ANG DALAWANG MRS. REAL, Spanish version

It's good that teleserye has managed to stay resurgent in many parts of the world. The interesting thing is that the competition tango between the two biggest Pinoy broadcasting companies, GMA & ABS-CBN,  continues with its incessant whirls & sways. The rivalry has de-facto gone beyond the Philippine shores. Africa & Latin America have been  locked in by new GMA releases but ABS-CBN has been making fastbreak moves within Asia after being initially nudged by its rival, which traditionally was stronger in nearer shores.

In short, Pinoy teleserye is alive. Its interesting stories & good-looking stars continuing to delight the world...

Another GMA teleserye has been marketed to the Spanish-speaking world.

HẸN ƯỚC TÌNH YÊU/PANGAKO SA YO finally shown on Vietnam TodayTV

Outside the Philippines, the top Pinoy young loveteam, Kathniel of Daniel Padilla & Kathryn Bernardo, is probably biggest in Vietnam. It's a big wonder then why their early 2016 hit Pangako Sa Yo arrived there later than in most countries. After travelling the world, from Central Asia to Africa to Latin America, it is finally being shown in the rest of Southeast Asia- after Myanmar,  it just recently  reached the top 5 in the ratings charts of Indonesia. Now finally, Vietnam. I can just imagine the excitement in the vast Kathniel fan infrastructure in our neighbor.

KATHNIEL MOVIE TEASER/ THEME SONG: Daniel Padilla sings CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU

BRIDGES OF LOVE returns on Indonesian small screens after all

ABS-CBN must be jumping with joy. Bridges of Love, which was one of the 3 ABS-CBN teleseryes which were pulled out after just a few days of telecast, is returning to the screen after all. Fingers crossed, the other two, Magpahanggang Wakas & Forevermore will return shortly too.

Peruvian Hit, Theme Song & Lyrics: CAUTIVA/HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI by AICELLE SANTOS

I have to admit, I watched every now & then the transmission of Cautiva/ Hanggang Makita Kang Muli from the Panamericana website. But it is really too early, 5:30 am, so it was mainly a haphazard effort. Though it gave me great satisfaction to learn each time that my Spanish was not at all rusty, I could understand it fully. Watching teleseryes being shown in various languages has been a boon: I can easily learn languages, & I could refresh them by watching  dubbed soaps, be it in Spanish, like in Peru, or reading the Russian subtitles, like in Kazakhstan (being bilingual, telenovelas there are dubbed in Kazakh but subtitled in Russian).

Cautiva was the surprise hit teleserye in Peru, besting the Philipine hit La Promesa/ Pangako Sa Yo and outclassing the kdramas which for 15 years were consistent in being stuck at the bottom of the Peruvian  ratings charts, below all the telenovelas from Peru, Brazil, Colombia & the Philippines. It was obvious they loved there the theme song of this teleserye, they used it a lot to signal the breaks. Me too. Lucky us, we have here the lyric video.

BLISS Trailer: IZA CALZADO wins Best Actress in OSAKA FILM FESTIVAL for Jerrold Tarog's BLISS

Сүйгенім бол/ BE MY LADY soon on 31Kanal Kazakhstan

ABS-CBN might have been kicked out of Peru to be replaced by perennially low-rating kdramas while the GMA teleserye Cautiva/Hanggang Makita Kang Muli shot up in the Peruvian charts, but at least, it still had Kazakhstan. Since Forevermore became a hit in that country 2 years ago, teleseryes remained permanent telenovela fare.

This is cute. I could almost taste ABS-CBN sighing with relief. It nearly got kicked out into oblivion as Africa chose more GMA teleseryes & Indonesia pulled out after a few days of showing most of the ABS-CBN teleseryes it recently bought. ABS-CBN should show gratitude to the Kazakhs & reward them some free teleseryes. At least, that would guarantee it will always be shown there. Miracles are true, btw...

 It should take a cue from the Koreans, they may languish in the bottom of the charts for nearly 15 years in a particular country but they still get to be shown because of miracles behind the scene.

MI DESTINO/MY DESTINY: Spanish Trailer

This is one of the biggest teleserye hits in many parts of the world lately. My post on its showing in Kenya was the most accessed from Africa. It is also the performance of Carla Abellana in this GMA drama which made her garner the Most Popular Foreign Artist award in Vietnam early this year.

Now, My Destiny is being marketed as Mi Destino in the Spanish-speaking world. Will it be as well-received like in many countries of the world?

รักวุ่นวาย...หัวใจติดปีก/ ON THE WINGS OF LOVE showing on TV3 Thailand

Better late than never. So, more and more countries are showing On The Wings of Love, the first teleserye of the JaDine loveteam of James Reid & Nadine Lustre. From Indonesia, then Startimes in Africa to now, Thailand. At a rickety time in the JaDine history, after a couple of dismal boxoffice duds &  disappointing ratings of their second teleserye, this comes as a reassuring breeze.

