Are the Kapuso network's afternoon soaps doing better than those co-produced by ABS-CBN and TV5, namely, Pira-pirasong Paraiso and Nag-aapoy na Damdamin, which air 3 p.m. and 3:50 p.m. respectively, on TV-5, A2Z and all of ABS-CBN's streaming platforms?

If ABS-CBN, as the content creator of both shows, has decided to add the iconic Maricel Soriano to the cast of Pira-piraso, it may just be to mark the fact that the show has entered its second season since it started airing on 25 July this year. It is not necessarily an admission that the Kapuso shows are doing better. After all, competition between GMA 7 and ABS-CBN has turned into collaboration, hasn't it?

Actually, when those new

co-production series between ABS-CBN were launched, the Kapuso network had already begun airing on its afternoon slots the soaps Abot-Kamay Na Pangarap, Magandang Dilag and The Seed of Love.

Abot-Kamay has been building up viewership since September last year. It's a melodrama about a medical doctor who's supposedly the youngest in the country, portrayed by young star Jillian Ward, a GMA 7 homegrown talent since her childhood.

By July 2023, the series was leading the pack — with stage thespian Pinky Amador catapulted to top contravida.

It's a well-cast show that features in major roles Dina Bonnevie, Richard Yap, Carmina Villaroel, Dominic Ochoa, Dexter Doria and Pinoy-Japanese actor Kazel Kinouchi, a discovery of ABS-CBN through an edition of the reality show Pinoy Big Brother who jumped over to GMA 7 to be among the network's young and lovely villains.