After conquering South America, HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI struts in Africa...meanwhile, Pinoy Network Wars go to Thailand?: DESTINY ROSE & PANGAKO SA YO

After making history in 2017 as the highest-rating Asian telenovela to be shown in Peru, the GMA teleserye Hanggang Makita Kang Muli will try its magic this year in Africa. It's now on weekend primetime on KTN, Kenya's top-rating free-to-air TV channel.

Last year, GMA new international releases surprisingly overwhelmed ABS-CBN as the latter only managed to sell a single 2017-produced teleserye for the whole year (Magpahanggang-Wakas). Early 2018 proved that the GMA upsurge  hasn't waned, new GMA teleseryes keep popping in various locations while its rival can't seem to sell its new releases in the international market: Poor Señorita in TV3, Malaysia's largest free-to-air TV, Vietnam had My BFF, Second Chances  in Africa & Ecuador, Destiny Rose in Thailand, etc. It's now February & like last year, Abs-Cbn is still mostly relying on its 2016 & earlier hits to be rerun in various locales (As a consolation, the 2015 Kathniel  teleserye, Pangako Sa Yo has a chance to shine in Thailand).

It's clear the GMA writers are propelling GMA to greater heights in the international arena: innovative plots, not only internationally acceptable Pinoy good looks & sleek production values, are now flying the flag for teleserye abroad. Meanwhile, ABS-CBN is still in GMA mode, still aping the fantaserye genre started by the latter as GMA upped the ante with stories not usually tackled by teleserye (amazingly, a future GMA teleseye is titled The Cure. Getting cutting edge in medical thrillers? )

Meanwhile, it's safe to say the sudden international prominence of the Big 3 young loveteams of ABS-CBN (Kathniel, Lizquen & Jadine) was a fluke. A tsamba which nobody knew how to handle. Yeah, it was probably serendipity that 3 cute Pinoy LT's were created at the same period that they were noticed in various geographical areas in the world, reaping adulations not normally accorded to previous Pinoy or any Asian loveteams. Proving that physically, the beautiful among the Filipinos will be more readily acceptable in more disparate geographical areas of the world than the usual Asian stereotypes.

 But a short look at the history of loveteam making in the Philippines would confirm that cute loveteams coming too far in between was the norm in Philippine, particularly ABS-CBN, loveteam making. The truth is, despite the overabundance of cute youth in Philippine streets, ordinary-looking teen idols were de rigueur in the last 30 years. It doesn't surprise me that my batch never bothered with the so-called Pinoy teen loveteams then (so did the world, obviously), most of my friends  looked far better than the stars and worse, I hate to admit it but I didn't know anybody who wasted his time with Pinoy showbiz. A few bad apples could really spoil the whole basket. The looks of certain Pinoy stars could rebuff a big part of the Philippine population. I remembered the time while channel-surfing when I felt revolted watching a reality show because I found the host "cross-eyed", only to find out years later  when I was already writing this blog that she was actually a big star in that channel. If not for this blog (thereby realizing Pinoy showbiz was bigger than her eyes), I would have lost respect on Pinoy showbiz forever.

Propaganda assumes that mass media can trick the people into  believing or adulating what it dictates. Not a fat chance here in the Philippines. People mostly ignore it when it's tacky. Like we did.

The good thing is that the Big 3 has really proven that unlike the stereotype Asian look, the Pinoy melting-pot look is more acceptable in more geographical areas of the world. And looks matter. This is classically typified by the greater acceptance of the Pinoy teleseryes over the kdramas in all the international areas where they were shown together like in South America (Peru), Southeast Asia( Indonesia), Africa, Central Asia (Kazakhstan), etc.

Perhaps in 2050 when the Philippines is predicted by HSBC to be the 16th richest country in the world, some Filipino strategists would decide to elevate the stature of Filipinos (much like how the South Koreans are doing now in promoting themselves out of the shadows of their giant neighbors, the Chinese & the Japanese). It should occur to them, however, that we don't have to mix delusion into the effort just like how the South Koreans have done it. The Koreans are not only aping the Japanese Jpop for its Kpop or the Chinese for their  F4, but in a ludicrous effort to gain anchor into the Spanish-speaking world, their propagandists went hilariously overboard & had the weird temerity to hilariously tag themselves as "Latinos of Asia", a tag given to the Filipinos by the Latinos themselves. To extremely hilarious results, as expected. As we have documented in the blog,  they were perennially clinging for years at the very bottom of the Peruvian rating charts while their propaganda was hilariously proclaiming they were popular. Nobody was fooled. More like nauseated.

No need to go the South Korean comedy route, Pinoys now know we can count on our looks. Perhaps by 2050, we'll have learned how to handle internationally other Big 3's. After all, we have the supply.


