‘Frontline Pilipinas’ to debut weekend edition on October 14

The flagship Kapatid newscast is finally having a weekend version.

Next Saturday, October 14, 2023, TV5’s flagship primetime news program ‘Frontline Pilipinas’ will launch its weekend version.

The said edition of the newscast will be anchored by Jes delos Santos — who formerly fronted the morning version ‘Frontline sa Umaga’ before it morphed into ‘Gud Morning Kapatid’ — and new Kapatid newscaster Nikki de Guzman.

De Guzman served as a former news presenter at the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), DZMM TeleRadyo, and TeleRadyo Serbisyo/DWPM Radyo 630. She formally bade farewell to ABS-CBN after anchoring her last newscast with the news channel Monday, October 9.

Aptly named ‘Frontline Pilipinas Weekend,’ it will be the newest extension of the News5 program. Like its weekday counterpart, it is expected to air the latest developments from around the world and other features every Saturday, at least for now.

The Sunday edition, meanwhile, will not air until its maiden broadcast on November 12, also at 5:30 pm.

‘FP Weekend’ was first floated during the 2023 upfronts of the Kapatid network and its News5 division, in particular. Original plans back then was for ‘Frontline’ to air for seven days a week.

The weekend ‘Frontline’ will also mark TV5’s return to weekend news after nine years. It was in 2014 when the network axed ‘Aksyon Weekend,’ which aired only on Saturdays and was then-anchored by Sen. Raffy Tulfo and Grace Lee.

Its cancelation took place amid the reorganization of the network’s news content, and the expansion of ‘Aksyon’ into four distinct versions from morning to late-night.

Since then, multiple news updates aired throughout the day via ‘Aksyon News Alerts’ and now ‘News5 Alerts’ became the sole news program of the Kapatid network every weekend.

Also to be noted: despite the absence on the main channel, TV5’s affiliate news network One PH had been airing its own weekend newscast ‘One Balita Weekend’ with Angela Lagunzad every Saturday and Sunday since 2022.

‘Frontline Pilipinas Weekend’ will air every Saturday at 5:30 pm starting October 14, and also every Sunday beginning November 12, also at 5:30 pm. It will be aired on TV5, with an audio simulcast on 92.3 Radyo5 True FM.

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