Endangered Specie: Celebrity Bluff’s Status in Doubt

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.

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Last Episodes for I Can Do That, Plus Celebrity Bluff Returns

Two weekend shows are about to hit the crossroads.

On ABS-CBN, ‘I Can Do That’ will enter its final weekend tomorrow night and Sunday night. In these two episodes, the final four iCandidates in Cristine Reyes, Daniel Matsunaga, Gab Valenciano and Wacky Kiray are expected to perform their riskiest and most death-defying acts imaginable.

Judges Judy Ann Santos-Agoncillo and Boy Abunda will have the enviable task of evaluating each iCandidates’ performance. Not only that, the viewers will also play a key role in determining the show’s ‘Greatest Entertainer’, who will walk away P1 million richer by virtue of combined scores from the judges and the viewers.

First premiered on March 11, 2017, ‘I Can Do That’ was the latest reality show franchise acquired by ABS-CBN. The program has had contrasting ratings fortunes throughout its 25-episode run; despite averaging a decent 15%, only ‘I Can Do That”s Saturday episodes were consistent winners.

That said, the decent but unsatisfactory performance may be considerable enough for ABS-CBN to relinquish its rights after only one season. The network may have had some successful foreign franchised shows, but ‘I Can Do That’ is not one of them.

Which leads to its one-night-only opponent for tomorrow night. After a season break that lasted over a year, GMA announced the return of ‘Celebrity Bluff’ for its 13th season.

Eugene Domingo will reprise her role as host of this long-running Kapuso game show. She will not be alone though as Edu Manzano will now join Eugene as a special bluffer, while Boobay and resident boyband One Up will also ramp up the entertainment factor even further.

A typical episode of ‘Celebrity Bluff’ is as follows (via GMA Public Relations):

“Celebrity Bluff features three pairs of celebrity contestants as they attempt to outsmart one another by answering questions to be able to advance to the jackpot round, where the winning team could take home half a million pesos.”

Guest bluffers will also be on hand to make fun of this week’s celebrity players. For instance, the premiere of ‘Celebrity Bluff’ season 13 will see Alden Richards and Brod Pete play the role of bluffer.

With its predecessors’ failures to make an impact, the onus is on ‘Celebrity Bluff’ to change GMA’s declining fortunes ever Saturday night. Otherwise, its comeback may turn out to be a dud.

‘Celebrity Bluff’ returns this Saturday after ‘Magpakailanman’ on GMA.

No Talk Show Rivalry for GMA, Again

‘Yan ang Morning’ will not go up against ‘Magandang Buhay’ after all.

GMA made that clear when it announced its new morning lineup last Monday. And with the premiere of ‘Yan ang Morning’ this Monday, this is how their current lineup looks like:

• 7:30 a.m. – Astig Authority block
  • ‘Shaman King’
  • ‘Yo-Kai Watch’
  • ‘Bleach’
  • ‘Dragon Ball Z’
  • ‘Knock Out’
• 10:00 a.m. – ‘Mako Mermaids’
• 10:45 a.m. – ‘Yan ang Morning’

That’s right, 10:45 a.m. For some reason, GMA decided not to have ‘Yan ang Morning’ face ‘Magandang Buhay’ head-to-head (the latter currently airs at 7:30 a.m.), and instead air the former in a timeslot that was traditionally occupied by previous long-running talk shows (e.g. ‘Today with Kris Aquino’, ‘SIS’).

There are some good and bad news on this decision. The good news is that despite some good reviews and strong showing in social media, ‘Magandang Buhay’ has not been able to make an impact in the ratings (much like ‘Kris TV’ before it), losing to the entire Astig Authority block by a wide margin.

As far as GMA is concerned, their anime block is doing just fine, even if they continue to air reruns of several beloved animes. For them, there is no point in sacrificing Astig Authority’s timeslot in favor of another program since the block continues to have a strong following.

The bad news? After Astig Authority, ratings for GMA in the morning slip predictably, as ‘Kapamilya Blockbusters’ kickstart a momentum swing for ABS-CBN that would continue for the rest of the day.

That said, GMA’s ratings woes after Astig Authority will put significant pressure on ‘Yan ang Morning’. Considering that their previous talk show ‘Basta Every Day Happy’ did not fare well, ‘Yan ang Morning’ could have a hard time making an impact in its current timeslot.

Would GMA be better off if ‘Yan ang Morning’ go one-on-one with ‘Magandang Buhay’? We’ll never know, but then again, anything can happen, and if ‘Yan ang Morning’ is able to thrive in its current timeslot, that could help GMA’s morale.

Hopefully they win, otherwise another failure of a talk show is in the offing.

Hosted by Marian Rivera, with Boobay as her sidekick, ‘Yan ang Morning’ airs weekdays starting May 2 at 10:45 a.m. on GMA.

In 100 Words: Celebrity Playtime Is ABS-CBN’s Answer to Celebrity Bluff

Jose Manalo, Boobay, Isko Salvador and Eugene Domingo will now has some company, albeit at an earlier timeslot.

ABS-CBN has announced that ‘Celebrity Playtime’, the upcoming comedy/game show hosted by Billy Crawford, will air starting this Saturday at 6:00 p.m. The program will feature teams of celebrity guests competing in various party games, all in the spirit of laughter and fun.

In essence, this was ABS-CBN’s true answer to the popular GMA comedy/game show ‘Celebrity Bluff’. The three-year old program has enjoyed a loyal following amid stiff and superior opposition from various Kapamilya reality and talent shows; currently it airs opposite another show hosted by Billy Crawford, ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar’.

‘Celebrity Playtime’ will take over the timeslot of ‘Mga Kwento ni Marc Logan’, which had been on the air for over a year.