It’s Showtime

Also known as: Showtime

Definition

It’s Showtime is a Philippine noontime variety program produced by ABS-CBN, on the air since October 24, 2009. It premiered under the title Showtime as a talent competition in which performing groups were scored by a panel of celebrity judges (hurados), airing Monday through Saturday in the timeslot before Wowowee and replacing Pilipinas, Game Ka Na Ba? Its original hosts were Vhong Navarro, Anne Curtis, Kim Atienza, Jugs Jugueta, and Teddy Corpuz, with the comedian Vice Ganda beginning the run as a resident judge. (Wikipedia) After a farewell special on January 28, 2012, the program was relaunched on February 6, 2012 as It’s Showtime, a noontime variety show replacing Happy Yipee Yehey!; its longest-running segment is the revived singing competition Tawag ng Tanghalan, resident since January 2, 2016 and documented in this wiki’s Tawag ng Tanghalan entry. (Wikipedia, Wikipedia — Tawag ng Tanghalan)

The program’s defining story is survival across outlets. Off the air on May 5, 2020 under the National Telecommunications Commission’s cease-and-desist order against ABS-CBN, it returned on cable’s Kapamilya Channel within five weeks, was back on free television through A2Z within five months, and between 2022 and 2024 added and shed simulcasts on TV5, GTV, the main GMA Network channel, and ALLTV. (Wikipedia) Still on the air as of October 2026 in its seventeenth year, it has outlived its network’s broadcast license, a pandemic, and a twelve-airing-day MTRCB suspension. (Wikipedia, Rappler)

Identities

Source	Identifier	URL
Wikipedia	It’s Showtime (Philippine TV program)	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Showtime_(Philippine_TV_program)
Wikidata	It’s Showtime (Q6090729)	https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6090729
DBpedia	It’s_Showtime_(Philippine_TV_program)	https://dbpedia.org/page/It%27s_Showtime_(Philippine_TV_program)
ProductOntology	N/A	N/A
Wiktionary	showtime (English lemma: “the time at which an entertainment event is set to begin”)	https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/showtime
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	N/A	N/A
MeSH	N/A	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A	N/A
Google Scholar	It’s Showtime Philippine noontime variety show ABS-CBN Showtime 2009 talent competition Vice Ganda Tawag ng Tanghalan MTRCB suspension franchise shutdown	N/A
ConceptNet	N/A	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A	N/A

Also Known As

Showtime

Examples and Analogies

From courtroom to town plaza: the 2009 format functioned as a talent courtroom — groups performed, hurados scored, one verdict — and the 2012 relaunch kept the gavel but moved the proceeding into the town plaza of noontime variety: games, comedy, and a resident singing contest alongside the old judging rituals. (Wikipedia)
Magpasikat, the show turned on itself: each October the hosts split into teams for Magpasikat, a talent week in which the program’s own performers become the contestants — a name inherited from the 2010 stopgap show, revived as the anniversary tradition. (Wikipedia)
The suitcase noontime show: after May 2020 the program lived like a traveling act carrying its own tent — cable (Kapamilya Channel), a leased religious broadcaster (A2Z), a former rival’s second channel (GTV), the rival’s flagship (GMA Network), and a new entrant on the old frequency (ALLTV) — until a show born on ABS-CBN channel 2 aired on channels its parent no longer owned. (Wikipedia)
Tawag ng Tanghalan as the engine room: the segment revived on January 2, 2016 is the program’s documented centerpiece — ten yearly seasons to June 13, 2026, with champions from Noven Belleza to Yannie Paul Basical, whose full record this wiki’s Tawag ng Tanghalan entry carries. (Wikipedia — Tawag ng Tanghalan)
Verified data (premiere, migration, regulation):
Premiere and relaunch: October 24, 2009 as Showtime, before Wowowee; relaunched February 6, 2012 as It’s Showtime, 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m., replacing Happy Yipee Yehey! (Wikipedia)
Host roster by year of joining: Vhong Navarro, Anne Curtis, Vice Ganda (2009); Karylle (2011); Jhong Hilario, Ryan Bang (2012); Amy Perez (2016); Ion Perez, Jackie Gonzaga (2018); Kim Chiu (2020); Ogie Alcasid (2021); MC Calaquian, Lassy Marquez, Cianne Dominguez (2022); Darren Espanto (2024); Brent Manalo and Ralph de Leon (2026) (Wikipedia)
Channel history: Kapamilya Channel June 13, 2020 – present; A2Z October 10, 2020 – present; Jeepney TV June 11, 2018 – April 5, 2024; TV5 July 16, 2022 – June 30, 2023; GTV July 1, 2023 – December 31, 2024; GMA Network April 6, 2024 – present; ALLTV June 17, 2024 – present (Wikipedia)
Structured records: Wikidata catalogs the program as Q6090729, a Philippine noontime variety show; DBpedia records the same resource with a release date of October 24, 2009 and roughly 4,447 episodes (Wikidata, DBpedia)

