- Kapuso Network’s noontime variety show Eat Bulaga is top six among the longest-running television programs globally.
- It started way back in 1979 having already at least 39 seasons.
- Eat Bulaga will be celebrating its 40th anniversary this coming July 30.
The Philippine television program ‘Eat Bulaga,’ a six-day noontime variety show broadcasted by the GMA Network was hailed as Top Six among the longest-running televisions shows worldwide.
Topping the list is Guiding Light, an American television soap opera and is broadcast on for 57 years from June 30, 1952 till September 18, 2009. It made at least 15,762 episodes and 57 seasons. Second is General Hospital, also an American soap that premiered on the ABC television network on April 1, 1963 with 14, 242 episodes and 56 seasons.
As The World Turns came in third and is again an American soap with 54 seasons that started on April 2, 1956 and ended on September 17, 2010, and made at least 13,858 episodes. Fourth is Days of Our Lives, another American soap premiered with 54 seasons and 13,508 episodes, it started on Nov. 8, 1965 and is still currently running.
Fifth is The Tonight Show, an American talk show that started on September 27, 1954 and is still airing till today; it already has 12,278 episodes with 64 seasons.
READ: Top 6 Longest-Running TV Programs In The World
Lastly, taking in the sixth place is our very own Eat Bulaga show which premiered on July 30, 1979, and is still currently running on our television screens already has a total of 39 seasons. The show is produced by Television And Production Exponents Inc. (TAPE) and is hosted by Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, and Joey de Leon. Though Tito Sotto is currently inactive in the show for he is the Senate President of the Philippines. It also has its own studio being filmed from APT Studios, along Marcos Highway in Cainta, Rizal.
The show first premiered on RPN-9 from 1979 to 1989, and after 10 years it transferred to ABS-CBN Network from 1989 to 1995 it lasted for seven years. It then again moved to GMA Network, it has been with the network for 24 years already.
Its first overseas franchise was ‘Eat Bulaga! Indonesia’ (later known as ‘The New Eat Bulaga! Indonesia’ from 2014 to 2016), which last aired on Indonesia’s ANTV, and premiered on Indonesia’s SCTV on July 16, 2012. The show then became the first Philippine television program to be franchised by another country.
This coming July 30, 2019 it will be celebrating its 40th anniversary and this will be something to watch out for.