Philippine TV Shows Trivia
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50 free Philippine TV Shows trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Filipino television is a national pastime with its own vocabulary: the noontime show, the teleserye, the fantaserye, the gag show. Two giant networks and a scrappy third have fought over the same lunchtime and primetime slots for decades, and the feuds, defections and court cases are as dramatic as anything on screen. These 50 questions cover the noontime institutions and the hosts who went into politics, the networks' origins and the 2020 shutdown, the teleseryes that travelled abroad, the newscasts and anchors, the sitcoms that ran for a decade or more, and the shows that won international prizes. It suits anyone who grew up with the lunchtime jingles, the overseas worker who keeps up via TFC, or the K-drama fan curious where Asian imports first caught on. Every answer comes with an explanation and a source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which future 2NE1 member finished second to Hero Angeles on ABS-CBN's Star Circle Quest in 2004?
Sandara Park
Sandara Park was urged to audition by actress Pauleen Luna, and her 2004 EP sold over 100,000 copies in the Philippines before she went home in 2007 and debuted with 2NE1 in 2009.
Q 02Which robot anime, banned by Marcos in 1979 as 'violent', did GMA revive as a live-action series in 2023?
Voltes V
Voltes V was cut off on August 27, 1979 with four episodes unaired, and the popular theory is that its themes of rebellion, not its violence, worried the regime. GMA's remake Voltes V: Legacy ran 90 episodes.
Q 03Mara Clara (1992–97) made stars of Judy Ann Santos and Gladys Reyes as two girls who were what?
Switched at birth
Switched at birth in the hospital, the girls grew up in each other's families, and the title borrows the name of María Clara, heroine of the novel Noli Me Tángere.
Q 04What does nanny Maya call her widowed boss Richard Lim in ABS-CBN's Be Careful with My Heart?
Ser Chief
Ser Chief is Maya's name for Richard Yap's aviation-company widower, and the daytime series (2012–14) was sold across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America, spawning albums, concerts and world tours.
Q 05TV5 adopted which audience tag in 2010 to rival ABS-CBN's Kapamilya and GMA's Kapuso?
Kapatid
Kapatid became TV5's brand on April 4, 2010, weeks after PLDT's MediaQuest completed its purchase of the network, setting 'sibling' against ABS-CBN's 'part of the family' and GMA's 'heart'.
Q 06Coco Martin played which policeman across the 1,696 episodes of ABS-CBN's Ang Probinsyano (2015–22)?
Cardo Dalisay
Cardo Dalisay's nine seasons made Ang Probinsyano the longest-running drama in ABS-CBN history; it ended on August 12, 2022 to make way for a Darna remake, with over 536,000 watching the finale live on YouTube.
Q 07Who played the title role in GMA's 2007 Marimar remake, whose finale drew a 52.6% Mega Manila rating?
Marian Rivera
Marian Rivera won the part at open auditions after the network's first choice turned it down, and the Mexican original with Thalía had aired on RPN-9 in 1996. She married her Sergio, Dingdong Dantes, in 2014.
Q 08TAPE Inc. lost the Eat Bulaga! name by court order in January 2024 and relaunched its GMA noontime show as what?
Tahanang Pinakamasaya
Tahanang Pinakamasaya lasted only until March 2, 2024, cancelled amid low viewership and debt, after a Marikina court found TAPE liable for unfair competition and the IP Office credited the title to TVJ.
Q 09What placeholder title did TVJ's TV5 noontime show carry from July 2023 until the Eat Bulaga! trademark rulings?
E.A.T.
E.A.T. premiered on TV5 on July 1, 2023, taking the slot It's Showtime had been simulcasting, and was rebranded as Eat Bulaga! on January 6, 2024 once the IP Office and a Marikina court sided with the hosts.
Q 10Which longtime Eat Bulaga! host served as the Philippines' Senate President from 2018 to 2022?
Tito Sotto
Tito Sotto co-wrote 'Magkaisa', one of the anthems of the 1986 People Power Revolution, and helped found the Manila-sound band VST & Co.
Q 11Eat Bulaga!'s first overseas franchise launched in 2012 on the SCTV network of which country?
Indonesia
Indonesia's Eat Bulaga! premiered on SCTV on July 16, 2012 after a programming director discovered the show on YouTube, and a second version followed on ANTV; a Myanmar edition was announced for the 40th anniversary.
Q 12AlDub's 2015 'Tamang Panahon' concert drew 41 million tweets in a day, beating a record set by which event?
A World Cup semi-final
A World Cup semi-final, Brazil's 7–1 loss to Germany in 2014, had set the previous mark; the Philippine Arena show drew about 55,000 fans and its ticket sales funded school libraries.
Q 13After losing its TV5 slot to TVJ in 2023, It's Showtime began simulcasting on which rival-owned channel?
GTV
Q 21TV5 began in 1960 as ABC, founded by which publisher who owned the Manila Times?
Chino Roces
Chino Roces won a radio-TV franchise under Republic Act 2945 and put DZTM-TV Channel 5 on air in July 1962; shut down for almost two decades, the network returned to the air only in February 1992.
Q 22GMA grew out of radio station DZBB, launched in Manila in 1950 by which American former war correspondent?
Bob Stewart
Bob Stewart, 'Uncle Bob' to viewers of his Lucky Seven Club kids' show, put RBS TV Channel 7 on air on October 29, 1961, then had to cede control to the Duavit-Jimenez-Gozon triumvirate in 1974 under Marcos-era ownership rules.
