''Wow'' (: Double Hit) (formerly ''Wow'' , ''Wow Maling Mali'', ''Wow Meganon'', ''Wow Mali Pa Rin!'' and ''Wow Mali! Lakas ng Tama'') is a

Philippine television Television in the Philippines was introduced in October 1953 upon the first commercial broadcast made by Alto Broadcasting System (now ABS-CBN), making the Philippines the first Southeast Asian country and the second in Asia to do so. Even ...

comedy show broadcast by ABC/TV5. Originally hosted by

Joey de Leon Jose Maria Ramos de Leon Jr. (born October 14, 1946), professionally known as Joey de Leon and also known as Henyo Master, is a Filipino comedian, actor, television host and songwriter. He is one of the members of the comedy trio, collectively ...

, it aired on ABC from May 25, 1996 to August 2, 2008. The show returned to TV5 from February 22, 2009 to June 28, 2015, and again from August 26, 2023 to October 26, 2024.

Jose Manalo Ariel Pagtalonia Manalo (born February 12, 1966), known professionally as Jose Manalo (), is a Filipino actor, director, and comedian best known for appearing regularly on the noon-time variety show ''Eat Bulaga!'' on GMA Network and now on T ...

and

Wally Bayola Walter James "Wally" Bayola (born May 3, 1972) (), is a Filipino comedian and actor. He is best known for portraying Lola Nidora and other characters in the '' Kalyeserye'' portion of the noontime television variety show ''Eat Bulaga!''. He appe ...

serve as the final hosts. It is the longest-running gag show in the Philippines.

History

The Philippines got its first taste of unpretentious, candidly-captured-for-TV Filipino humor on May 25, 1996, from the reality-based comedy show WoW Mali, hosted by feted comedian

. Inspired by the

America's Funniest Home Videos ''America's Funniest Home Videos'', also called ''America's Funniest Videos'' (abbreviated as ''AFV''), is an American video clip television series on ABC, based on a recurring segment on the Japanese variety show '' Fun TV with Kato-chan and ...

concept, WoW Mali features a plethora of video footage featuring practical jokes, bloopers and wacky segments, as well as solicited but equally hilarious video clips from the viewers. The actual stars of the show are men on the street - individual Filipinos, caught by the candid camera in bizarre and funny situations.

Gaining Currency

From its pilot episode, the innovative program's candid camera format increasingly gained popularity among viewers of all ages, even paving the way for countless WOW Mali clones that failed to topple the original show. Soon enough, WoW Mali became a household name, even adding a gem to colloquial lingo. "WOW Mali" or "NA-WOW-MALI AKO" is now the common expression whenever one makes a mistake or becomes the victim of a prank or a ruse. For two years, the show was directed by Edgar "Bobot" Mortiz (a former teen matinee idol and part of the famous Going Bananas gang). Mortiz gave Joey de Leon a comic puppet co-host called Dennis Wrongman (as vivified by mime actor Totong Federez), another original touch. The taping of spiels and vignettes was usually held in the studio while candid shots, gag and tease segments were conducted on the streets by a daily roving crew, with the unsuspecting public as so-called "victims." In August 1998, Ding Bolanos took over as director and brought Joey de Leon out of the studio to the outdoors. Hence, WoW Mali became a traveling show, capturing the Filipino brand of humor in different parts of the country, amid the colors and flavors of exotic places, exciting resorts and well-traveled tourist spots. In 2002, the show was taped at the various shopping malls in the Philippines.

Wow Maling Mali

After almost a decade, ABC reformatted ''Wow Mali'' and retitled it ''Wow Maling Mali'' which premiered on April 23, 2005. It features the parodies of the several television shows and/or films in each episode. On July 29, 2006, ''Wow Maling Mali'' morphed into ''Teka Mona!'', but was discontinued on May 19, 2007.

