Mermaid stories has been a steady story concept in literature. Who would not know the story of the “Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Anderson and our very own “Dyesebel” by Mars Ravelo.
But aside from books and movies, television has also capitalized heavily on this universal story line.
In 2004, ABS-CBN started the fantasy series or fantaserye trend via their first ever mermaid teleserye “Marina”, starring Claudine Barretto. “Marina” was first aired in February 23, 2004 and ran for 9 months. Because of the its new concept in Philippine television it was warmly received by the televiewers evident by its whopping 41.7% ratings (AGB Nielsen) on its pilot episode.
Because of the success of ABS-CBN’s “Marina”, GMA came up with their own mermaid fantaserye, “Marinara” starring Ruffa Mae Quinto. “Marinara” which started airing on June 21, 2004 was a comedic spoof to ABS-CBN’s Marina. But unlike Marina which lasted for 9 months, Marinara only runs for 4 months.
After the not so impressive showing of GMA Network’s mermaid kwelanovela “Marinara”, GMA acquired the rights of Mars Ravelo’s well known mermaid story “Dyesebel”. On April 28, 2008, GMA Network launched the TV adaptation of “Dyesabel” starring Marian Rivera. GMA’s Dyesebel came off the hill of the successive victories of their fantaserye’s “Mulawin”, “Darna” and “Encantadia” that is why it also registered high pilot numbers at 44.9% (AGB Nielsen).
Meanwhile, to counter the success of GMA’s “Dyesebel”, ABS-CBN lauched “Dyosa” starring Anne Curtis. While this is not a full mermaid story, Dyosa still has mermaid on it with one of Anne’s character Dyosa Agua, a mermaid. Dyosa was first aired on August 11, 2008 with 25.7% (AGB Nielsen), 36.6% (Kantar Media).
Because the initial mermaid stories were primarily catered to the adult audience, ABS-CBN thought of coming up with a mermaid teleserye fit for the young ones. That is why on January 31, 2011, ABS-CBN came up with “Mutya”, a fantasy mermaid series based on Pablo S. Gomez comics with the same title. “Mutya” starring Mutya Urquia was another big hit getting 32.6% (Kantar Media), 11.9% (AGB Nielsen) pilot ratings.
After Mutya, ABS-CBN continues the mermaid trend with “Aryana” featuring Ella Cruz. “Aryana” debuted on May 7, 2012 getting 15.6% (Kantar Media), 11.7%(AGB Nielsen) ratings. While this is the least watched mermaid series made by ABS-CBN it still won against its rival program.
Following Aryana’s trend on teen mermaid, GMA then came up with “Kambal Sirena” starring Louis de los Reyes. It premiered on March 10, 2014 getting 23.6% (AGB Nielsen), 18.5% (Kantar) ratings.
And the last mermaid series to hit Philippine TV was ABS-CBN’s “Dyesebel”. Yes, after ABS-CBN has acquired the rights to Mars Ravelo’s stories, ABS-CBN created their own version of “Dyesebel” with Anne Curtis taking the lead role. “Dyesebel” on ABS-CBN was aired on March 17, 2014 to July 18, 2014 with its pilot episode getting 32.8% (Kantar Media) ratings.
Now you know how mermaid stories are warmly received by the Filipino viewers. And this coming Monday May 8, 2017 another mermaid story will again hit your TV screens as ABS-CBN’s premiered one of the most successful Korean TV series; “Legend of the Blue Sea”. This mermaid series is inspired by a classic Korean legend about a fisherman who kidnapped a mermaid. It will then revolved around the love story of reincarnated con-artist and a mermaid who travels across the ocean to find him. It stars Korean hearthrob Lee Min Ho and Jun Ji-Hyun.
“Legend of the Blue Sea” will be aired on ABS-CBN’s Kapamilya Gold starting Monday, May 8, right before “Wildflower”.
