EAT BULAGA 

 

 

Eat Bulaga! is a noon-timevariety show in the Philippines produced by

 Television And Production Exponents Inc. (TAPE) and aired by

 GMA Network. The show broadcasts from The New TAPE Studios

 (Eastside Studio) at the GMA Broadway Centrum in New Manila,

Quezon City. Eat Bulaga! is aired Weekdays at 12:00pm to 2:45pm

and Saturdays at 11:30am to 2:30pm (PHT). The show is also broadcast

 worldwide through GMA Pinoy TV. The name approximately

translates to "Lunchtime Surprise!".^[1] The show celebrated its 33rd

year on Philippine television last August 18, 2012.^[2] Eat Bulaga!

 holds the record of being the longest-running noontime variety p

rogram on air in the history of local television.^[3]

 

Its first overseas version was Eat Bulaga! Indonesia, which premiered

 on Indonesia's SCTV network on July 16, 2012.^[4][5][6][7] Eat Bulaga!

became the first Philippine show, variety show in particular, to be

 franchised by another country.

  

 

 

 

History

  

 

The RPN years (1979-1989)

  

Production Specialists, Inc., a company owned by Romy Jalosjos,

 brought the idea of creating a noontime show for Radio Philippines

Network or RPN.^[8] Antonio Tuviera, who was the working for the

company, thought that the comic troika of Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto and

Joey de Leon or TVJ (who had gained fame through GMA Network's

Discorama and as pinch-hitters for Student Canteen, but subsequently

left both)^[9][10] would be the perfect hosts for the new program.^[10]

At a meeting at the InterContinental Manila parking lot, Tuviera made

the offer to them, which they accepted.^[10][11]

De Leon coined the title of the show: Eat represents lunchtime while

Bulaga (which means "surprise" in English) represents their plan to fill

the show with lots of big surprises.^[11] The title is also a play on two

children's games: Eat is the transliteration of It! from the game Tag

while Bulaga refers to Peek-a-boo!. Because of this, the slogan

"Hangga't May Bata, May Eat Bulaga!" ("While There Are Children,

There will be Eat Bulaga!") was coined, also by de Leon.^[11] Vic Sotto,

on the other hand, composed the theme song.^[10]

Eat Bulaga! premiered on July 30, 1979.^[12] TVJ, along with Chiqui

Hollman^[10] and Richie Reyes (a.k.a. Richie d' Horsie) were the original

 hosts of the show.^[13] During its first few months on the air, the

show was in danger of cancellation. Not only did it face competition

against the longest-running noontime show at that time, Student Canteen,

but it also lacked advertisers.^[10][14] In addition, TVJ did not receive

their salaries for six months.^[10]

Eat Bulaga! slowly gained top-rating status in 1980 after the introduction

of the segment "Mr. Macho".^[10] Production Specialists soon handed

 production of the show to Tuviera's TAPE, Inc.^[8] In May 1982, the

Domestic Satellite was launched, allowing Eat Bulaga! and other RPN

 programs to be aired nationwide.^[14] During the same time,

 Coney Reyes joined the show while Hollman moved to Student

Canteen.^[14][15] In 1987, Aiza Seguerra joined the show after finishing

as a runner-up in the show's "Little Miss Philippines" segment.^[10][16]

 

 

 

 

The ABS-CBN years (1989-1995)

In 1989, Eat Bulaga moved to ABS-CBN^[15] (under a co-

production agreement) along with other TAPE-produced

shows Agila, Coney Reyes on Camera and Okey Ka Fairy Ko!

(from Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation) due to

problems brought about by the sequestration of RPN.^[13]

To drum up the shows' move to ABS-CBN, the then-Star

 Network came up with "..." ("three dots") which stood for

the three top-rating daytime shows (Eat Bulaga, Agila and

Coney Reyes on Camera) that would air on Channel 2.

^{[citation needed]} The three dots are also included in the

 show's title at the time, Eat...Bulaga!.^{[citation needed]} On

 January 28, 1989, the show premiered on its new home,

which was staged at the Araneta Coliseum.

Reyes left the noontime show in 1991.^[15] She was replaced

 by swimming champion Christine Jacob.^[15] By 1992,

Tito Sotto started appearing only on weekends after

topping the senatorial elections that May.

 

 

First decade on GMA and silver anniversary (1995-2004)

By the 1990s, ABS-CBN wanted to buy the airing rights of Eat Bulaga from

TAPE, Inc. However, Tuviera and Malou Choa-Fagar rejected the deal,

leading ABS-CBN to remove Eat...Bulaga! and its sister shows Valiente and

 Okay Ka, Fairy Ko from its roster of shows and to reformat its Sunday

show Sa Linggo nAPO Sila into a week-long show, 'Sang Linggo nAPO Sila.^[13]

Eat...Bulaga! moved to GMA, whose efforts to dethrone the show through

 Lunch Date and Salo-Salo Together (SST) had failed.^[13] The show made

 its premiere telecast on its new home on January 28, 1995, again at the

 Araneta Coliseum.^[13][17] Prior to this, month-long promotions were made

by coming up with the catchy advertisement, "9-2=7" ("nine minus two

 equals seven")^{[citation needed]}, alluding to the show's move from Channel

 9 (RPN) to Channel 2 (ABS-CBN) to Channel 7 (GMA). It was also a

 homecoming for TVJ, who hosted Discorama and pinch-hitted for Student

 Canteen on GMA^[9] before leaving the network for Eat...Bulaga!.

