‘Frontline Pilipinas,’ set to make primetime comeback on Monday

The Kapatid newscast will finally face head-on both ‘TV Patrol’ of ABS-CBN and ’24 Oras’ of GMA.

Starting Monday, May 22, TV5’s flagship newscast ‘Frontline Pilipinas’ will move back to the prime 6:30 pm slot on the Kapatid network. This, as FP also relaunches with a new look, now sporting orange, white, and red — dropping the blue color that has been present since the newscast’s launch in 2020.

Speaking of which, when it was launched on October 5, 2020, ‘Frontline Pilipinas,’ then anchored by Cheryl Cosim and now-Senator Raffy Tulfo, it was originally placed on the 6:30 pm slot and ran for an hour until 7:30 pm.

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The newscast kept this timeslot until January 2021, when it was moved to accommodate the transfer of the Kapatid primetime teleserye ‘Paano ang Pangako?’ to the 7:15 pm slot. As a result, ‘FP’ was moved to 6:00 pm.

By April 2021, the newscast had to be moved to a much earlier time of 5:30 pm, due to the addition of ‘Sing Galing’ at the 6:30 pm slot, as well as the four ABS-CBN Entertainment shows airing from 8:00 to 10:30 pm.

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When the matches of Philippine Basketball Association were on-air every Wednesday and Friday, ‘Frontline Pilipinas’ aired around 5:00 pm, with its runtime shortened to just 30 minutes.

In December 2022, with the end of ‘Sing Galing’ after its second season, ‘Frontline Pilipinas’ was extended to 90 minutes on non-PBA game days, with ‘FP’ running from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm.

After 5 months, TV5 has finally decided to reassign ‘Frontline Pilipinas’ back to primetime. Now anchored by Cheryl Cosim and Julius Babao, the revamped ‘Frontline’ will now go face-to-face with the established primetime newscasts of ABS-CBN and GMA, ‘TV Patrol’ and ’24 Oras,’ respectively.

With its transfer to the new time slot, it remains to be seen what will happen to the PBA’s slot on the Kapatid network, once the league returns to action after the FIBA World Cup.

Over at the Kapatid daytime block, a similar situation is unfolding, as well, with the network seeking to place teleseryes and other formats during weekdays. On Sundays, the PBA block has already been replaced by a trio of new programs, formed by ‘The Rain in España,’ ‘Emojination,’ and ‘Jack and Jill sa Diamond Hills.’

Last year, the Kapatid network had also announced in a trade launch for its new shows in 2023, the debut of a weekend edition of the newscast. That, has yet to materialize at the moment.

The revamped ‘Frontline Pilipinas’ begins Monday, May 22, 2023 at 6:30 pm on TV5.

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