KathNiel, JaDine: Hit tandems pitted against each other

KATHNIEL (LEFT) AND JADINE. Their rivalry is heating up the TV-film scene.

ABS-CBN has been telecasting the “revival” drama series, “Pangako Sa ’Yo,” topbilling Jodi Sta. Maria and Angelica Panganiban—and teen faves Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo, show biz’s most popular young love team.

Customary logic would have it that the TV production outfit would maximize this hit tandem’s prospects before launching other young contenders—but, the network has opted to go against the grain of expected practice, and has just launched another series, starring the second most popular young love team of James Reid and Nadine Lustre, titled “On the Wings of Love.”

At first blush, the move could strike some people as counterproductive. Why make two hot properties compete against each other on the same channel? But, ABS-CBN didn’t get to be an industry pacesetter by following all of the “rules” all of the time.

Sometimes, it makes competitive sense to initiate a rivalry that could end up heating up the entertainment scene—and, after the heat has ebbed, both young love teams’ prospects shall have been enhanced.

How would this masterful manipulation be effected? The two love teams’ respective cadres of fans would want to defend and protect their fave romantic tandems’ best interests, so the resulting feverish fuss and bother would energize both pairs’ careers.

Popularity and clout

Of course, “KathNiel’s” handlers have to make doubly sure that they still end up on top, even as “JaDine’s” mentors do their darnedest to lessen the frontrunners’ popularity and clout by way of the new series, which is now being telecast right after “Pangako Sa ’Yo.”

The “back-to-back” telecasting arrangement makes it even easier to compare the two shows and tandems, but we’ll have to watch more episodes of “Wings” to take its proper measure.

For now, however, we should note that productive on-screen rivalry has been a show biz staple for many years. Remember when Nora and Vilma’s respective battalions of fans were loudly and combatively at each other’s throats, boasting the careers of both TV-film queens?

And, harking even earlier, Sampaguita Pictures once had two hit tandems in its stable, Amalia Fuentes-Romeo Vasquez and Susan Roces-Eddie Gutierrez, and each team made many popular films, the appeal of which was enhanced by their being—on rivalry and competition mode!