Wow Mali Bytes/Express

On May 26, 2007, ''Wow Mali'' came back with a new brand, ''Wow Mali Bytes''. It still featured skits and spoofs and gags, but with explicit humor and with no host at all. On August 4, 2007, it changed its title to ''Wow Mali Express''.

Wow Mali spin-offs

After the reformat of ABC 5 to TV5, ''

Lokomoko ''Lokomoko'' (''Lokomoko'' is Filipino for ''Niloloko mo ako'', English for ''"You're Fooling Me!"'') (formerly ''Lokomoko High'', ''Lokomoko U'', ''Lokomoko U Ang Kulit!'' and ''Lokomoko: La-Bus'') is a Philippine television sketch comedy show ...

'' was created which shared the same concept as ''Wow Mali'' but focused on school gags. It was hosted by

Alex Gonzaga Catherine "Alex" Cruz Gonzaga-Morada (; born January 16, 1988) is a Filipino media personality, host, comedian, actress, businesswoman, singer and vlogger. She played the lead role of Diane Santos on the Philippine television drama series '' P ...

, and Randolf Stamatelaky. When TV5 was reformatted in April 2010, ''Lokomoko'' morphed into a gag show similar to ''

Bubble Gang ''Bubble Gang'' is a Philippine television sketch comedy show broadcast by GMA Network. Originally directed by Uro Q. Dela Cruz, it was originally starred by Ogie Alcasid, Antonio Aquitania, Sunshine Cruz, Jackie de Guzman, Assunta De Rossi, ...

'' and ''

Tropang Trumpo ''Tropang Trumpo'' ( Tagalog for ''Troop of Tops'') is a Philippine television sketch comedy show broadcast by ABC. It aired from March 12, 1994 to March 13, 1999, and was replaced by '' Ispup''. History The original cast included Ogie Alc ...

''. Another comedy gag show on TV5 was Ogags hosted by two Brazilian ladies

Daiana Menezes Daiana Alves Menezes (born June 20, 1987) is a Brazilians, Brazilian actress, singer, and television host based in the Philippines. Menezes is best known as a former co-host of Variety show, noontime variety show ''Eat Bulaga!'' and is currentl ...

and

Ariana Barouk Ariana Barouk (born November 5, 1982) is a Cuban-American actress, tv host, model, singer and beauty pageant titleholder who represented Cuba in the seventh edition of the environmentally-oriented Miss Earth 2007 international beauty pageant. Sh ...

. ''Ogags'' ended with the return of ''Wow Mali''.

Second revival

The show returned on February 22, 2009, on TV5 with

again as host. De Leon hosts the show from a studio similar to a virtual reality studio. It aired on Sundays at 6:30 PM. The show became a separate show from ''Lokomoko'', following the renaming of the show to ''Lokomoko High''. Changes have been made to the second season of the show. It became live every Sunday night. De Leon interacted with several people in a studio with a barangay plaza as the backdrop. Sexy comedian

Alyssa Alano Alyssa Alano (born Geramie Daud; 11 August 1987) is a Philippine film and TV actress. She was a former member of the popular Viva Hot Babes franchise. Biography Although she grew up in Tarlac, she was born Geramie Daud in Zamboanga City on 1 ...

joined him as co-host and had her own segment. Other homegrown TV5 talents like the Baikingu Girls (from the Tuesday primetime show ''Baikingu'') and the Smurfets (from the Wednesday primetime show ''Ogags'') were also seen in the show as well. Richie d' Horsie was added to the cast as Joey's second sidekick.

''Mahiwagang Tunog''

''Mahiwagang Tunog'' (Filipino for ''Mysterious Sound'') was a game show incorporated into the new incarnation of Wow Mali. A video clip of someone doing a mundane task was taken, but the video itself was removed, letting the viewers hear only the sound. The host then provided a sentence with the verbs of the sentence blanked out. Through a telephone call, the home viewer attempted to guess what is that particular person doing using only the sound he heard. The winner was awarded a cash prize from an ever-growing jackpot.

