Annette Gozon-Valdes on KathDen, BarDa and Kapuso collab projects
Are the network wars a thing of the past?
With GMA Network’s continued collaborations with its former industry rival ABS-CBN, Annette Gozon-Valdes, GMA’s senior vice president for programming, talent management, worldwide and support group, as well as president of GMA Films, recently weighed in on the matter during this paper’s collab podcast “Meet the Press” on Spotify.
She said, “Siguro kaya nagkaroon ng word na war or network war is because of the fans before? Sila talaga yung nag-aaway? But in all businesses, there’s competition and it can be a healthy competition. Hindi yung parang patayan, ‘di ba? ‘I want to see you lose, I want to see you destroyed,’ it’s not like that.
“Parang mas maganda nga may competition because I think competition helps. It helps boost the companies. For example, when it comes to artistas, ‘di ba, (you have) Nora-Vilma (Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos), they’re both popular. Those types of competitions can be very healthy and you can leverage that and use it to benefit your company.”
The media executive continued, “And I think given the trends now, napaka-global ng entertainment, so, hindi na dapat tayo-tayo nag-aaway among ourselves. We can do collabs because we want to have a healthy competition naman with other countries. We also want to compete in that sense and what’s a better way to compete than get all the best from the Philippines.
“Hindi naman lahat nasa GMA, hindi naman lahat nasa isang kompanya (you can’t find them all in one company). Parang we get together and put together our best and yun ang ilaban natin in the international arena para maipakita natin yung galing ng Pilipino.”
One of the latest collaborations between the two networks is the “Pinoy Big Brother (PBB)” Celebrity Collab Edition featuring talents from both GMA and ABS-CBN’s talent management teams.
Annette shared that the decision to greenlight the project was not a difficult one. “Not really, we’ve actually been discussing this for a long time. This was supposed to happen last year, in the last quarter, but the regular edition of ‘PBB’ aired first. We waited for that to finish, and then we just needed to negotiate a few things, right? So finally, ito na (here we are),” she explained.
While the project happened to coincide with “PBB’s” 20th anniversary and Sparkle GMA Artist Center’s 30th anniversary, she clarified that this was unintentional. “It’s just how things fell into place and it’s the 30th anniversary of Sparkle so nagsabay pa. It’s very special, in a way.”
Nevertheless, the most successful collaboration to date is the Kathryn Bernardo and Alden Richards’ film “Hello, Love, Again,” which went on to become the highest-grossing Filipino film of all time.
As for any plans for a followup KathDen project, she said she will have to ask ABS-CBN president and CEO Carlo Katigbak.
One thing is for sure, the film’s level of box-office success also came as a surprise to them. “Nakakagulat kasi ini-expect naman namin na super blockbuster, but yung magnitude na naabot niya — I think, it surpassed P1.6 billion in theatrical receipts worldwide — hindi mo naisip na grabe siya talaga,” Annette said.
“All of us are very thankful for that and ang hirap na tuloy gumawa ng collab ng makakatalo ‘di ba? Parang anak ko and very challenging.”
Addressing the online speculations about a KathDen teleserye, she hinted that while there are no concrete plans yet, there have been informal discussions.
“There’s nothing concrete really, but I’ve always asked ABS if they’re open to do another Alden-Kathryn project. So yun ang parang… siguro both of us would want to do that again,” she said.
“Hindi lang natin alam kung ano yung tamang material. And it’s very difficult, again, because of the overwhelming success of ‘Hello, Love, Again.’ That’s why for their next project… ayaw naman natin na less than ‘Hello, Love, Again,’ kailangan ma-surpass. Kaya, it’s very, very challenging, I think, to be able to come up with another project for Kathryn and Alden.”
The STAR also asked about what’s next for GMA’s popular love team, Barbie Forteza and David Licauco, who have been starring in separate projects recently.
“They have a movie. Inaayos na lang namin because they have their separate projects this year on TV. But we all know that these two really have chemistry and we are currently in pre-production for their movie,” Annette shared.
“Of course, it’s a love story. Because Barbie’s (next) project is less of a love story, it would be difficult to include David in it. So we’re giving her something different for now, but of course, we still want to sustain their chemistry.
She then quipped, “And parehong single, ‘di ba?”
Looking ahead to the rest of 2025, which marks GMA Network’s 75th anniversary, the media giant has several major projects lined up. Among them is “Sang’gre,” the third book of the “Encantadia” universe, which is expected to launch around June or July.
The network is also planning an FPJ adaptation featuring one of GMA’s prime stars.
On the film front, GMA is set to release “Gabi ng Lagim,” which is based on real-life stories featured in the hit program “Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho.”
“It’s based on real stories from ‘Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho,’ and it has already been screened by some groups, and it’s really good. We’re very proud of this project. We’re hoping that if the Summer MMFF pushes through, we can submit it and hopefully get accepted because it’s a very, very good material. It’s something different,” she said.
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