Johnny Manahan: ABS-CBN was ‘scared’ of our TV5 show

MANILA, Philippines — Director Johnny Manahan apologized to Piolo Pascual and Maja Salvador for dragging them to join him in TV5 after their variety show “Sunday Noontime Live” was axed.

Manahan revealed that the management behind the show, Brightlight Productions, assured him that the show will air for six months.

“Actually, they assured us dalawang seasons. One season is three months kaya hanggang March. Kaya hiyang-hiya ako sa dalawa,” he told Philippine Entertainment Portal in an interview.

“I talked to them and I said, ‘I’m so sorry for dragging you into this.’ Even if they assured us at least six months, nine months pa nga dapat, e,” he added.

Manahan also said that Piolo and Maja joined the variety show because of him.

"Piolo is a sweet guy. I don't think he has to work. He only works when he likes it. He's a sweet guy. I knew he had reservations about the show because it's in another channel. The same thing with Maja, she had reservations," he said.

"But they did it because I asked. I said, 'I'm here. Maybe we can do something there at Channel 5. Might be fun going up against ABS-CBN!'," he added.

The Star Magic co-founder said that he felt that ABS-CBN was challenged by their show, but TV5’s weakness began to show.

"You know what, for a while, I think they were scared — scared of little me, little us... For the first show, pinaghandaan talaga kami. They put up this huge show with all the talents, including, I don't know, Charo Santos, Lea Salonga... the whole shebang,” he said.

"We only had little Piolo, little Maja. But, I think for the first show, we rated higher than all those stars. Medyo kinabahan sila, first three shows. Then the weaknesses of Channel 5 began to show — their signal, some people didn't even know Channel 5 was on the air... They don't have everything, all the elements, in place, not like ABS,” he added.

Manahan said that he dragged Piolo and Maja to TV5 because the two have no contract with ABS-CBN.

“Kasi, they were free agents. Previous to that, ako'ng gumawa nu’ng contracts nila Enrique, Liza, Kathryn, and Daniel. May mga clause, ‘yung, ‘You can’t leave ABS’ clause, gan’on. Si PJ naman matagal naman ‘yang... wala naman siyang contract. Free agent siya. And then si Maja, nu’ng nag-lapse... sakto lang na nag-lapse ‘yung contract niya last year. Sabi niya, ‘Let’s do this. Sama ako sa inyo,'" he said.

According to him, after working with ABS-CBN for over 30 to 40 years, he initially wanted to take a break from showbiz. But since he wanted to help give work to ABS-CBN’s retrenched workers, particularly those from Sunday variety show “ASAP” that he co-founded, he agreed to become “Sunday Noontime Live’s” director and creative consultant.

According to The STAR Entertainment Editor and columnist Ricky Lo, Cignal-TV5 and ABS-CBN are rumored to enter a partnership that could boost the Kapamilya channel's free-TV coverage all across the country via Cignal-Kapatid TV5’s nationwide reach.

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