Wow Mali

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 were 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.

After almost a decade, ABC reformatted Wow Mali and retitled it Wow Maling Mali which premiered on May 7, 2005. On July 29, 2006, Wow Maling Mali morphed into Teka Mona!, but was discontinued on April 28, 2007.

On May 5, 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.

In mid-2007, it changed its title to Wow Mali Express.

After the reformat of ABC5 to TV5, Lokomoko was created which shared the same concept as Wow Mali but focused with school gags. It was hosted by Cathy Gonzaga, and Randolf Stamatelaky. When TV5 was reformatted in April 2010, Lokomoko morphed into being a gag show similar to Bubble Gang and Tropang Trumpo.

Another comedy gag show in TV5 was Ogags hosted by two Brazilian ladies Daiana Menezes and Ariana Barouk. Ogags ended with the return of Wow Mali.

The show returned on February 22, 2009 on TV5 with Joey de Leon again as host. De Leon hosts the show from a studio similar to virtual reality studio. It aired on Sundays at 6:30 PM. The show became a separate show from Lokomoko, following the renaming of show to Lokomoko High.

Changes have been made to the second season of the show. It became live every Sunday nights. De Leon interacted with several people in a studio with a barangay plaza as backdrop. Sexy comedian Alyssa Alano 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 (Filipino for Mysterious Sound) was a game show incorporated in 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.

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.

The third revival of Wow Mali premiered on April 17, 2011. However, it ended on February 26, 2012.

Wow Mali Pa Rin logo from September 2013 - April 2014

The TV5 management decides to revive the program in September 2013 and naming it as Wow Mali Pa Rin! which will replaced Talentadong Pinoy's timeslot, alongside Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, and Pinoy Explorer. The series was aired on September 15, 2013 at 8pm.[3][4][5][6]

A new title again as Wow Mali: Lakas Ng Tama was premiered on TV5 last summer of 2014 with same host funnyman Joey De Leon and various guest stars of the show.

• Edu Manzano (1996-1998)
• Joey de Leon (1998-2015)

• Jeffrey Espiritu - A.K.A. Mr. Fu (for Wow Meganon)

• Mike "Pekto" Nacua - Later moved to GMA 7.
• Dennis Wrongman - a puppet version of former NBA Star Dennis Rodman.
• Krissy - a parody of Kris Aquino (portrayed by China Tuason)
• Doray Alaskadora - a parody of Dora the Explorer (portrayed by Via Antonio).