Leopaul's Heaven and Hell: The Eat Bulaga of yesteryears is dead and gone!

The first week of 2024 is met with spiraling results but there's one piece of news that rocked Philippine television, a seismic shift nearly four-and-a-half decades in the making.

Friday, the fifth of January, 2024, saw the TVJ trio of Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, and Joey De Leon, win the copyright infringement and unfair competition cases against TAPE, Inc. and TV network GMA over the rights of the Eat Bulaga! trademark, meaning neither TAPE nor GMA Network has the right to use the Eat Bulaga or EB trademark.

TAPE's Eat Bulaga rebranded as Tahanang Pinakamasaya!
while TV5's E.A.T. is now EAT...BULAGA!

As a result of the ruling, the January 6, 2024 episodes of both noontime shows saw drastic changes. The old Eat Bulaga! that Filipinos know, under the thumb of TAPE Inc., has been rebranded as "Tahanang Pinakamasaya!" while the TV5 EAT... variety show has been renamed as "EAT...BULAGA!", a seismic shift in Philippine television nearly four-and-a-half decades in the making.

Purist Dabarkads around the globe welcomed the biggest news in Eat Bulaga history, pleasing the move as "justice" for all the fans who became part of the TVJ experience since the end of July 1979, and to celebrate Eat Bulaga's return to TVJ, they've started its simulcast airing on CNN Philippines for Saturday episodes. Of course, CNN Philippines used to be RPN-9 and RPN-9 is the first channel where Eat Bulaga first aired in 1979 so it's like a homecoming for TVJ.

Those loyal to the Dabarkads' code of honor knew it was right, bringing the EB naming back to where they truly belonged; the legendary trio who came up with the concept, not the company who calls the shots.

The war that started last year with the feud between TVJ and TAPE has finally found the endgame it truly deserved. I have to say, I'm very pleased that the Philippines' favorite TV trio fought hard to claim what's theirs and won, proving that the fight for redemption is a long and bumpy road ahead. It's arduous but hey, at least we now know the answer.

For the first time in nearly 45 years, Filipinos never experienced such a radical change in EB history. The "old" Eat Bulaga, the one under TAPE control, is now dead and gone while the "new" Eat Bulaga, the EAT one aired on TV5 with the trio that gave birth to the brand, is now using the brand that truly belongs. In other words, the "old" Eat Bulaga on GMA-7 is now "Tahanang Pinakamasaya!" and the EAT TV5 show is now called "EAT...BULAGA!"

The next time someone asks what happened to Eat Bulaga, this is the answer. Need to say it again? Tahanang Pinakamasaya is how TAPE killed Eat Bulaga and the TV5 EAT show is Eat Bulaga, born again as the "new" Eat Bulaga. 

If it is July 30, 2024, the day Eat Bulaga celebrates its 45th birthday, you know which show will celebrate. It's the TVJ one, not the TAPE one. TAPE killed Eat Bulaga and TVJ brought Eat Bulaga back. Remember that.