Mexican girl and talking dog capture primetime Philippine TV

Mexican girl and talking dog capture primetime Philippine TV

MANILA (AFP): A Mexican girl named Mari Mar and her talking
dog out to avenge her humiliation by her rich relatives rule
primetime Philippine television, reports said Tuesday.

Mari Mar, a Mexican television series dubbed into Filipino,
and aired five nights a week on a government station, has taken
the country by storm, prompting private networks to change their
programming to compete.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted a June 16-22 survey that
showed the series leading all programs, including primetime
shows.

It also showed that viewership cut across all social classes.

The series, which began airing March 11, is shown Monday to
Friday from 6: 30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and replayed in the afternoons.

Mari Mar is the story of a poor but beautiful barrio girl
forced to marry a rich man, Sergio, who later leaves her pregnant
in order to become a soccer star.

Sergio's parents immediately make her life miserable, making
her eat mud, throwing her into jail for a robbery she did not
commit and torching the hovel she lived in with her grandparents.

Edith del Rosario, overall producer of RPN-9, which airs Mari
Mar, was quoted in an interview in the Manila Times as saying
that Filipinos could relate to the underdog theme of the series.