Is this the end for ‘Celebrity Bluff’?
Last Saturday marked the season finale of this celebrated GMA game show. But ‘Celebrity Bluff’ as it truly was effectively ended two years ago following its first four years on the air.
The first run of ‘Celebrity Bluff’ began on November 17, 2012 and ended on February 20, 2016. The original trio of Eugene Domingo, Wally Bayola and Jose Manalo immediately clicked with viewers, and ‘Celebrity Bluff’ became a worthy and oftentimes popular adversary amid the dominance of franchised reality and talent shows from ABS-CBN.
Even as Wally was replaced by Boobay and Isko ‘Brod Pete’ Salvador and Jose left for other commitments, ‘Celebrity Bluff’ remained a force to be reckoned with on Saturday nights. The show also received some accolades along the way, including two PMPC Star Awards for Best Game Show.
The death of director Uro dela Cruz in February 2016 forced ‘Celebrity Bluff’ to take a long break after 12 consecutive seasons on the air. Then on June 3, 2017, the 13th season of ‘Celebrity Bluff’ got underway, this time with Edu Manzano as one of the ‘bluffers’ and Rico Gutierrez as the director.
Unfortunately, this latest season of ‘Celebrity Bluff’ failed to capture the magic of the previous 12 seasons. Once averaging around 12-13% in the ratings during its first four years, the most recent incarnation of ‘Celebrity Bluff’ only managed ratings of around 6-7% per episode.
It also did not help that Edu Manzano was a bad fit to the ensemble. In March, Manzano left ‘Celebrity Bluff’ in order to join ABS-CBN’s ‘Ang Probinsyano’, leaving Eugene, Boobay, Brod Pete and some guest ‘bluffers’ to hold the fort.
Suffice to say, the 13th season of ‘Celebrity Bluff’ was doomed to fail this time around. The once-colorful game show had lost its luster.
So what does the future hold for ‘Celebrity Bluff’? Considering the poor performance of its most recent season, perhaps GMA should just retire the show for good and concentrate on a new concept.
If they intend to resuscitate ‘Celebrity Bluff’ in the near future, the only recourse is to convince Wally Bayola and Jose Manalo to return to the show. After all, ‘Celebrity Bluff’ reached its peak with Eugene, Wally and Jose at the forefront.
But for all intents and purposes, consider ‘Celebrity Bluff’ an endangered specie that borders between cancellation and renewal. For now, the show is on hiatus, and unless GMA decides to give it another shot, this hiatus may become permanent after all.
From the Tube 
“The Clash” will replace that time slot, if I’m not mistaken?
Yes, and more on that later this week.
Lip Sync Battle din
I already wrote about that last week.
OT: A report says that ABS-CBN will use the data released by AGB Nielsen in the coming months.
https://www.abante.com.ph/giyera-ng-kapamilya-kapuso-mas-magliliyab-sa-nielsen.htm
Interesting development. Then again these are just rumors so nothing’s set in stone at the moment.
Are they only allowed to subscribe to one ratings provider at a time? Or could it be possible that ABS will be subscribed to both AGB and Kantar?
Also, I doubt Abante’s claim about AGB declaring GMA as the #1 station considering even on AGB, GMA has been struggling as of late. Actually, if ABS does subscribe to AGB, that could be the reason as they know they’re doing well in both ratings providers.
Either way, Abante’s article is bordering more on rumors so we’ll wait for further developments. But I doubt ABS will ever go back to AGB again after the tampering incident of 2008.