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.

New Host, New Timeslot for Celebrity Playtime

In addition to ‘Kapamilya Deal or No Deal’, Luis Manzano will now host ‘Celebrity Playtime’, replacing Billy Crawford. Luis debuts on the show starting this Saturday at 10:30 p.m. (Photo credit: ABS-CBN)

‘Celebrity Playtime’ is on the move.

Starting this Saturday, ‘Celebrity Playtime’ will now be seen at 10:30 p.m., right after ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar’. The timeslot change meant that the show will go up against GMA’s ‘Celebrity Bluff’, a game show that ABS-CBN tried to at least emulate when they conceived ‘Celebrity Playtime’.

Its original timeslot will now be occupied by ‘Dance Kids’, a new kid’s talent show hosted by Alex Gonzaga and Robi Domingo. Meanwhile, ‘Celebrity Playtime’ will take over the timeslot of ‘Banana Split’, who moved to Sunday afternoons under the new name of ‘Banana Sundae’.

That is not the only change for the show, however. Due to ABS-CBN’s policy of not allowing its talents to appear on consecutive programs, erstwhile host Billy Crawford has decided to relinquish his duty as host of ‘Celebrity Playtime’, and cede the role to Luis Manzano.

The decision makes sense, since Crawford is already hosting ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar’, the show that precedes ‘Celebrity Playtime’. Appearing in consecutive programs may not be helpful to viewers at all for fear of overexposure, hence a strict rule that is implemented by ABS-CBN to all its talents.

Here is the new schedule on ABS-CBN every Saturday night:

6:15 p.m. – Dance Kids

7:00 p.m. – Home Sweetie Home

7:45 p.m. – Maalaala Mo Kaya

9:30 p.m. – Your Face Sounds Familiar

10:30 p.m. – Celebrity Playtime

11:00 p.m. – The Bottomline with Boy Abunda

Now that ‘Celebrity Playtime’ is moving to a later timeslot, viewers should look forward to its long-awaited rivalry with ‘Celebrity Bluff’. The latter show is now on its third year, and has survived competition from ABS-CBN’s reality and talent shows despite the huge odds.

That said, viewers of ‘Celebrity Bluff’ should finally welcome a more equally imposing challenger. ‘Celebrity Playtime’ may be fairly new to many, but it’s also gaining its own following the same way that ‘Celebrity Bluff’ is doing, so let’s see if they’re up to the task of keeping up with the latter.

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.

Marian, Magpakailanman Exchange Timeslots

GMA’s Sabado Star Power will have a minor makeover this Saturday.

In response to the entry of ‘The Voice of the Philippines’ to ABS-CBN’s strong Saturday night lineup, GMA decided to switch the timeslots of both ‘Marian’ and ‘Magpakailanman’. As a result, the latter will now be seen ahead of the former, in between ‘Pepito Manaloto: Ang Tunay na Kwento’ and ‘Celebrity Bluff’.

For GMA, it was just another attempt to curb the increasing popularity of ‘The Voice of the Philippines’. So far, ratings for the latter have been very strong, as they average 27% or better according to Kantar.

It can be recalled that GMA was forced to change its weekend lineup several times during the run of TVPH’s sister show ‘The Voice Kids’. As it turned out, those tweaks did not even result in a victory for the struggling network in Timog.

So what are the implications of GMA’s most recent scheduling change?

With the move to a later timeslot, ‘Marian’ will be pitted against ‘The Voice of the Philippines’, which is an obvious mismatch. Considering that the dance show never even lit up the stat sheet against TVPH’s sister show ‘The Voice Kids’ a few months earlier, it will even harder for Marian Rivera’s dancing skills to outwit the singers of Team Sarah, Team Lea, Team Bamboo and Team apl.

As for ‘Magpakailanman’, they will resume their rivalry against ‘Maalaala Mo Kaya’, albeit at an earlier timeslot. However, the tweak will do little good for the former, as the latter’s recent dominance in their head-to-head matchup will continue.

Overall, this latest change made by GMA will not change the fact that they are on the decline. While ABS-CBN will continue to put up superior projects with impressive results, the same cannot be said for its rival within Quezon City’s South Triangle, whose best days are clearly behind them.

Sabado Star Power may have a new look come this Saturday, but don’t expect better results from GMA’s Saturday night lineup.

I Do Has a Winner, Plus Season 2 Confirmed

‘I Do’ finally has a winning couple.

The first season of ABS-CBN’s so-called ‘realiserye’ recently concluded with the crowning of its ‘Grand Couple’ last Saturday. Blogger and businesswoman Kring Elenzano, and her Korean boyfriend Yong Jin Kim a.k.a. Jimmy, won the P1 million prize, along with a dream wedding of their choice, a honeymoon package, a house and lot, home appliances and a P1.5 million business package.

Finishing as the runner-up were couples Chad Fontanilla and Sheela Beterbo. Both received a cash prize of P500,000.

Jimmy and Kring’s grand wedding will take place on November 12. The entirety of the marriage will serve as the season finale for ‘I Do’, and will be shown on November 15.

‘I Do”s first season began on August 30 with nine couples. Originally aired on weekends, the reality show later ceased to air on Sundays, not only because the field was reduced to just four couples, but also in order to accommodate the second season of ‘The Voice of the Philippines’.

The quick pace of ‘I Do’, not to mention the apparent apathy of the viewers, proved to be its undoing in the ratings. In contrast to more recent ABS-CBN reality shows, ratings for the primetime-based ‘I Do’ only managed to hover around the 10% and above barrier, uncharacteristic for a show that is expected to continue the momentum of its predecessors.

On the other hand, GMA’s ‘Celebrity Bluff’ and ‘Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho’ fared even better against its ABS-CBN counterpart.

What kept ‘I Do’ relevant, however, was the use of social media. Notwithstanding its poor ratings on terrestrial TV, netizens still managed to lift ‘I Do’ from the doldrums thanks to its frequent mentions and trends on the social media website Twitter.

Still, despite these lackadaisical numbers, ABS-CBN remained confident enough to give ‘I Do’ a second season. As confirmed by host Judy Ann Santos, the next season of ‘I Do’ should be in the works in two years’ time.

Regardless of how it turned out the first time, there is always hope that ‘I Do’ will come back stronger than ever. And it starts with tweaking its format.

For now, though, ‘I Do’ will be on the shelf after this Saturday. As for Jimmy and Kring, life as a newlywed will await them.