UNTOLD STORIES: THE RISE AND FALL OF A TITAN, EAT BULAGA!

Eat Bulaga's Beginnings:

Eat Bulaga premiered on July 30, 1979 on RPN and hosted by Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto and Joey De Leon with Chiqui Hollman and Richie D' Horsie as co-hosts. It defeated the longest -running noontime show that time "Student Canteen" which was on GMA. Tito, Vic and Joey became co-hosts of Student Canteen before they became main hosts of Eat Bulaga. Student Canteen ended on 1986 and GMA replaced it with "Lunch Date" which was hosted by Randy Santiago, Orly Mercado, Chiqui Hollman, Dennis Padilla, and Willie Revillame.

Eat Bulaga vs Lunch Date

GMA's Lunch Date fought fiercely with Eat Bulaga in the ratings. Randy Santiago became really famous and alomost defeated Eat Bulaga in the ratings. Randy has this Randy-mania because of his witty hosting and trademark shades.

After the Randy-mania died down, Lunch Date also died down. Lunch Date ended in 1993 and GMA decided to reformat the show to Salo-Salo Together (SST)

Eat Bulaga vs SST

SST (Salo Salo Together) was hosted by Randy Santiago, Dennis Padilla, Smokey Manaloto, Giselle Sanchez, Willie Revillame, and later on Ai Ai Delas Alas and Bayani Agbayani. Some of these hosts were very visible on MTB (Magandang Tanghali Bayan) on ABS-CBN.

For the first time Eat Bulaga was defeated by SST. The show introduced fresh new segments that made the show very successful. SST gave a break to newcomers like Bayani Agbayani. Because of the popularity of the hosts they are visible even in movies and became a contract star of Viva.

Eat Bulaga's Move to GMA and Competition with 'Sang Linggo nAPO Sila

Facing defeat and very low ratings ABS-CBN decided to kick the show out alongside with other shows of TAPE (Television and Production Exponents), the producer of Eat Bulaga. Eat Bulaga was moved to GMA. This made Joey De Leon hate ABS-CBN and maybe prayed for its downfall. ABS-CBN wishes to buy the blocktime of TAPE.

ABS-CBN replaced Eat Bulaga with 'Sang Linggo nAPO Sila, former "Sa Linggo nAPO Sila", a Sunday noontime show on ABS-CBN. When SLNS was moved to Monday to Saturday, ABS-CBN replaced it with ASAP (All-star Sunday Afternoon Party) which was hosted by Martin Nievera, Pops Fernandez, Ariel Rivera, and Dayanarra Torres. ASAP is the longest running Sunday noontime show on Philippine TV now 14 years on the air.

'Sang Linggo nAPO Sila was hosted by The Apo Hiking Society (Jim Paredes, Buboy Garovillo and Danny Javier), Bing Loyzaga, Michelle Van Eimeren, Agot Isidro, Amy Perez, and Roderick Paulate.

When Eat Bulaga transferred to GMA, the show introduced new segments and reformatted the show. It had new hosts too aside from Vic and Joey. This made Eat Bulaga No.1 again. Because of its popularity, Joey De Leon throwed dirty jokes on the rival show. Insinuating that ABS-CBN made a mistake throwing them out.

'Sang Linggo nAPO Sila however, got high ratings but it was not as successful as SST. According to some critics, APO's humor were "too intelligent for the average Filipino. The show later welcomed new host from the defunct SST Willie Revillame, John Estrada and Randy Santiago. The trio had a chemistry and became popular to viewers.

The Birth of MTB, the Show that Made Eat Bulaga almost fold up:

Magandang Tanghali Bayan (MTB) was hosted by the popular trio Randy Santiago, John Estrada and Willie Revillame with Bayani Agbayani, Roderick Paulate, Amy Perez, Bentong, Dennis Padilla, Gary Lim, Christine Jacob. Majority of the hosts were also hosts of SST before.

The show got immense support nationwide and got high ratings. Eat Bulaga lost tremendously in the ratings because of the popular trio. MTB had a famous segment called "Pera o Bayong" which even had a movie.

Eat Bulaga people meanwhile ran out of ideas to put back the show to its former glory. There were reports that Eat Bulaga will fold up. The show was saved by the popularity of the girl group Sexbomb and made Eat Bulaga garnered ratings. The girl group failed to topple MTB down.

MTB host had controversies and was suspended many times because of green jokes Willie cracked on Calendar Girls contestants.

In 2003, Willie Revillame was kicked out of the show and it was reformatted to Masayang Tanghali Bayan. Willie's popularity made ABS-CBN to offer Willie host Wowowee in 2005.

But before that, Willie contemplated on the mistake he made in the past. He hosted Willingly Yours, public service program on ABS-CBN.

Wowowee vs Eat Bulaga:

Wowowee premiered February 5, 2005. Wowowee is a noontime game show completely different from Eat Bulaga's format. Because of its different format, Wowowee garnered ratings and took over Eat Bulaga in nationwide ratings, Wowowee became popular to OFWs who have TFC (The Filipino Channel).

However, because of Willie's issues with ABS-CBN, the ever mighty Wowowee finally rested in peace mid-2010 and was replaced by Pilipinas Win na Win hosted by Kris Aquino and Robin Padilla. PWNW struggled very much in the ratings game even putting Eat Bulaga to lead the National Ratings. And in December 2010, after 6 months, PWNW finally aired its last episode. ABS-CBN temporarily gambled on Showtime to go head on with EB until a new noontime show replaces PWNW with MTB hosts Randy Santiago and John Estrada.

Eat Bulaga vs Happy Yepee Yehey!

Happy Yepee Yehey is the latest challenge to Eat Bulaga's might, but when ratings were released its seems that HYY isn't giving enough threat to the longest running noontime show. EB remains to be the most watched program not only in MM but nationwide. But kapamilyas still have thier firngers crossed as Wowowee started with disappointing numbers, but eventually after 6 months it was able to defeat Eat Bulaga and beome ABS-CBN's highest earning program.