The actress disclosed this as the impending time slot shift on Easter Monday drew negative reactions from fans of her tandem with co-star Paulo Avelino.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, March 28, actress Kim Chiu addressed the online flurry caused by the announcement regarding the shifts that will happen on ABS-CBN’s Primetime Bida block.
Specifically, fans lament the move of The Alibi: Ang Buong Katotohanan from its current 8:00 pm time slot to a later slot at 8:45 pm come April 6 to give way to the upcoming action drama series Blood Vs. Duty starring Richard Gutierrez, Gerald Anderson, and Bela Padilla.
Some vocal fans on X, formerly Twitter, told that they were taken aback by the decision to move the KimPau, the name for the tandem of Kim and Paulo, to the second slot just two weeks into its full TV run that premiered last March 16.
Others even went as far as suggesting that they would either skip all programs or watch a rival show due to the movement.
In her first post, Chiu said, “Ola!! I’ve been reading your comments here on X about the time slot and I just want to reassure you all—no need to worry.“
That was when she revealed the news that they first got way before the show made its premiere on linear broadcast platforms.
“From the very beginning, we already knew that The Alibi would be on the 3rd slot,” with that time, based to the current weekday grid of ABS-CBN, being the 9:30 pm slot that has traditionally been given to darker-themed series like Alibi.
She further explained, “There were just some unforeseen circumstances where another show wasn’t quite ready yet. Since The Alibi has already been completed and has been streaming on Prime since last year, we’re simply filling in the slot for a little while.“
Assuring her fans, Kim told, “So here we are. Everything is going according to plan, and everything is under control. Thank you for your love, patience, and nonstop support. Love you all! 8:45 here we go!!!“
While The Alibi‘s March 16 premiere was indeed announced and went through as planned, earlier pronouncements of the Kapamilya network were clear that Coco Martin’s Sigabo was the supposed replacement of his previous series, FPJ’s Batang Quiapo, which concluded last March 13.
However, due to production constraints and Martin’s personal request to the management, the premiere was postponed to a later date to allow the team to brainstorm and rest.
It was then decided that The Alibi will move up to the prime 8:00 pm slot and on its premiere night, it drew over 347,000 live concurrent viewers on Kapamilya Online Live and its combined television ratings for ABS-CBN sa ALLTV2, A2Z, and Kapamilya Channel on pay TV was 5.6%, based on the data from the Nielsen National Urban Television Audience Measurement (NUTAM).
In recent days, it has hovered north of the 3 to the mid-4% mark, which is less than half than the peak viewing figures of Batang Quiapo, which was 10.1%, throughout the remainder of its run, specifically from when the big shift to ALLTV2 happened last January.
From Holy Monday (March 30) to Holy Wedneaday (April 1), The Alibi: Ang Buong Katotohanan will continue to air at 8:00 pm, with the move to 8:45 pm happening on April 6.
Episodes of the TV series cut are also available seven days ahead of their linear TV broadcast on iWant, and accessible to viewers outside of the Philippines via The Filipino Channel (TFC) on cable and IPTV.