Q 23Which Channel 11 network, run by ZOE Broadcasting, put ABS-CBN shows back on free TV after the 2020 shutdown?
GTV, formerly GMA News TV, began carrying the rival network's noontime show on July 1, 2023, and nine months later the show moved up to GMA's main channel as well.
Q 14Which amateur singing contest revived on It's Showtime in 2016 had crowned Nora Aunor champion in 1967?
Tawag ng Tanghalan
Tawag ng Tanghalan began as a 1954 radio amateur hour on DZBB, and its modern version keeps the gong: a head judge can stop an out-of-tune singer mid-song with three strikes. Nora Aunor won on her second try.
Q 15Which Wowowee host's catchphrase was 'Bigyan ng jacket 'yan!' before his 2010 move from ABS-CBN to TV5?
Willie Revillame
Willie Revillame handed out jackets to contestants on Wowowee (2005–10), then carried the habit to TV5's Willing Willie and GMA's Wowowin, which he moved to Manny Villar's new ALLTV in 2022.
Q 16When Eat Bulaga! left ABS-CBN for GMA in 1995, which OPM group's noontime show took over its slot?
APO Hiking Society
APO Hiking Society's 'Sang Linggo nAPO Sila (1995–98) took the top noontime spot with its live 'Barangay APO' remotes, until Eat Bulaga!'s pageant Super SiReyna won the lead back in 1996.
Q 17The letters GMA now stand for Global Media Arts, but what did Channel 7's acronym originally mean?
Greater Manila Area
Greater Manila Area was what Channel 7 covered when a 1974 takeover renamed the Republic Broadcasting System as GMA Radio-Television Arts; the corporate name became GMA Network Inc. in 1996, and the Kapuso heart logo arrived in 2002.
Q 18Which body voted on July 10, 2020 to deny ABS-CBN a new franchise, keeping Channel 2 dark?
House of Representatives
House of Representatives committee members voted 70–11, two months after the NTC ordered 42 ABS-CBN TV stations off the air on May 5, 2020; the network's shows moved to the pay-TV Kapamilya Channel.
Q 19What event shut ABS-CBN down in September 1972, keeping the network off the air until September 1986?
Declaration of martial law
Declaration of martial law let Marcos seize the Lopez family's network, jail its president Eugenio Lopez Jr. and hand its Quezon City studios to crony Roberto Benedicto's KBS; the station reopened on September 14, 1986.
Q 20Whose home hosted the Philippines' first telecast on October 23, 1953, a judge and brother of the president?
Antonio Quirino
Antonio Quirino was denied a TV licence of his own, so he bought control of Bolinao Electronics, renamed it Alto Broadcasting System and opened with a garden party at his San Juan home.
A2Z
A2Z takes its name from ABS-CBN, ZOE and the recalled channel 2, and is owned by Eddie Villanueva's Jesus Is Lord Church; its frequency had carried GMA's news channel until that lease ended in 2019.
Q 24Which ABS-CBN newscast, on air since March 1987, is the longest-running Filipino-language news program?
TV Patrol
TV Patrol was cut to 30 minutes in 1996 to counter-programme the Tagalog-dubbed Marimar on RPN-9, and it became the first Philippine newscast beamed overseas, to Guam and Saipan in 1989 and worldwide on TFC from 1994.
Q 25Which newscaster was an original anchor of both ABS-CBN's 1987 flagship newscast and GMA's 24 Oras in 2004?
Mel Tiangco
Mel Tiangco crossed to GMA in 1996 with radio partner Jay Sonza after ABS-CBN suspended her over a detergent commercial, and later hosted the drama anthology Magpakailanman.
Q 26Which original 1987 anchor of ABS-CBN's flagship newscast was elected Vice President in 2004?
Noli de Castro
Noli de Castro topped the 2001 senatorial race before serving as Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's vice president until 2010, then simply went back to anchoring; he also fronted the Saturday magazine Magandang Gabi... Bayan for 16 years.
Q 27Which GMA journalist and the I-Witness team won the Philippines' first Peabody Award in 1999?
Jessica Soho
Jessica Soho helped conceive I-Witness, and two of her films from its first year on air, 'Kidneys for Sale', about poor Filipinos who sold a kidney, and 'Kamao', won the Peabody.
Q 28Which ABS-CBN drama anthology of 1991–2022 dramatised true stories that viewers sent in by letter?
Maalaala Mo Kaya
Maalaala Mo Kaya, 'would you remember?', is named after a Constancio de Guzman song, premiered on May 15, 1991 and came back in April 2025 as a 13-episode streaming series.
Q 29Ang Probinsyano (2015–22) and Batang Quiapo (2023–26) were both adapted from films starring which action star?
Fernando Poe Jr.
Fernando Poe Jr.'s widow gave the Ang Probinsyano adaptation her blessing and then joined its cast herself as the hero's grandmother, Lola Flora.
Q 30Which Dubsmash star played Yaya Dub opposite Alden Richards in Eat Bulaga!'s 2015 Kalyeserye?
Maine Mendoza
Maine Mendoza's Yaya Dub at first never spoke, only lip-syncing, and the love team was born unscripted on July 16, 2015 when she broke character, giddy at seeing Alden Richards over a split screen.