What’s more spine-chilling than selling out 55,000-seater Philippine Arena in a matter of days? It’s seeing this huge audience sing, dance, jump and scream in delight at Eat Bulaga’s special episode “Sa Tamang Panahon.”
Alden Richard and Maine “Yaya Dub” Mendoza’s Aldub, the phenomenal love team that has been the talk of the town since its accidental inception in July, proved that they are not just an Internet and television-record breakers. On Saturday, they successfully drew one of the largest crowds at the Philippines’ largest mixed-used indoor arena.
Before the break of dawn, people have assembled at the arena’s grounds, hoping to get in as early as possible. Early birds were rewarded as previous episodes of the two were put on the loop.
The program started at 10 a.m., giving the audience an appetizer before the main course. Come 11:30, time stood still inside the arena only to be shaken by the loudest shrieks of the crowd.
As expected, the program started in jovial mood, with hosts—or Da Barkads—provoking the crowd to scream at the top of their lungs.
From Eat Bulaga, the show slowly turned into The Aldub Show, with prominent characters Lola Nidora, Tinidora and Tidora—collectively known as Kalye’s Angels—plus Frankie Arrinoli, Duhrizz, and Rihanna went up the stage.
And then came the most awaited part.
Mendoza arrived inside the arena in a grand yet peculiar way—riding at the back of a jeepney as she once did in the show—while Richards was seen live as he coursed his way through Philippine Arena’s interior.
Finally, after three months of tease, the two got their blessing and made many of their firsts—first meet up sans the split screen, first “touch,” first conversation without Dubmashing (or lip synching) and first hug.
The 55,000 strong could not contain their emotions, as most were seen getting teary-eyed. Online, Aldub set yet another record—garnering 29 million tweets as of Saturday afternoon.
From classrooms to libraries
But more than the “kilig” that these two young television stars have been serving to their viewers, Aldub used their popularity to bridge donors and public schools around the country.
It can be recalled that “Plastic ni Juan,” a pro-environment movement within Eat Bulaga’s All for Juan, Juan for All segment, has been asking contestants in each barangay they visit to donate plastic bottles where funds collected from selling these plastic bottles are used to buy chairs for public school children.
Moving their social project a notch higher, Aldub will now use 100 percent of the tickets—estimated to amass P14 million—from Sa Tamang Panahon to fund public libraries in schools nationwide, majority of which have been devastated by the typhoon.
Eat Bulaga promised that updates on the building of these public libraries would be shown starting next week.