Final Week for Magpahanggang Wakas, Someone to Watch Over Me, I Luv for Christmas

January 3, 2017

2017 gets underway with three teleseryes concluding their respective runs this Friday.

On one end, there is the ABS-CBN primetime series Magpahanggang Wakas. The latest in a series of ‘kabitseryes’, Magpahanggang Wakas starred Jericho Rosales, Arci Muñoz and John Estrada in a story that involves a romantic love triangle and a man wrongly accused of murder and was thought to have been killed.

On the other one is the GMA primetime series Someone to Watch Over Me, starring Tom Rodriguez, Lovi Poe and Max Collins. Like Magpahanggang Wakas, this series featured a love triangle, this time with a plot centering on a man who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.

Someone to Watch Over Me premiered on September 5, and was initially pitted against the short-lived series ‘Born for You’. But after the latter’s conclusion, many expected to see Magpahanggang Wakas go up against the former.

On the other end is the IBC week-long fantasy Christmas anthology I Luv for Christmas within three-week episode A Lantern for Libby (December 19, 2016 to January 6, 2017), topbilled by Gabbi Garcia, Diether Ocampo and Kaye Abad. Our story of Libby, a high school girl who granted and wishing well as a lantern of Santa Claus.

Unfortunately, ABS-CBN had other ideas. On September 19, the network demoted Till I Met You to the third slot of Primetime Bida, and Magpahanggang Wakas was placed in the second slot, opposite another debuting series in You Light Up My Life and Alyas Robin Hood.

But while Magpahanggang Wakas regularly got the better of You Light Up My Life and Alyas Robin Hood in the Kantar national ratings, it averaged only 26%, a far cry from the 30% or better numbers of Pangako Sa ‘Yo and Dolce Amore earlier in 2016. Much has been said about its plot line, which may have turned viewers off due to its obvious familiarity.

As for Someone to Watch over Me, it only scored an average of 12% during its run. But unlike previous GMA dramas that aired in this timeslot, Someone to Watch Over Me actually fought well, pushing the JaDine-starred Till I Met You and Paano Tatakasan Ang Bukas? and later I Luv for Christmas to the limit in more recent episodes.

Overall, Magpahanggang Wakas will have aired for 80 episodes, while Someone to Watch Over Me will have a total of 90 episodes, and I Luv for Christmas will have aired a total of 15 episodes udner A Lantern for Libby. Not bad, but not good for either network’s standards.

In the end, it is clear that the success of the so-called ‘kabitserye’ is wearing thin. It was a tried and tested formula, but for those who have seen this plot before, it is no longer a healthy obsession.

This Friday, both Magpahanggang Wakas, Someone to Watch Over Me and I Luv for Christmas: A Lantern for Libby will have one last chance to impress themselves. One can only hope that the two series will end on a high note, after all these difficult times.