Destiny Rose- OST (Thai) & Trailer

Pangako Sa Yo- OST (Thai) & Trailer

CAUTIVA/HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI opens today on OROMAR TV Ecuador: Canal 26 GYE, 33 UIO, DIRECTV 190, CNT 3 & TVCABLE70

The streak of GMA continues in Latin America. One of its not really pretty starlets  mysteriously won as the representative of the country for the Reina Hispanoamericana Beauty Pageant in Bolivia, but the streak of GMA teleseryes in the said continent is not a mystery at all. It's old reliable storytelling, & surprisingly GMA writers have been adept in concocting plots lately. Cautiva is one of the 3 teleseryes currently showing in Latin America. All from GMA.

My friends joke our Reina Hispanoamericana representative has some semblance to the Bolivian President Evo Morales in some angles, so she might just create more mysteries there. We might become the laughing stock yet in our first appearance in the said pageant. It's good,  GMA teleseryes are providing the distraction. Beautiful things too, like teleseryes, come from the Philippines.

Cautiva stars Derrick Monasterio & Bea Binene. It airs at 6:45 PM Tuesday, Ecuador time (7:45 AM Manila time, Wednesday).

CAUTIVA/HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI opens on September 11 at 6:45 PM OROMARTV Ecuador

There are two places in Latin America which I'm planning to visit but still haven't gotten around to fulfilling it. Quito in Ecuador & Valparaiso in Chile, mainly for their historical areas. But I've long started enjoying them through their cuisines. Ecuadorian & Chilean cuisine might not be familiar in Asia but I whip up my own versions, and that's often because there are no restos offering them here. I've long used avocado as a bread spread the Chilean way (palta) & instead of silogs, I often prepare bistec a lo pobre (a beef, fried egg, potato fries & onions ensemble, a dish Chile has in common with Peru), besides many of its humongous parriladas. But my favorites are the plaintain dishes of Ecuador. They come as dumplings, soup, empanadas, etc. I haven't tasted the originals but I so loved my versions (taken from the internet) that the few times I find time to cook, I cook them 50% of the time. 

Now, Cautiva will be shown in Ecuador. I can see they will be slurping Caldo de bolas de verde or Sango de verde while watching it because it will be shown at 6:45 PM, just in time for dinner. Starting September 11.

Cautiva stars Derrick Monasterio & Bea Binene.

CAUTIVA/HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI next on OROMAR TV ECUADOR

The trailblazing of the highly-successful GMA telenovela Cautiva (Hanggang Makita Kang Muli) hasn't stopped. After becoming the most successful Asian telenovela in Peru, it is slated to be shown next in neighboring Ecuador. It will be broadcast by Oromar TV.

Cautiva stars the most popular (as it turned out) young loveteam of GMA, Derrick Monasterio & Bea Binene.

DERBEA/ The Top Asian Loveteam in Peru... DERRICK MONASTERIO & BEA BINENE

The GMA teleserye HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI (retitled as CAUTIVA in its Spanish version) created a sort of history in Peru. It only ended its first run last month but it was so successful that it became the highest rating Asian telenovela ever in that Latin American country (besting all the other Pinoy teleseryes shown there including the Kathniel-led La Promesa/Pangako Sa yo, but not only that, it also outclassed all the Korean dramas, including the much-ballyhoed just-concluded Descendants of the Sun which was stuck in the bottom of the Peruvian ratings chart,  like all the other kdramas which became the traditional bottom-dwellers of the Peruvian ratings chart, below all the other telenovelas, since they started appearing in that country. In a way, Cautiva & its main stars, Derrick Monasterio & Bea Binene became the flag bearers of Asia in Latin America.

Cautiva is not finished making history. Tomorrow (April 15, Peru time), just a month  after its first run, it will return again on the Peruvian small screen. Not in its former 4:00 PM slot but at the main primetime hour of 7:00 PM. No more the usual afternoon graveyard for Asian telenovelas, it has already been promoted to the Peruvian big leagues.

Below is a Peruvian fan-made video for Derbea.

Not Another Network War: CAUTIVA/HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI & LA PROMESA/ PANGAKO SA 'YO on PANAMERICANA TV PERU

NOTE: We initially published this post on February 14 with a title "CAUTIVA/HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI opens on Peru's Panamericana TV". At first, I resisted the urge to focus on the ratings performance of the two teleseryes being shown in Peru (Cautiva/Hanggang Makita Kang Muli & La Promesa/Pangako Sa Yo) because I didn't want to turn the whole thing into a de facto Pinoy network wars abroad. But on second thought, I decided it best to highlight them because the teleserye is at a point where it is really being noticed as one of the main nodes of the diversified Asian telenovela products. People there really are not aware of the network war brouhahas in the Philippines. They are mostly interested in the product itself, and I thought focusing on how they respond to each teleserye will give us a feedback on what ticks there.

