Currently, the show is on its 23rd year on the air.
On August 2, 2000, then-rainbow network GMA launched a public service program titled ‘Imbestigador’. Early on, it was an hour-long show on primetime/late-night full of action-packed undercover missions, raids, and investigative reporting.
The coverage on such topics, plus Mike Enriquez’s image as a hard-hitting journalist and public service person, were vital to its early success. By the mid-2000s, ‘Imbestigador’ became an institution on the network and in the local public affairs programming landscape. It was also popular enough that it led to ABS-CBN’s cancelation of the long-running ‘Magandang Gabi Bayan’ in 2005.
The program held on to that format for more than a decade. But due to the shifting of viewers’ preference in the early 2010s, ‘Imbestigador’ was shaken to its core. First, the program left its long-time Saturday primetime slot for the late-evening Sunday block. Second, and perhaps the most controversial move, is when it scrapped its original format for the dramatization of its subjects and cases, mostly involving rape-slay and murder cases.
To make matters worse, their transfer to Sunday nights happened at a time when ABS-CBN was strengthening its weekend block, with ‘PBB’, ‘Pilipinas Got Talent’, and even ‘Gandang Gabi Vice’ winning the Sunday primetime block, and of course, against ‘Imbestigador’.
Later on, amid sliding figures, GMA brought ‘Imbestigador’ back to its Saturday line-up in 2014. This time, it went head-on Kapamilya current affairs shows ‘Failon Ngayon’ and ‘SOCO’, both of which have cemented their win in the said block around that time.
Save for a few months in 2016 and the special COVID-19 report in 2020, the format of ‘Imbestigador’ has remained virtually the same since then.
But perhaps, the biggest blow to the show to date, is when its host Mike Enriquez went into a sabbatical leave due to his personal health condition. It had happened in several instances in the past, but the period since 2022 to now is his longest absence from the show. Enriquez had also not been appearing in his other shows, including the flagship newscast ’24 Oras’. Emil Sumangil was recently assigned to temporarily fill his role as main anchor of the program.
Apart from that, Sumangil also took turns to narrate the now crime-focused drama anthology program with Ivan Mayrina.
But late last year, GMA Public Affairs unveiled a slate of its upcoming programs for 2023. One of which, has a premise similar to the original format of ‘Imbestigador’. The show, which is titled ‘Resibo’, will be hosted by current interim ‘Imbestigador’ host Emil Sumangil.
In recent plugs, GMA has confirmed ‘Resibo’ will air sometime in May 2023.
However, with the new show in the horizon, the question of whether ‘Imbestigador’ will continue to run once ‘Resibo’ begins airing arose. Especially, considering that its host Mike Enriquez is still not visible at the moment.
To be fair, with its impressive length of 22 years and counting, ‘Imbestigador’ has cemented its legacy. While the show in recent years have become a shell of its former self, no one can deny its contribution in helping solve cases and even mysteries.
But not all hope for ‘Imbestigador’ had been lost at the moment as GMA has yet to confirm the premiere date and time slot of ‘Resibo’.
Even so, if ‘Imbestigador’ indeed bites the dust soon, it might still pull-off a ‘Wish Ko Lang’-like move in the future . For context, WKL ended in February 2020 to give way to ‘Ilaban Natin ‘Yan’, but was reinstated in July 2020.
For now, let’s wait and see what the future holds for ‘Imbestigador’.