Willie Revillame Strikes Again!

I don't know what's with Willie Revillame, but many people love him despite his flaws. My mother was watching an episode of Willing-Willie when the contestant appeared to be over-reacting just to get the attention (& more money) from the host, which she did. Instead of being touched, what I saw was a formula that Willie seemed to have perfected and that is to make people do all the drama in front of the camera that will make him give more to them while the act draws higher ratings for the show.

Willie Revillame has had many blunders on national TV and has even caused deaths to many people on the now defunct show, Wowowee. At the time, he wanted hoards of followers to flock to the show's venue on its anniversary (with the promise of giving out lots of money) so that he can prove to everybody, especially to the rival show, Eat Bulaga, that he was a force to reckon with on TV and this led to the tragedy that until now, is left unpunished.

His latest drama is with former friends, John Estrada and Randy Santiago. To quote Willie, "Wala silang kadala-dala. Kukunin sila tapos tatanggalin na naman. Mag-isip kayong mabuti. Sa ’kin kayo maniwala. Ako ang kasama nyo sa hirap at ginhawa. Nasasainyo ‘yan. Pag tumanda tayo, tayo-tayo pa rin ang magkakasama. Dito sa TV5, nakaplano na lahat."

The statement is coming from a person who still has pending legal issues with his former network that has actually created who Willie is today.

These are Willie's words to John that he blurted on national TV, "Basta ako minahal kita bilang kaibigan. Pag nag-Channel 2 ka uli at nag-noontime show ka dyan, wala ka ng kaibigan na Willie. Masakit ‘yang gagawin niyo sa ’kin dahil inayos ko na, nakipag-meeting na ako kagabi, tungkol sa noontime show dito. Masama talaga ang loob ko kasi inayos ko na ‘to kina Mr. MVP (Manny V. Pangilinan) at Mr. Ray Espinosa (TV5 President). Pero kung diyan kayo masaya sa taong nanakit sa ’kin, nanakit sa ’tin dati, diyan na kayo. Hindi na ako pupunta sa kasal mo (to Priscilla Meirelles), maghanap ka na ng ibang best man."

Take the cue, Mr. John Estrada. Find a best man who will treat you as a friend and not use any issues with you to get another boost in the ratings. Revillame may be right with some of his sentiments, but the way he has expressed himself is another proof that he really is an airhead and a drama king rolled into one.

Why Eat Bulaga is a Tough Show to Beat?

Willie Revillame may be rejoicing these days because after Wowowee was axed, ABS-CBN continues to juggle and haggle on its afternoon programming. For me as a viewer, I don’t think that this has something to do with Willie’s absence. He has gone overboard when he was at the top that most viewers wouldn’t want to see him at the same timeslot or on any Kapamilya shows ever again. There may those die hard fans and people whom he was able to help in the past, but who will ever forget the painful marks that so many hopeful lives were killed in the tragedy that happened on the first anniversary of Willie’s defunct show. Wowowee will always be remembered for that tragedy no matter how they try to cover it up.

Robin Padilla emerged as a star and brought the ratings of Wowowee to its peak when he was tapped as guest host. This may be because nobody expected him to be good or many people were interested to find out how he would fit in to this kind of show where he had to do things that he has never done on TV before. It was an added treat that as he continues to do his hosting stint, his off screen romance with co-host Mariel Rodriguez starts to develop on screen.

Wowowee should have ended after Robin bid farewell to his hosting stint that lasted for two weeks. Now the public knows that ABS-CBN tried to woo Willie to come back, and this is a major turn off to their loyal viewers because this is a strong sign that they don’t really care what most of their consumers think and feel. It is a good thing that fate had it that Willie and the network did not come into any kind of agreement, which paved the way for the instant creation of Pilipinas, Win na Win and for Willie to do the rounds of interviews to lambast the station that made him who he is today.

So what is wrong with PWNW that despite the team-up of Robin Padilla and Kris Aquino as main hosts, the show was not able to deliver as expected? First off, this is not Kris Aquino’s forte. She can stand on her own and do the whole show even without Robin and the other co-hosts. By placing her amidst talents who are not as good as her and as not as spontaneous as her, her co-hosts, including Robin, were left with nothing more to say but raise their hands to act the PWNW hand signal to cue in for commercials.

Eat Bulaga is tough to beat. The show has remained at the top even though they don’t have big stars as co-hosts, aside from the trio of Tito, Vic and Joey. Most TV viewers look at this show as family. I have grown up watching this show. The only thing that will make me stop watching Eat Bulaga is the retirement of its three main hosts because it would no longer be the same. There may be times that I’d try watching other shows, like what I’ve done when Robin Padilla was a guest host at Wowowee or during the opening of PWNW. But if I’m not satisfied with the other choices, I’d rather stick it out with Eat Bulaga.

Creating a show that would match Eat Bulaga is something that must be done, researched and evaluated for months or years, and not for some weeks after the negotiations with the original host of Wowowee has failed.

Kris Aquino is undergoing some marital blues, and this is not the perfect time to see her doing a very happy show for the family. The Robin-Mariel love angle is no longer interesting. So what if they are lovers now? They are no longer teenagers who can make gazillion of fans scream whenever one is holding the hands of the other, not even when Robin professes his love for Mariel on national TV. We have seen Robin act this way before. He should be given a new partner, so that people will tune in to find out if he’s going to fall anew or if he has indeed found his true love with Mariel.

Kris and Robin should have been given different shows. Everything that may remind people about Wowowee, from the stage, to games, look of the dancers and ways how the show is executed, should have been all scrapped. PWNW looked like a rehashed Wowowee without anything new but the two main hosts.

Now that Edu Manzano is set to do a comeback at the timeslot where he started to get endeared to many local viewers’ hearts at the other channel, ABS-CBN is scrambling its lineup as if this is an easy game of mix and match. They have promoted Showtime to fill in the noontime block, but I don’t think that this is a wise move because in reality, this is a weak show that gained great ratings in the past because GMA 7 cannot create a good show that would match such. They were able to tap into the goldmine when they placed movies to be pitted against Showtime. If Showtime couldn’t win the ratings game against the most crappy of GMA films or the oldest Michael V movie, how else can it fare when pitted against the longest running noontime show on TV?

As for now, I will continue watching Eat Bulaga whenever I have time, but peek into Showtime every once in a while because they got Ryan Bang as guest-judge. ABS-CBN needs all the luck in the world to be able to come up with a show that can really topple or just make the rival show a little nervous.