By: Nestor Cuartero
JUST A THOUGHT: “The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows.” – Aristotle Onassis
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NEWS GOING LIGHT: Hardcore news personalities Jiggy Manicad and Pia Arcangel welcome going light on Saturday and Sunday as they host “24 Oras Weekend.”
Those are the two days of the week when the news they present aren’t as painful or as jarring to the sensibilities of viewers.
For a change, news programs like theirs veer away from an overdose of politics and corruption. In their place are stories about travel, leisure, animals, those with high human interest value.
Pia explains that viewers tend to prefer lighter stories on weekends as a break from tension-filled weekdays.
Besides, government offices are closed on weekends, so that news from those agencies are normally scarce.
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RATINGS LEADER: “24 Oras Weekend,” GMA Network’s flagship primetime newscast every Saturday and Sunday, remains the top news source of Filipino viewers nationwide every weekend.
Data from the industry’s widely-trusted ratings service provider Nielsen TV Audience Measurement show that from Aug. 1 to Sept. 10, 2017 (with Sept. 3 to 10 based on overnight data), “24 Oras Weekend” reigned supreme in the National Urban Television Audience Measurement (NUTAM) with an average people rating of 8.4 percent. It beat “TV Patrol Weekend’s” average people rating of 5.5 percent.
In Urban Luzon, “24 Oras Weekend” toppled competition with an average people rating of 9 percent. “TV Patrol Weekend” only managed to get 4.1 percent. “24 Oras Weekend” posted an even bigger margin in Mega Manila (based on official data as of Sept. 2) with an impressive 9.2 percent average people rating versus “TV Patrol Weekend’s” 3.4 percent.
“24 Oras Weekend,” started in 2010, has been consistently part of GMA’s top-rating weekend programs.
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JIGGYWHERE THE ACTION IS: Jiggy has been a journalist for 20 years. He also anchors GMA News TV’s afternoon newscast “Quick Response Team” (QRT).
In 2014, GMA News and Public Affairs won its fourth George Foster Peabody award for its coverage of Super Typhoon Yolanda. Jiggy was at the forefront of that award-winning coverage.
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PIA ROSE FROM THE RANKS: Pia, on the other hand, started her career with GMA News in 2002 as a field correspondent and has been the anchor of “24 Oras Weekend” since 2010. She started covering police beat on the graveyard shift before she was assigned to cover Congress.
She was part of the GMA News team that covered the funeral of Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 2005.
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TEACHERS BOTH: Jiggy and Pia have a passion for imparting lessons to the youth. As his way of giving back, Jiggy conducts “Jiggy Manicad Stories,” a free journalism lecture/workshop for students. Pia on the other hand, is also a faculty member of Assumption College.