Last year, GMA new international releases surprisingly overwhelmed ABS-CBN as the latter only managed to sell a single 2017-produced teleserye for the whole year (Magpahanggang-Wakas). Early 2018 proved that the GMA upsurge hasn't waned, new GMA teleseryes keep popping in various locations while its rival can't seem to sell its new releases in the international market: Poor Señorita in TV3, Malaysia's largest free-to-air TV, Vietnam had My BFF, Second Chances in Africa & Ecuador, Destiny Rose in Thailand, etc. It's now February & like last year, Abs-Cbn is still mostly relying on its 2016 & earlier hits to be rerun in various locales (As a consolation, the 2016 Kathniel teleserye, Pangako Sa Yo has a chance to shine in Thailand).
It's clear the GMA writers are propelling GMA to greater heights in the international arena: innovative plots, not only internationally acceptable Pinoy good looks & sleek production values, are now flying the flag for teleserye abroad. Meanwhile, ABS-CBN is still in GMA mode, still aping the fantaserye genre started by the latter as GMA upped the ante with stories not usually tackled by teleserye (amazingly, a future GMA teleseye is titled The Cure. Getting cutting edge in medical thrillers? )
Meanwhile, it's safe to say the sudden international prominence of the Big 3 young loveteams of ABS-CBN (Kathniel, Lizquen & Jadine) was a fluke. A tsamba which nobody knew how to handle. Yeah, it was probably serendipity that 3 cute Pinoy LT's were created at the same period that they were noticed in various geographical areas in the world, reaping adulations not normally accorded to previous Pinoy or any Asian loveteams. Proving that physically, the beautiful among the Filipinos will be more readily acceptable in more dispate geographical areas of the world than the usual Asian stereotypes.
But a short look at the history of loveteam making in the Philippines would confirm that cute loveteams coming too far in between was the norm in Philippine, particularly ABS-CBN, loveteam making. The truth is, despite the overabundance of cute youth in Philippine streets, ordinary-looking teen idols were de rigueur in the last 30 years. It doesn't surprise me that my batch never bothered with the so-called Pinoy teen loveteams then (so did the world, obviously), most of my friends looked far better than the stars and worse, I hate to admit it but I didn't know anybody who wasted his time with Pinoy showbiz. A few bad apples could really spoil the whole basket. The looks of certain Pinoy stars could rebuff a big part of the Philippine population. I remembered the time while channel-surfing when I felt revolted watching a reality show because I found the host "cross-eyed", only to find out years later when I was already writing this blog that she was actually a big star in that channel. If not for this blog (thereby realizing Pinoy showbiz was bigger than her eyes), I would have lost respect on Pinoy showbiz forever.
Propaganda assumes that mass media can trick the people into believing or adulating what it dictates. Not a fat chance here in the Philippines. People mostly ignore it when it's tacky. Like we did.
The good thing is that the Big 3 has really proven that unlike the stereotype Asian look, the Pinoy melting-pot look is more acceptable in more geographical areas of the world. And looks matter. This is classically typified by the greater acceptance of the Pinoy teleseryes over the kdramas in all the international areas where they were shown together like in South America (Peru), Southeast Asia( Indonesia), Africa, Central Asia (Kazakhstan), etc.
Perhaps in 2050 when the Philippines is predicted by HSBC to be the 16th richest country in the world, some Filipino strategists would decide to elevate the stature of Filipinos (much like how the South Koreans are doing now in promoting themselves out of the shadows of its giant neighbors, the Chinese & the Japanese). It should occur to them, however, that the we don't have to mix delusion into the effort just like how the South Koreans have done it. The Koreans are not only aping the Japanese Jpop for its Kpop or the Chinese for their F4, but in a ludicrous effort to gain anchor into the Spanish-speaking world, its propagandists went hilariously overboard & had the weird temerity to hilariously tag themselves as "Latinos of Asia", a tag given to the Filipinos by the Latinos themselves. To extremely hilarious results, as expected. As we have documented in the blog, they were perennially clinging for years at the very bottom of the Peruvian rating charts while their propaganda was hilariously proclaiming they were popular. Nobody was fooled.
No need to go the South Korean comedy route, Pinoys now know we can count on our looks. Perhaps by 2050, we'll have learned how to handle internationally other Big 3's. After all, we have the supply.
Destiny Rose
Pangako Sa Yo
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