AlDub was a love team which originated from the Kalyeserye portion of the "Juan for All, All for Juan" segment of the variety show Eat Bulaga! The name was derived from a portmanteau of the name of the two characters in Kalyeserye, namely Filipino actor Alden Richards, who portrays a fictionalized version of himself, and Yaya Dub (Divina Ursula Bokbokova Smash, a reverse-acronym of Dubsmash), portrayed by Dubsmash Queen personality and socialite actress Maine Mendoza, who initially does not talk and interacts through lip-syncing.
Background
A 30-minute to 1-hour soap opera parody titled Kalyeserye (literally translated as "street series") was created within the "Juan for All, All for Juan" segment for the tandem, featuring live improv acting from the AlDub supercouple and its additional characters–Filipino comedians Wally Bayola (primarily as Lola Nidora), Jose Manalo (primarily as Lola Tinidora), and Paolo Ballesteros (primarily as Lola Tidora) as various characters. The segment proved to be a success in both broadcast television and social media, resulting in a significant increase of viewership and popularity of Eat Bulaga!. In addition, it has also contributed to the careers of Richards and Mendoza.
As of late, different media outlets had hailed AlDub as a "social media phenomenon" following its success in trending everyday on Twitter and other social media platforms. Record-breaking tweets correlate to a pivotal episode of Kalyeserye, mostly about AlDub's continuing romance. Such is the case on September 5, 2015, as the couple finally saw each other for the first time after their respective performances in the Bulaga Pa More! Dabarkads Edition wildcard round. Subsequent meetings for the pair happened in the weeks that followed, advancing the storyline of Kalyeserye.
On September 26, 2015, they first reached record-breaking tweets on Twitter for #ALDubEBforLOVE with 25.6 million tweets in just a day, breaking their own record of 12.1 million tweets within 24 hours for #ALDUBMostAwaitedDate on September 19, 2015.
On October 24, 2015, the couple finally got to meet properly without hindrances through Eat Bulaga!s grand benefit concert at the Philippine Arena dubbed as "Sa Tamang Panahon" ("At the Right Time"). The concert was part of the show's 36th anniversary and held as a celebration to Eat Bulaga! and a tribute to the fans of AlDub. Proceeds were used to fund libraries for certain schools across the Philippines. That day, the hashtag #ALDubEBTamangPanahon reached over 41 million tweets within 24 hours (which is now the global record for the most number of tweets within 24 hours), beating the record of the 2014 World Cup semi-final match between Brazil and Germany, which consists of 37.6 million tweets within 24 hours. Rishi Jaitly, one of the executives of Twitter said that the tweets were "real, fresh and organic." Apart from social media records, the concert also recorded a live audience of 55,000 people and set another record after tickets for the event sold out in less than 3 days.
Beginnings In 2015, Alden Richards, who had finished filming the miniseries Ilustrado (2014), was invited to join Eat Bulaga! as a host for a month-long trial period, hosting various segments such as "Pak Na Pak" and later, "That's My Bae" with Indian-Filipino radio disc jockey Sam YG. A month later, Maine Mendoza, who had initially gained popularity for posting Dubsmash videos in various social media platforms, auditioned for the program after catching the attention of its producers. Mendoza officially entered showbiz on July 4, 2015. She recalled that she was originally cast as a lawyer for Eat Bulaga!s "Juan for All, All for Juan" segment but was ultimately cast as Yaya Dub (Divina Ursula Bokbokova Smash), a personal assistant (although the Filipino term Yaya translate to nanny) for comedian Wally Bayola's Lola Nidora character. Utilizing her Dubsmash popularity, Mendoza only communicates in the series through vocal dubbing and was initially portrayed as the snobbish Yaya Dub. On the show's July 16, 2015 episode, Yaya Dub broke character when she was caught being kilig (a Tagalog word roughly translated in English as "feeling giddy" or much closer with the idiom "tickled pink") seeing Richards on the show's live split screen, prompting Eat Bulagas producers to make an onscreen couple of the two. On October 1, 2015, their first duet happened when Maine Mendoza and Alden Richards sang "Wish I May", a song by the latter, and "God Gave Me You", a hit song by Bryan White. Mike Tuviera, a resident director for the show, revealed that the tandem was made by accident. The name "AlDub" was conceived as a portmanteau of the tandem's names, Alden and Yaya Dub And despite being featured in the show, the couple did not meet with each other for the first few weeks of the segment and only interacted through the show's split-screen frame and conversing in dubbed audio samples of popular songs and lines from popular films and TV series as well as through handwritten messages shown on screen.
Kalyeserye
Due to the audiences' positive reception to the AlDub pairing, Eat Bulaga!s producers decided to make a 30-minute soap opera parody in its "Juan For All, All for Juan" segment for the tandem. Pegged as a "Kalyeserye" (Filipino for "street series"), it was described as a parody of Philippine television dramas performed by improv acting, which was broadcast live from a barangay street featured in the "Juan for All, All for Juan" set. Poochie Rivera, one of the program's directors, described it as "natural and unscripted", saying that "Nothing is rehearsed. We are trying to maintain the spontaneity because that is a big part of its charm.". Starring the AlDub love team, the Kalyeserye also features Jose Manalo (as Frankie Arinolli, Tinidora and his various characters), Wally Bayola (as Lola Nidora and his various characters), Paolo Ballesteros (as Tidora and his various characters) and other casts and characters.
