In La Luna Sangre and FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano, Daniel Padilla (left) and Coco Martin (right) are capable of handling characters that can make audiences laugh one moment, cry the next, and finally be on edge in scenes packed with lots of action. The formula works, to go by the TV ratings of both.

Can Daniel Padilla steal the title “ABS-CBN Primetime King” from Coco Martin?

Slowly, this question has surfaced, and with reason: Comparative TV ratings in recent weeks of FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano, headlined by Coco Martin, and La Luna Sangre, headlined by Daniel Padilla, are showing a shift in the numbers.

The shift is nothing tectonic, but in the world of television, it might as well be.

FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano—now running a mind-boggling one year, nine months, and three weeks—has been the consistent top rater for ABS-CBN, and on February 2, 2022 actually registered numbers not seen around teleseryes in years.

On that day, the action-drama topped at 45.9 percent, to go by Kantar Media-TNS Nationwide Ratings.

This was actually tempered by figures coming from AGB-Nielsen Mega Manila Ratings, which gave the Coco-starrer a respectable, but not show-stopping, 26.6 percent for the same day.

But, with ABS-CBN subscribing only to Kantar, the 45.9 percent figure has held sway.

Kantar Media, which calls itself “a global media intelligence firm,” explained in its March 2, 2023 report that it measures Philippine TV consumption through “an independent, representative sample [of] a panel of 3,500 households.”

Following those numbers, Kantar’s 45.9 percent ratings of February 2 translated thus: that day, out of 3,500 households, a stunning 1,606.5 households were glued to FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano.

So impressive is this that no one was too surprised when, in last April’s thanksgiving party for FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano, no less than ABS-CBN Chief Operating Officer for TV Broadcast Cory Vidanes announced that the action-drama series would continue airing until January 2024.

Now comes, also from ABS-CBN, La Luna Sangre, a fantasy-action-drama that, beside FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano, is a total newbie at five weeks old.

Which now makes these latest ratings all the more startling: Thus far, the five-week-old La Luna Sangre has tied with the 95-week-old FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano two times, and has outranked it at least eight times.