Usage Scenarios

1. Studying Philippine Noontime Television

Media historians use the program as the second act of the noontime tradition — the 2012 relaunch in the slot of Happy Yipee Yehey! made it ABS-CBN’s answer to Eat Bulaga!, and its migration to GMA Network’s channels from 2023 redrew a rivalry long treated as fixed. (Wikipedia)

2. Analyzing Post-Franchise Broadcast Economics

Broadcast analysts cite the program as the case study of a flagship format outliving its network’s license: off ABS-CBN’s frequencies on May 5, 2020, back on cable within five weeks, on free TV within five months, and from 2024 simulcast on the main channel of its historic competitor and on ALLTV, which broadcast on the former ABS-CBN channels 2 and 16 in Mega Manila. (Wikipedia)

3. Examining Broadcast Regulation in the Philippines

Law and media scholars use the program’s two MTRCB cases — the 2010 preventive suspension cut short by a Court of Appeals restraining order, and the 2023 twelve-day suspension under Section 3(c) of Presidential Decree No. 1986 — as paired lessons in the difference between a regulator’s interim orders and its final, served penalties. (Wikipedia, Rappler)

4. Following the Talent Pipeline Through Tawag ng Tanghalan

Popular-music researchers reach the singing contest through this program: the January 2, 2016 revival ran inside It’s Showtime, and its champions, seasons, and editions — to the tenth yearly championship concluded June 13, 2026 — are cataloged in this wiki’s Tawag ng Tanghalan entry. (Wikipedia — Tawag ng Tanghalan)

Strategies

Cite episodes by channel and date, not by network: after 2020 the same episode aired on as many as four outlets — a claim about “where it aired” is meaningful only with a date between May 2020 and October 2026. (Wikipedia)
Separate the two formats at February 6, 2012: “Showtime” (2009–2012) is the talent-competition program and “It’s Showtime” (2012– ) the noontime variety program; hosts, segments, and ratings records change meaning across that line. (Wikipedia)
Quote regulatory actions by their full chronology: in both MTRCB matters the order date and the serving date differ — January 11, 2010 versus a return on January 19, 2010, and September 4, 2023 versus serving on October 14–27, 2023 — and the gaps are where the appeals happened. (Wikipedia, Rappler)
Anchor host rosters to join-years: the documented roster is cumulative; a list of “the hosts” without dates misstates, for example, Kim Chiu (2020) or Ogie Alcasid (2021) as originals. (Wikipedia)

Security and Safety Measures

Regulatory compliance under PD 1986: the program operates under the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, whose 2023 twelve-airs-day suspension for alleged indecent acts under Section 3(c) of its charter shows that daytime variety carries classification obligations, not exemptions. (Rappler)
Child-participant protection: the 2023 complaints concerned conduct in a segment staged with young participants present; the affiliated singing contest’s children’s editions likewise withhold the gong, the format’s harshest instrument, to protect young contestants. (Wikipedia — Tawag ng Tanghalan)
Pandemic-era production protocols: the program’s documented sequence — no live audience from March 10, 2020, production suspension from March 15, replays and remote taping via Zoom, a quarantine-bubble taping at a Pampanga resort in August 2021 — made it the first Philippine variety show to bring back a live audience, on July 16, 2022. (Wikipedia)
Self-regulation before sanction: in January 2010 ABS-CBN removed the guest judge whose remarks triggered the controversy before the MTRCB acted, and the network litigated the suspension to a favorable outcome — the documented sequence of self-correction, regulator action, and judicial review. (Wikipedia)