Wow Meganon

On September 6, 2010, ''Wow Mali'' became ''Wow Meganon''. Similar to ''Wow Maling Mali'', Joey De Leon remains as the main host, together with Jeff " Mr. Fu" Espiritu, Calamity Fun, Wanlu, Miko Petito, Maui Manalo, and Jeffrey Tam as the new co-hosts of the show. Aside from the gags, it featured segments like street magic and a puppet show. The show ended on April 8, 2011.

Third revival

The third revival of ''Wow Mali'' premiered on April 10, 2011. However, it ended on February 5, 2012.

Fourth revival

The TV5 management decides to revive the program in September 2013 and named it ''Wow Mali Pa Rin!'' () which will replace ''

Talentadong Pinoy ''Talentadong Pinoy'' (transl. ''Talented Pinoy''), also known as ''Bangon Talentadong Pinoy'' (transl. ''Get Up, Talented Pinoy'' for its eighth season) is a Philippine television reality competition show broadcast by TV5. Hosted by Ryan Agonci ...

's'' timeslot, alongside ''

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (WWTBAM) is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Televis ...

'', and ''

Pinoy Explorer ''Pinoy Explorer'' is a Philippine television infotainment show broadcast by TV5. Hosted by Aga Muhlach, it aired on the network's evening line up from September 18, 2011 to May 4, 2013, replacing ''Magic? Bagsik!'' and was replaced by ''Tropa ...

''. The series was aired on September 15, 2013, at 8pm.

Fifth revival

A new title again as ''Wow Mali: Lakas Ng Tama'' () was premiered on TV5 on June 22, 2014, with the same host funnyman Joey De Leon and various guest stars of the show.

Sixth revival

In November 2022, TV5 announced that Wow Mali would be revived as part of its lineup for 2023. It is now co-produced by

APT Entertainment APT Entertainment, Inc. is a Philippine television and film production company based in Pasig. It was founded by TAPE's co-founder Antonio Tuviera in 1994. The company was best known for producing ''Eat Bulaga!'', the country's longest-running ...

and Cignal TV. The sixth and current revival, titled ''Wow Mali: Doble Tama'' (), is hosted by the comedic duo of Jose Manalo and Wally Bayola and premiered on August 26, 2023. The show aired on TV5 every Saturdays at 10:30 PM with a delayed telecast on Buko Channel and it also have a 15-minute counterpart called Wow Mali: Doble Tawa that currently airs from Mondays to Sundays at 11:00 PM on RPTV. The revival comes after Joey de Leon, the original host of Wow Mali, began hosting a similar program on

Net 25 Net 25 (capitalized and stylized as NET25) is a Philippine television network owned and operated by the Eagle Broadcasting Corporation. The network is named for its flagship station in Metro Manila, DZEC-TV, which is carried on UHF Channel 25 ...

titled ''Oh No It's B.O. (Biro Only)''. De Leon, however, gave his blessing to Manalo and Bayola to host the return of Wow Mali. Reruns of the show's past episodes were broadcast under the title ''The Best of Wow Mali'' from June 24 to August 19, 2023, in preparation for the new episodes. After over a year, the show ended on October 26, 2024.

Hosts

Final hosts

Former hosts

(1996–2008, 2009–15) * Mike "Pekto" Nacua * Jeffrey "Mr. Fu" Espiritu (2010–15) *Totong Federez (puppeteer of Dennis Wrongman, the puppet version of former NBA Star Dennis Rodman) *China Tuason (as Krissy, a parody of Kris Aquino) *Via Antonio (as Doray Alaskadora, a parody of Dora the Explorer).

Awards

*Winner, 1st MTRCB Television Awards for Best Comedy Show (2009) *Winner, KBP Golden Dove Awards for the Best Gag Show (1997, 2005 & 2009). *Nominated, PMPC Star Awards for TV's Best Gag Show (1996–2013) *Nominated, Catholic Mass Media Awards Best Comedy Show (1996–2013)

References

External links