ABS-CBN’s New Series Blends Comedy With the Supernatural

ABS-CBN, the Philippines' largest media company, is moving into supernatural comedy with a new streaming series that blends English and Filipino languages. The show, called "Nurse the Dead," is currently being produced in Los Angeles and will premiere on iWant, the company's premium streaming platform.

The half-hour series centers on Noa Reyes, a Filipina nurse supervisor working at a haunted hospital in Los Angeles. The main twist: Noa can see ghosts, an ability that shapes her daily work life and creates the show's comedic tension. The series uses this supernatural element as a backdrop for exploring workplace dynamics and personal relationships.

Background

ABS-CBN has spent years building iWant into a streaming competitor in Southeast Asia and among Filipino diaspora audiences worldwide. The platform focuses on original content that reflects Filipino culture and storytelling while reaching international viewers. "Nurse the Dead" represents a shift toward genre programming that could appeal beyond traditional Filipino audiences.

The healthcare setting gives the show a familiar workplace comedy foundation, similar to shows like "Scrubs" or "Grey's Anatomy," but the supernatural element sets it apart. By setting the story in Los Angeles rather than the Philippines, the production taps into both the Filipino-American community and general audiences interested in workplace comedies with a twist.

Key Details

The series is being shot in Los Angeles, indicating a significant production budget and ambition to reach broader markets. The bilingual approach—mixing English and Filipino—reflects how many Filipino-Americans actually speak and the reality of Los Angeles' diverse population.

Noa Reyes serves as the central character and likely the audience's entry point into the story. As a nurse supervisor, she holds a position of responsibility, which creates natural conflict when her ability to see ghosts interferes with her professional duties. The show appears designed to balance dark comedy elements with genuine workplace challenges.

The Supernatural Angle

The ghosts Noa can see are not simply background decoration. They appear to interact with her and potentially other characters, creating situations that blend horror elements with humor. This setup allows the show to explore themes of mortality, acceptance, and what it means to help people move on—both literally and figuratively.

What This Means

The series signals ABS-CBN's confidence in developing content that works across cultural and language boundaries. Rather than producing solely for Filipino audiences, the company is investing in shows that use Filipino perspectives and talent while appealing to mainstream streaming audiences.

For the streaming landscape, "Nurse the Dead" joins a growing number of international productions that don't fit neatly into single-language or single-culture categories. Shows that blend languages and cultural perspectives have found audiences on major platforms, suggesting there's appetite for this type of content.

"The series uses the supernatural setting to explore themes that resonate across cultures while maintaining a distinctly Filipino perspective on family, duty, and community."

The production also represents an opportunity for Filipino actors and creators to work on a platform with potential international distribution. iWant's parent company has resources to promote the show across multiple markets, which could help it reach audiences beyond traditional Filipino streaming viewers.

For healthcare workers and those in the profession, the show offers representation in a genre that doesn't always center on Filipino characters in leadership positions. Noa's role as a supervisor—not just a staff nurse—positions her as someone making decisions and managing teams, which reflects real career paths in American healthcare.

The Los Angeles setting is particularly relevant given the city's large Filipino population and the significant number of Filipino healthcare workers in California. This specificity could help the show feel authentic to viewers familiar with that community while remaining accessible to those who aren't.

As streaming platforms continue to compete for subscribers, original content that combines genre appeal with cultural specificity appears to be a winning strategy. "Nurse the Dead" suggests ABS-CBN believes there's an audience ready for workplace comedy that doesn't shy away from the supernatural and multilingual storytelling.