AlDub fans worldwide quickly pounced on her and she was quickly knocked out with all the negative remarks that landed her way. She tried to make up for it by saying that she’s not really referring to the Aldub phenomenon, but who would believe her? Some of her fans defended her saying she’s a world class talents who brought honor to the country, etc. etc. But no one is contesting that. We are all so proud of what Lea has accomplished as an international entertainer.
But she really forayed into risky territory when she referred to AlDub (whether she admits it or not) because, first and foremost, everyone knows she’s working with the rival network. It couldn’t be naman siguro that she’s referring to the show of force that “Showtime” did at Araneta Coliseum and their Pastillas Girl to counter the AlDub phenomenon that wrought havoc to their TV ratings.
She said she didn’t really know about AlDub and Pabebe Wave because she is currently in New York, but no one would buy that since she was still here in Manila when the AlDub fever started and, also, she being a social media butterfly who’s always on twitter, we’re sure she has somehow read about it trending on the net. Even singer-composer Bryan White and other international celebrities have heard about it, so please, don’t deny that you are not aware of it at all.It’s understandable that Lea was hurt by all the media bashing she got, so she declared a “semi-break” on her Twitter account. She said: “I’m gonna take a Twitter semi-break. Will post but won’t read.”
Another celebrity who’s being bashed is Vice Ganda for kissing Karylle on the lips (he said it’s just for fun, but a lot of people said: “Yuck!”) He’s also bashed saying that they tweets they got were “real and organic” (whatever he meant by that) and they were just cheated in the Twitter count where “Eat Bulaga” really trounced “Showtime” with 25 million plus twits compared to their 6 million plus. And even in the ratings, “Eat Bulaga” ruled. It got 45.7% in Mega Manila (where there is the most number of viewing households) compared to Showtime’s 11.0%. In Nationwide Urban TV Measurement (NUTAM), EB got 37.2% while S got 17.4%. Even in their own survey, Kantar Media, EB won with 30.8% while S got 22.5%.
In hindsight, it’s really foolhardy of Showtime to compete head on with EB because they have everything to lose. It was really a show of force for them, with top crowd-drawing love teams like Kathniel, Jadine, Lizquen and Kimxi in attendance, along with their biggest stars headed by Coco Martin, to show that they’re truly the Goliath in the local TV industry. In contrast, their competitor is the very new AlDub love team who doesn’t have anything to lose had the Kapamilya love teams beaten them in the ratings. They should have just waited for the AlDub popularity to reach its peak as it will surely ebb anyway, sooner or later.
But to fight it at this very moment that it’s at its height of its popularity and audience acceptance is not wise. To begin with, the AlDub fever is something that came out naturally. It wasn’t poised on the public. Alden just so happened to be a guest in EB then when he was shown on screen, Yaya Dub was so obviously “kinilig” and the viewers found it so cute and that started the ball rolling. In contrast, the Pastillas Girl is so obviously planned, designed, engineered, deliberately manufactured in answer to AlDub, so it appears as hardsell, forcing through.
And in the effort of “Showtime” to defeat “EB”, what happened is that the viewing public still supported the underdog that AlDub is and, the rest, as they say, is history.