To a Pinoy, the news that an afternoon Kapuso teleserye starring lesser known actors trounching a primetime Kapamilya blockbuster starring the country's top young loveteam  in the ratings in another country is surprising. It's important to emphasize they are not shown against each other but right after the other.

I reposted this because it has a nice comment section on how sensible Pinoy teleserye fans are monitoring the Peruvian reaction to teleseryes. You can watch the teleseryes from 5:30-7:30 AM Manila time at the Panamericana website. They are shown one after the other from 4:30-6:30 PM Peruvian time.


February 14, PERU time (February 15 in the PHILIPPINES): this new teleserye opens on Peru's Panamericana TV.

This ushers in a new period of teleserye history in Latin America, where two teleseryes will be shown one after the other for the first time from 4:30- 6:30 PM. Cautiva from 4:30-5:30 while La Promesa is heating up from 5:30-6:30 PM.

CAUTIVA/HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI to return, this time on Peruvian primetime, at 7 PM starting Monday

My readers are really fast. I will do a more formal article on this later, barring any last minute sabotage from the usual aspects. You see, this is practically a slap to their  delusions. Lol. 

The most succesful Pinoy (& Asian) telenovela on Peruvian TV will be shown again a mere few weeks after its initial run, this time on the primetime 7:00 slot, starting Monday. It was previously shown in the afternoon, 4:30 PM, where it earned high ratings for its normally low-rating station.

You can add your comments to a previous article (click here).

CAUTIVA/HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI opens on PANAMERICANA TV PERU on February 14

Starting February 14, there will be two teleseryes shown on Peru's Panamericana TV. At 4:30 PM, the GMA teleserye Hanggang Makita Kang Muli (titled as Cautiva) will start its run. At 5:30, the ABS-CBN teleserye Pangako Sa 'Yo (La Promesa) hurtles towards the homestretch at its usual sked.

CAUTIVA/HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI to open in Peru's Panamericana TV

GMA was really flying high in 2016. It closes the year with the first foray abroad of its 2016 teleserye HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI in South America (retitled as Cautiva, Captive in Spanish). Starring Derrick Monasterio & Bea Binene, it was the story about a feral child hauled from the jungle to adapt to modern civilization by a psychology student.

It is one of the more original scripts from a recent teleserye and I was glad it was noticed immediately abroad after its recent local showing. It will replace another Pinoy teleserye, La Promesa, which will end shortly.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

HOW TO MAKE A STAR 101: "Tsuper Hero" DERRICK MONASTERIO sings REYNA (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO) plus starmaking propaganda tips

Note: I changed the title of the post. Like always, the meat of my posts are the comments. Below are nice tips on the use of propaganda in star-making. One can surely pick up tricks.

GMA has a few interesting loveteams, like that of Derrick Monaterio & Bea Binene. They have a good vehicle in Tsuper Hero, fantaserye being a time-tested successful recipe for the station. I wonder if the GMA people have noticed their young stars have a weak presence in the social media space. Their videos only have a few hits while lesser known stars have hundred times those. They haven't learned much from the propaganda tricks of the Koreans with whom they love to play uto-uto frequently. The patronage of GMA in the urban areas around the metro is still strong, and social media is strongest here so there is a clear hole there in their strategy.  The Koreans have proven a mistaken perception of  "popularity" can be manufactured through a well-oiled propaganda machine, and the best way is to not neglect possible damning signals of unpopularity in the social media. GMA lacks its own trolls to gush over its videos on Youtube, for instance. Somebody should be assigned to raise the hits to 100,000 within a week. How can they create a bandwagon if they don't have a minimum infrastructure to create a popular, however contrived, hook for their stars? If the Koreans, who are not star material, have the gall to propagandize themselves, why not GMA with its infinitely better-looking stars?

LOVETEAM WATCH: Derrick & Bea in "Hanggang Makita Kang Muli"

It's turning out that the cutest part of local showbiz is the loveteam thing. Pinoys have always been nosy on who was doing it with whom. The movie idols are definitely not exempted.This nosiness triggers the magic to the whole thing. But can it be sustained?

There's an endless supply of loveteams. Thus, our Loveteam Watch. We'll start monitoring the progress of each team as it hurtles down Pinoy showbiz lane.

 GMA has been prolific in creating cute loveteams lately. The Tisoy-native combination has become a Philippine brand, & GMA has them plenty: Aldub, Anbie. Here's the latest one: GMA has a stable of cute mestizos & 20 year old Derrick Monasterio was available to counterpoint 18-year old Bea Binene, a petite Anjanette Abayari-ish wisp of a girl. In their first teleserye together, she reprises  the role of a feral child who was brought in from the wild and taught to adapt to a new civilization where she later would find love.

A feral child is a human child who has lived away from human contact from a very young age, and has little or no experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language.