Vice Ganda’s late-night talk show spent its entire pre-launch campaign promising something it hadn’t had to prove in six years off air: an unscripted hour with a guest who usually answers questions carefully. On September 13, Gandang Gabi Vice (GGV) returned to Philippine television for the first time since March 2020, moving from its original home on ABS-CBN to a Sunday-night slot on GMA Network. Actor Alden Richards — long nicknamed “Asia’s Multimedia Star” in entertainment coverage — sat down as the show’s first guest. By the time the episode wrapped, he’d cried for close to ten minutes and, in a segment built around forcing honesty, addressed a question about himself he’d spent years sidestepping.

The Question He Usually Deflects

In GGV’s “Deep Truth” segment — a game where guests read aloud statements about themselves and the hosts guess whether each is “trot” (true) or “charot,” Filipino slang for a joke — Richards read a line claiming he’d once punched someone for calling him “bading,” Filipino slang for gay. The verdict came back charot: he clarified he’d never hit anyone over it. The conversation that followed went further than the game itself. Richards admitted the sexuality rumors that have trailed him since his breakout opposite Maine Mendoza in the 2010s “Kalyeserye” segment on GMA’s noontime show Eat Bulaga — the pairing later nicknamed AlDub — still get on his nerves.

He’d addressed the same speculation before. In a January 2024 interview with vlogger and TV host Toni Gonzaga, Richards had already said, “Kung tingin niyo bading, fine.” He gave the same answer on GGV. This time it aired live, under the show’s “Unfiltered” branding, inside a game segment designed to catch him without a script.

Ten Minutes Vice Ganda Didn’t See Coming

Later in the episode, Richards turned emotional describing his past relationships and what he named as the actual gap in his life. “Pagmamahal pala sa sarili ang kulang,” he said — he’d realized what he’d actually been missing was self-love. Vice Ganda posted afterward on X that the moment ran almost ten minutes and that he’d considered cutting the interview short out of sympathy; Richards insisted on continuing.

The show’s streaming companion, “Gandang Gabi Vice: Unfiltered,” promises the uncut footage broadcast TV won’t run. It streams on iWant, the on-demand platform still owned by ABS-CBN — the network GGV started on. The broadcast episode alone already included an unscripted breakdown and a direct answer to a years-old rumor.

The Rival Who Booked the Comeback

GGV launched in 2011 on ABS-CBN and stayed there until its last broadcast in March 2020, just as the country entered pandemic lockdown. By the time production might have resumed, ABS-CBN’s terrestrial broadcast license had been shut down after Congress voted that July to deny the network’s franchise renewal, and the show never had a home to go back to. Its comeback, six years later, landed on GMA — the network Richards has been signed to since 2013, and the same network whose AlDub phenomenon spent a stretch of the mid-2010s directly rivaling ABS-CBN’s own noontime show, It’s Showtime.

On air, Richards and Vice Ganda revisited that history themselves. “Magkatapat lang talaga ‘yung mga programa namin,” Vice said — our shows were just going head-to-head. Booking him as the comeback’s first guest put the actor who once headlined that old network rivalry in the first chair of GGV’s new chapter.

Gandang Gabi Vice airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on GMA, with new co-hosts Vince Maristela, Divine Tetay, and Verna Periwinkle joining Vice Ganda as the “Geng Gang.” The extended “Unfiltered” cut streams the same day on iWant for viewers in the Philippines.