Kapusong Willie again?
In the past few days, followers of Willie Revillame’s variety game show ‘Wowowin’ on Facebook would have seen art cards and archived videos of the program’s old segments.
On top of those, the said page also shared articles and posts speculating the future of ‘Wowowin.’
These have something in common: Revillame’s game show will allegedly return to its original home GMA Network.
The first instance, it reposted an article from V81 Radio which reported that netizens are clamoring for the ‘Wowowin’s’ return to GMA-7 as a replacement for Television and Production Exponents, (TAPE) Inc.’s canceled noomtime show ‘Tahanang Pinakamasaya.’
After that, today, March 7, the official Facebook page shared another post hinting at the show’s possible return to the Kapuso network.
Currently, both GMA Network and TAPE have yet to release a joint statement on the future of their relationship moving forward.
Revillame, for his part, has not yet publicized any concrete plans for the comeback of ‘Wowowin’ to free television.
‘WOWOWIN’ ON GMA
Launched in May 2015, ‘Wowowin’ served as Revillame’s return to the limelight after leaving TV5 in October 2013.
Initially, the program was a blocktimer on the network and was broadcast as a Sunday afternoon program, before it was eventually transferred to the Telebabad block on February 1, 2016.
Later on, GMA and Revillame’s WBR Productions entered into a co-production agreement, making ‘Wowowin’ officially a Kapuso program of sorts.
In 2020, the show was given an extension on Saturday primetime via ‘Wowowin Primetime.’ However, the said program was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking of, during the pandemic, Wowowin was transformed into a live program — something that it had not done during its earlier years in GMA — and focused on call-ins via the ‘Tutok to Win’ segment.
Occasionally, it also served as the venue for several specials, most notably for an e-commerce brand’s monthly sale promotional event.
‘Wowowin’ also aired from various locations across the country like Clark, Pampanga, Puerto Galera in Mindoro, and even Revillame’s residence in Tagaytay City, Cavite.
The show ended its original run on GMA on February 11, 2022.
ALLTV ERA
Months after Willie Revillame’s departure from GMA Network, the host and ‘Wowowin’ both shifted to the Villar family’s fledgling TV station ALLTV.
The program then began its run on the “new channel 2” during ALLTV’s first day of broadcast on September 13, 2022 and was given a primetime slot at 7:00 pm.
However, it had to contend with the challenges that come with having a new TV network built from scratch — limited reach and weak commercial load.
Hence, six months into the venture, ALLTV pulled the plug on the production of original shows — including ‘Wowowin’ — in March 2023.
Reruns of the show’s past episodes aired on the channel until April, when it bowed out of TV screens anew.
PTV-IBC TALKS
In the latter half of 2023, executives from government-owned TV stations PTV and IBC entered into talks with the popular TV host-producer in hopes of bringing the program back on air.
However, after despite several reports regarding that, there have been no further developments and ‘Wowowin’ continued to sporadically broadcast as an online show for the rest of the year.
REVILLAME’S NOONTIME HISTORY
Willie Revillame had long been associated with noontime television, having debuted as part of GMA’s original noon show in the ’80s titled ‘Lunch Date.’
In 1998, he, along with John Estrada and Randy Santiago, hosted ABS-CBN’s ‘Magandang Tanghali Bayan,’ but that trio proved to be both popular and controversial.
In several occasions, they earned the ire of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) due to the nature of their jokes during certain segments.
After leaving ‘MTB’ in 2004, Willie was brought back to the noontime scene via the game variety show ‘Wowowee,’ which began airing in February 2005.
The program became synonymous with Willie, as it also became so popular that it closed the gap or even surpassed closest rival ‘Eat Bulaga’ on certain occasions.
‘Wowowee’ also became a subject of public scrutiny in the aftermath of the 2006 ULTRA Stampede in Pasig City, which killed 73 people.
However, it bounced back and continued to air until 2010, when it was canceled as a result of a rift between Revillame and the ABS-CBN management at that time.
The TV host then signed with TV5 for a primetime gameshow ‘Willing Willie,’ which was reformatted to ‘Wil Time Bigtime’ following another controversial TV moment.
It was only in 2013 when Willie returned to the lunchtime game when he retooled his TV5 show for the second time as ‘Wowowillie,’ which was also the Kapatid network’s first outing in the lucrative slot.
But the show failed to reach the same clout and success of ‘Wowowee’ due to the intense competition brought by ABS-CBN’s then top-rated late morning series ‘Be Careful With My Heart’ and ‘It’s Showtime’ and ‘Eat Bulaga,’ which was airing on GMA.
‘Wowowillie’ ended its run on October 12, 2013, three days ahead of the expiration of Willie’s contract with TV5.
After that, Willie went on hiatus for over a year, before he signed a blocktime agreement for ‘Wowowin’ with GMA in April 2015.
GMA’S NOONTIME WOES
Following the departure of Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, and Joey de Leon from TAPE, Inc. in May 2023, the network struggled to maintain its foothold on noontime.
While the Isko Moreno and Paolo Contis-led iteration of ‘Eat Bulaga’ produced by TAPE remained competitive at times from its debut in June 2023, it was the loss of the title in January 2024 that signaled a shift for the program.
As ‘Tahanang Pinakamasaya,’ it lagged behind rivals TVJ’s ‘Eat Bulaga’ on TV5 and ABS-CBN’s ‘It’s Showtime,’ which also airs on GMA’s GTV channel.
Ergo, last Saturday, March 2, TAPE unceremoniously ceased the production of ‘TP,’ as it did not have a formal farewell episode, nor message to its viewers.
The show then aired reruns of past episodes until today, March 7.
Starting tomorrow, a temporary line-up will air, with a movie block taking the 12:00 nn slot, followed by an earlier GMA Afternoon Prime block, which will air starting with ‘Abot-Kamay na Pangarap’ from 2:00 pm.
The interim schedule will last until a replacement show has been prepared by the network.