In 2001, Eat...Bulaga! became the first to give away the first millions on the

 Philippine television. When Magandang Tanghali Bayan, then the noontime

show of ABS-CBN, introduced Pera o Bayong to its audience, it became an

 instant hit, causing MTB to top the ratings of Eat Bulaga for two years.

This forced the Eat...Bulaga! management to give the first millions, through its

segment Laban o Bawi (Fight or Back Out),^[18] "to get the audience interest back."^[19]

Eat...Bulaga! celebrated its 25th year on television in November 19, 2004 at

 the Expo Amphitheater in Clarkfield, Angeles City, Pampanga,^[20] making

it the longest-running noontime show in the Philippines. The television special

 was attended by an estimated 50,000 spectators^[20] and enjoyed the highest

 daytime TV rating in the Philippines.^{[citation needed]} The special won the

Best Entertainment (One-Off/Annual) Special at the Asian Television Awards

in Singapore on December 1, 2005.^[21] The said event was also hailed as the

 most successful television event on Philippine television, narrowly matched

only by the 1st Starstruck Final Judgement.^{[citation needed]} The special

 presentation, entitled Eat Bulaga Silver Special was broadcast on

November 28, 2004.^[20] By this time, Eat Bulaga! had modified its title,

dropping the three dots.^{[citation needed]}

In December 2004, GMA signed a five-year contract extension to keep the

show on their network until December 29, 2009.^{[citation needed]} After

 celebrating its 25th anniversary, it was incidentally the 10th anniversary of

Eat Bulaga's start in GMA the following year.

  

 

 

Second decade on GMA, 30th anniversary and Eat Bulaga! Indonesia (2004-present)

In 2006, the SexBomb Girls left the show due to a dispute

with the show's producers.^[22] The show, in turn, opened

auditions for new in-house dancers, under the name

 "EB Babes", in the form of a reality competition.^[22][23]

 The group officially debuted on August of that year.^[22]

 On March 2007, the SexBomb Girls returned as regular

cast members.^[24]

On September 2007, a series of word wars occurred

between Joey de Leon and Willie Revillame, the host of

Eat Bulaga!'s rival show Wowowee as a result of the

Hello Pappy scandal.^[25][26]

On March 6, 2009, Francis Magalona, one of the show's

 long-time co-hosts, succumbed to leukemia. The

following day, the show produced a tribute episode in

which the whole cast performed his past songs dedicated in his memory. During the tribute, it was revealed that Magalona

coined the word Dabarkads, a popular name to the Eat

 Bulaga family.^[27]

In 2009, Eat Bulaga! celebrated its 30th Anniversary, which

 was dubbed as Tatlong Dekads ng Dabarkads (Three

 Decades of the Dabarkads). The show focused on

honoring and helping remarkable people, including thirty

poor but hard-working students and other everyday

heroes as a gesture of paying back to the public who

 has supported them all these years.^[14][28][29] On

December 18 of that year, the show renewed its contract

 with GMA Network.^{[citation needed]} In addition, the show

signed an extended contract with GMA Network on March

2011 which would last until 2016.^[30]

In 2011, the SexBomb Girls along with the group's

choreographer Joy Cancio left the show once more,

this time for ABS-CBN's Happy Yipee Yehey!.^[31]

On October 6, 2011, Eat Bulaga! launched its coffee

 table book called Ang Unang Tatlong Dekada (The First

Three Decades). The book was written by Butch Francisco

 (a veteran columnist and TV host) with Jako de Leon

(son of Joey de Leon) behind the entire design concept

of the book.^[32] Alongside the book, Eat Bulaga also

gave away 3000 limited edition CDs of the 2004 Silver

 Special Anniversary celebration.^[33][34][35] Additionally,

GMA News and Public Affairs produced a documentary

entitled Kuwentong Dabarkads hosted by Dingdong Dantes.^[10]

On July 16, 2012, Indonesia's SCTV Network started airing

the show's first international version, Eat Bulaga! Indonesia.

The network, which had considered securing the rights for

 a local version of the show for the past five years, started

formal negotiations with TAPE in April 2012, with approval

given in June 2012.^[36][37]

On August 18, 2012, Eat Bulaga aired a special episode

celebrating its 33rd anniversary without commercial breaks,

first time in Philippine television. Guests include Marian

 Rivera, Lovi Poe, Ogie Alcasid and Gary Valenciano.

 

 

 

Cast

Main hosts

• Sen. Tito Sotto (1979–present)
• Vic Sotto (1979–present)
• Joey de Leon (1979–present)

Co-hosts

Jimmy Santos (1988–present) Ruby Rodriguez (1990–present) Allan K. (1995–present) Toni Rose Gayda (1996–present) Jose Manalo (1996–present) Anjo Yllana (1998–present)

Wally Bayola (2000–present) Paolo Ballesteros (2002–present) Keempee de Leon (2004–present) Michael V. (2004–present) Pia Guanio (2004–present) Julia Clarete (2005–present)

Pauleen Luna (2005–present) Ryan Agoncillo (2009–present) Sam Y.G. (2010–present) Isabelle Daza (2011–present) Ryzza Mae Dizon (2012–present) (Little Miss Philippines 2012 Winner)