Apart from hosting the long-running drama-anthology ‘Maalaala Mo Kaya,’ former ABS-CBN President and current Chief Content Officer Charo Concio-Santos revealed that she almost left Channel 2.
Philippine Entertainment Portal reported that when she was the Executive Vice President for Entertainment of ABS-CBN, Channel 2 was affected by the economic crisis and advertisers lessened their ad minutes.
This forced the executives to cut down on the network’s operation expenses. During that time, GMA Network was improving their programming. According to Charo, "Our solid hold on the Top 20 shows began to slowly slip away. Our rival, GMA-7, started to close in on the lead we had for over a decade."
She revealed that ABS-CBN decided to revamp their line-up of teleseryes. They produced ‘Marina’ in 2004 and tapped Claudine Barretto to star in the series. She was one of the network’s most bankable stars at that time.
It boosted ABS-CBN’s ratings up but GMA retaliated by releasing ‘Mulawin,’ which launched Angel Locsin’s career and heavily affected Channel 2 as a result.
As ‘Mulawin’ garnered many viewers, ABS-CBN released another fantaserye in the form of ‘Krystala,’ which starred Judy Ann Santos.
But Charo cited, "Our budgets were thin and we were emotionally spent. In the heat of the battle, what I had feared became very obvious. We began to lose our sense of story.”
She continued, "We were being hammered about ratings, cost control, and profit so incessantly that we forgot about our emotional connection to our audience."
By the end of October 2004, Vivian Tin, a former AC Nielsen executive, revealed that ABS-CBN was no longer the top in the ratings game. GMA had taken its place.
Charo said, “GMA-7 had taken the lead on all the top 20 time slots, including the coveted primetime slots. TV Patrol lost to 24 Oras, Marina lost to Mulawin, and Krystala just couldn't gain enough momentum. The gaps in the lead were devastating."
Then to her surprise, former ABS-CBN CEO and chairman Gabby Lopez hired Cito Alejandro as new the ABS-CBN President and General Manager.
Charo said, "I don't remember exactly how he phrased it, but I thought I heard him say: I want to talk about what's wrong with production. You have to change the way you are doing things. 'How could you let this happen, Charo?' I felt I was a failure and no longer worthy to be at the helm of my team.”
Charo didn’t report to work after that incident and took an indefinite leave. She returned to the company after four months.
What do you think about Charo’s revelation? If she fully quit ABS-CBN, would you think the network would still be the same without her?
Tell us your comments below!
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