Some of the running gags and storylines throughout the parody include the "Pabebe Wave" (a deviation of a beauty queen wave gesture) between Alden and Yaya Dub, Lola Nidora lobbying for a pairing between Yaya Dub and Frankie (using the portmanteau "YaKie"), and the incompetence of the numerous Rogelios, Lola Nidora's bodyguards. The Kalyeserye's main storyline is the Cinderella-like forbidden courtship between the AlDub tandem, with its paramount goal being the first physical meeting between the two, a move continually opposed by Lola Nidora.
"Tamang Panahon"
On the October 24, 2015 episode of Eat Bulaga!, approximately 55,000 people gathered at the Philippine Arena for a benefit concert that highlighted the love team of Maine Mendoza and Alden Richards. One hundred percent of ticket sales (Php 14 million) was allotted for the AlDub Library Outreach Project. With 41 million in total tweets within 24 hours (39.4 million in 24 hours on October 24 with remaining tweets from the following day considered as counted by Twitter itself), #ALDubEBTamangPanahon, the official hashtag of the event, broke their own Twitter record as well as breaking the global record for the most number of tweets within 24 hours previously held by the 2014 FIFA World Cup semi-final match between Brazil and Germany (which only gained 37.6 million tweets). Their television rating soared, beating the level of the Manny Pacquiao fights, posting 50.8 percent in Mega Manila and 40.1 percent nationwide. This was the only time where Eat Bulaga broadcast the show live and commercial-free.
Films Beyond Kalyeserye, the AlDub love team has appeared in two films portraying different characters separate from their roles in Kalyeserye.
My Bebe Lovefilms
Their first feature-length film, titled My Bebe Love, was entered into the 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival and was the top grosser with an opening-day gross of 60.5 million Philippine pesos. By day 5, it had grossed some 214 million pesos On the 10th day of 41st MMFF, the movie had earned P322 million pesos. The total gross of the movie is 385 million pesos.
At the Metro Manila Film Festival awards night, Maine Mendoza won the title of Best Supporting actress.
Imagine You and Me
On July 13, 2016, three days before the anniversary of AlDub, Imagine You and Me was shown in cinemas worldwide as an anniversary gift to the fans of AlDub. In the film, Richards and Mendoza played as star-crossed lovers with the opposite view of love. A great majority of the film was shot in Italy and the Cinema Evaluation Board of the Philippines gave a B grade. The film grossed over PHP21.5 million on its first day making it the highest-grossing opening day in 2016 to date.
Love is...
On October 21, 2017, the AlDub love team starred in Eat Bulaga!s "film made for television" titled Love is..., directed by Adolf Alix, Jr.
"The first ever telemovie that will redefine love, promise, and commitment. The story that will tell us what ‘love is.’"
Reception
The AlDub couple became an overnight phenomenon on both television and social media. The pivotal meeting episode between the AlDub tandem on August 8, 2015 scored a 32% percent rating and a 300% increase in viewership for Eat Bulaga! in the Mega Manila Region, according to the Nielsen ratings conducted by AGB Nielsen Philippines. On a weekly survey by Kantar Media Philippines, the tandem was cited in helping the program to become a number one daytime program for weeks. According to AGB Nielsen's research, Eat Bulaga!s August 12, 2015 episode marked an all-time high in viewership for the year with a 36.1% rating, in the Mega Manila Region, which was mainly alluded to the tandem's near-meeting. Rivera also theorized that the coupling's successful response from audiences was because of the Filipinos who can relate with their predicament. He remarked "People who have partners who work abroad often communicate and pursue their relationship online, through Skype or FaceTime." Pauleen Luna, a cast member of Eat Bulaga!, commented that AlDub "has brought a different kind of energy to the show." Anna Leah Sarabia, a Filipino anthropologist, cited the "Kalyeserye"'s use of fairy tale and soap opera's tropes helped in tandem's increasing popularity, saying that "It’s a 'Cinderella' story that's fake and true-life at the same time." Filipino television executive Malou Choa-Fagar also cited the unpredictable nature of the Kalyeserye had largely contributed to the AlDub success. In social media site Twitter, hashtags with AlDub became top trending topics in both the Philippine and Worldwide trends. Various outlets also lauded the show's use of old and new media for the AlDub tandem, which also pulsated in raising the value of the Dubsmash app in the Philippines. The popularity of the tandem even reached some schools and became a topic discussed in classrooms; for instance in a University of the Philippines Diliman Filipino class. Several Filipino politicians also referenced the AlDub couple in various interviews: Ralph Recto cited the tandem as a symbolism regarding the Philippine Land Transportation Office license plates, while Mar Roxas also referenced AlDub in his 2016 presidential campaign.