But not only to the team. To their station, ABS-CBN, as well. It has been dislodged from some of the screens where its teleseryes were the traditional fare from Peru to Africa- fortunately, it has managed to salvage airtime in the last minute by mining new territories from Myanmar to Indonesia, now Thailand (though it has been an embarrassing journey so far in Indonesia as 3 of the latest 4 ABS-CBN teleseryes were pulled out after a few days). 

EL SECRETO DE MI ESPOSO/ MY HUSBAND'S LOVER: Spanish Trailer

Pinoy teleserye definitely had flashes of progressive liberalism. One of the best examples is the ready tackling of otherwise sensitive issues in less forward societies. Like sexual minorities. A GMA teleserye, My Husband's Lover is being marketed in the Spanish-speaking world as El secreto de mi esposo. The Latin countries, like the Philippines, were steeped in macho culture, but they were relatively as easy to accept the drift of the times.

Will this teleserye be accepted there as it was accepted in the Philippines?

BEAUTIFUL STRANGERS showing on MyTV Africa

The ABS-CBN teleserye La Promesa/ Pangako Sa Yo has disappeared from the Latin American small screens without the hoped-for homestretch spurt in the ratings,  but the GMA Cautiva/Hanggang Makita Kang Muli surprised everybody by shooting up the rating charts. ABS-CBN teleseryes have been cut one after the other in Indonesia (3 of the 4 recent releases were pulled out after a few days, including Bridges of Love, Forevermore & Magpahanggang Wakas) and they are upstaged in a big way in Africa by the rival Pinoy station, GMA. Beautiful Strangers just started in Kenya, now it is being shown in most Subsaharan countries via My TV Africa.

Teleserye has a deep bench. When one station falters, another quickly fills up the slack and keeps up the pace.

BEAUTIFUL STRANGERS showing on KTN KENYA

Following the successful run of My Faithful Husband, another GMA teleserye starring Lovi Poe & Heart Evangelista is being shown on KTN Kenya. GMA seems to have locked the 6 pm primetime slot for good?

ALDUB THEME SONG is Number 1 in iTunes: TADHANA by Denise Barbacena

So how is the first Aldub teleserye faring? As expected, the two rating agencies are proclaiming their respective champions. Almost as expected, the familiar Twitter deluge was there, almost a signature Aldub phenomenon.

And, well, the theme song is the top song at iTunes too. Nice song & singer.

Will this be the teleserye that will introduce Aldub to a wider audience in foreign shores, like how teleseryes have made stars of many young Pinoy loveteams in many parts of the world?

KAULAH TAKDIRKO/GOT 2 BELIEVE on March 2 on MNCTV Indonesia

So MNCTV Indonesia is showing another Pinoy teleserye, the 2013 Kathniel teleserye Got 2 Believe, given a new Bahasa title for the Indonesia run. The first Kathniel teleserye in Indonesia, Pangako Sa Yo/Janjiku, reached the Number 5 position in the Indonesian TV Ratings chart, but the other teleseryes imported into Indonesia didn't fare as well, with 3 of the latest 4 ABS-CBN teleserye imports, all big Philipine hits in the Kantar chart, having been pulled out almost immediately.

 There's a little suspense here therefore- with the way MNCTV has been hacking Pinoy teleseryes after a few days, it's a bit curious how this one will fare out.

2017 New York Festivals World’s Best TV and Films Finalist: "SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME" is the lone Asian Finalist

I have to admit local Pinoy showbiz has somewhat bored me lately. When it should be flying high because it has apparently entered the dawning of a new Golden Age, it has turned somewhat icky instead. When it reached its Golden Age in the 1970's to 80's, it allowed itself to be priced out of its mass market with the externally-machinated ruse of introduction of multiplexes (Bollywood maintained its status as the biggest film industry in the world by maintaining its low popular prices while the second biggest in the world at that time, the Filipino film industry, priced out the masses and nosedived into gloom, contented like an innocent fool with the fostered fake news of competition & piracy). It has lately started being the top Asian telenovela draw in many parts of the world but the sad Pinoy story rears its head again. Soft power is power, & Pinoy showbiz soft power was never allowed to blossom fully. Why? There will always be Pinoys, who, for varying wicked reasons, will spoil the show for somebody else's soft power. Inferiority complex, mendicancy & cluelessness, it was never a pretty sight.

But the tides continue to roll. Pinoys are a cultural power, no matter how low their self-regard. At least.

GOT 2 BELIEVE showing on March 6 @ MNCTV Indonesia: Kathniel returns to Indonesia

It's hard to fathom the parameters from which MNCTV in Indonesia is juggling its programs. Baffling programming, to say the least. Showing an international hit like Bridges of Love for a few days then pulling it out suddenly. Giving a near midnight time slot to a youth teleserye Forevermore when most of its target audience would have to sleep for their classes the next day. Why not accord them the proper treatment and give them time to simmer some more, there was a precedent after all...

For most of its run, Pangako Sa Yo/ Janjiku just simmered in the lower rungs of the Indonesian ratings chart but boiled over & shot to the top in the end. Kathryn Bernardo & Daniel Padilla are now returning to the Indonesian small screen with their 2013 hit.