The stark decline in ‘Batang Quiapo’s viewership every time a major basketball match is held, seems to suggest its largely masculine audience gets divided, and forced to choose which show to catch on specific days.
From a pilot episode rating of 12.4 in January, last year, FPJ’s Batang Quiapo soared to a peak rating of 17.0, the highest for any local TV drama, last year. Average ratings also stabilized to 14-15, and while the viewership of its rival shows on the same timeslot continue to track a declining trend, the Coco Martin-topbilled series went on with its upward trend in viewership.
Since October, last year, however, ABS-CBN Corporation and Zoe Broadcasting Network, entered an agreement to air the current PBA season on A2Z. The move effectively affected ABS-CBN’s programming on TV5, especially on primetime programs, including FPJ’s Batang Quiapo, which can now be seen only on TV5 and Kapamilya Channel on Wednesdays and Fridays. It remains to be seen on ABS-CBN’s online platforms, but without A2Z, the top rated show is faced with the possibility of losing a big chunk of its audience.
Since FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano (2015-2022), Coco Martin has charmed the masses with his action-star aura, making every character he makes a certified household favorite. That’s the case for both Cardo Dalisay in FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano and Tanggol in FPJ’s Batang Quiapo. Both has mesmerized millions of households nationwide. The feat, however, is bigger, for the latter, as ABS-CBN no longer has its previous reach, one that was thoroughly enjoyed by Martin’s first FPJ series—at least until its last three years on air.
While it’s true Martin’s affinity with the masses is something the local showbiz industry has never seen in decades, his grip on male-dominated audience is even more astonishing. It has long been proven that his teleseryes attract largely male viewers, but as men are naturally drawn to activities that interest them, like consuming TV shows of action genre, but also…sports. Especially sports.
It is worth noting that even before PBA moved to A2Z, FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano, and now FPJ’s Batang Quiapo, have shown declines in viewership when a major basketball event is aired on the same time slot. In FPJ’s Batang Quiapo‘s case, viewership dips to up to 2-3% lower than the usual combined people ratings the show gets from A2Z, TV5, and Kapamilya Channel. Viewership for the series dipped by 7%, 16.3 to 15.1, the first time it went head to head with the new season of PBA on A2Z, aired on November 8, 2023.
Last Wednesday, January 24, 2024, FPJ’s Batang Quiapo, plunged to one of its lowest people ratings in months, 12.2 from the combined viewers of TV5 and Kapamilya Channel. It can be noted. however, that a semi-final game, featuring rival teams, Ginebra and San Miguel , was aired on the same day. Both teams have long enjoyed mass following among basketball fans, and this edition is no different. Indeed, the game registered a 2.3 people rating, already an impressive number for a sports event.
In reality, it’s hard to pinpoint the PBA game as solely the reason behind FPJ’s Batang Quiapo‘s viewership dropping. Other Wednesday and Friday episodes of the series proved capable of reaching the 14-15 rating range, suggesting the show’s viewers are already well-adjusted to the airing schedules of the Coco Martin-series on A2Z; they shift to TV5, whenever it is not airing on A2Z. On Thursday, January 25, the ratings rose again to 14.0, proving yet again the theory that major basketball games chip Batang Quiapo‘s viewers.