Historical Context

The program began on October 24, 2009 as Showtime, a pre-noontime talent competition slotted before Wowowee, with Navarro, Curtis, Atienza, Jugueta, and Corpuz as hosts and Vice Ganda among the hurados. Its first crisis came within a year — the January 2010 Rosanna Roces controversy and a 20-day preventive suspension cut short by the courts, recounted below. The format pivot followed: after the January 28, 2012 farewell special, It’s Showtime opened on February 6, 2012 as a noontime variety show replacing Happy Yipee Yehey! (Wikipedia)

The revival of Tawag ng Tanghalan on January 2, 2016 gave the program its resident singing championship, which ran ten yearly seasons to June 13, 2026. The classic talent format returned for the tenth anniversary on October 1, 2019, and the format crossed borders as It’s Showtime Indonesia on MNCTV (March 25, 2019 – May 9, 2020), the program’s first international franchise. (Wikipedia, Wikipedia — Tawag ng Tanghalan)

The 2020 franchise loss remade the program’s distribution: off the air on May 5, 2020 under the National Telecommunications Commission’s cease-and-desist order, it returned on Kapamilya Channel on June 13, 2020, on A2Z from October 10, 2020, and on Jeepney TV until April 5, 2024; the TV5 simulcast ran July 16, 2022 to June 30, 2023, GTV carried it from July 1, 2023 to December 31, 2024, the main GMA Network channel from April 6, 2024, and ALLTV from June 17, 2024 — the last returning the program to Mega Manila’s channels 2 and 16, the former ABS-CBN frequencies. ABS-CBN announced on February 27, 2025 the sale of most of its Broadcast Center, including the program’s studio, to Ayala Land, effective December 2026. As of October 2026 the program airs on Kapamilya Channel, A2Z, GMA Network, and ALLTV, approaching its seventeenth anniversary. (Wikipedia)

Challenges and Controversies

The 2010 Rosanna Roces Suspension

The program’s first regulatory crisis began with guest judge Rosanna Roces’ on-air remarks about teachers in January 2010, which teachers’ groups condemned as insulting to the profession. ABS-CBN removed Roces, but the MTRCB imposed a 20-day preventive suspension on the program effective January 11, 2010, and ABS-CBN aired Magpasikat in its place. The Court of Appeals restrained the suspension after six days and the program returned January 19, 2010; the MTRCB’s March 2010 order of a one-month suspension against both programs, with charges against responsible network officers, was ultimately not sustained on appeal. (Wikipedia)

The 2023 ‘Isip Bata’ Suspension

On September 4, 2023 the MTRCB suspended the program for twelve airing days over its July 25, 2023 “Isip Bata” episode, in which hosts Vice Ganda and Ion Perez — a real-life couple — shared a cake whose icing Vice Ganda took from her partner’s fingers during a “monthsary” greeting, conduct the Board held indecent under Section 3(c) of Presidential Decree No. 1986; a later resolution also named host Ryan Bang. The program stayed on the air while the network’s motion for reconsideration was pending; the Board denied it on September 28, 2023, and on October 6 the network declined to appeal to the Office of the President. The suspension was served October 14–27, 2023, with the game-variety stopgap It’s Your Lucky Day in the slot, and the program returned on October 28, 2023. (Rappler, Wikipedia)

An Institution Without a Frequency

Since May 2020 the program’s central challenge has been architectural rather than editorial: a noontime institution whose parent network holds no broadcast license, distributed instead through a shifting patchwork of cable, leased, and rival-owned channels. The arrangement kept the program alive — and put it, from April 6, 2024, on the flagship channel of its historic competitor — but outlets ended without ceremony, as the silent December 31, 2024 close of the GTV simulcast showed, and the program will lose its longtime studio when the Ayala Land sale takes effect in December 2026. (Wikipedia)