Overexposed Luis Manzano Finally Gets a Break

Luis Manzano had a three-year stretch of near non-stop hosting commitments which made him overexposed on TV for a long period. (Photo credit: ABS-CBN)

Thank goodness it’s over.

For much of the last three years, Luis Manzano became a part of every household thanks to a multitude of hosting commitments he accepted during that span. Whether it’s a game show or a talent show, it seems like viewers can’t get enough of this popular Kapamilya host.

Luis’ lengthy run began on October 26, 2014, when he joined Toni Gonzaga to host ‘The Voice of the Philippines’ season 2. The season ran for 36 episodes, concluding on March 1, 2015.

At the tail end of ‘The Voice of the Philippines” run, Luis accepted the job as host of the new season of ‘Kapamilya Deal or No Deal’. Running from February 9, 2015 until March 4, 2016, the fifth season of ‘Kapamilya Deal or No Deal’ aired a total of 278 episodes.

Next up for Luis was ‘The Voice Kids’ season 2, which ran from June 6 to August 30, 2015. A total of 26 episodes were aired during that season.

On November 14, 2015, Luis replaced Billy Crawford as host of ‘Celebrity Playtime’, and was present for the game show’s final 41 episodes. Then on January 23, 2016, Luis and Billy joined forces to host the fifth season of ‘Pilipinas Got Talent’, which ran for 35 episodes until May 22, 2016.

By that point, signs of overexposure become more evident for Luis. Unfortunately for the viewers, ABS-CBN is not yet finished with him.

April 9, 2016 saw Luis take over as host of the newly-acquired ‘Family Feud’ franchise, and he presided on all of its 111 episodes. A few months later, on July 18, 2016, Luis returned to host the second season of ‘Minute to Win It’, adding another 208 episodes to his resume.

And if that is not enough, another run as host of ‘The Voice Kids’ awaited Luis. From May 28 to August 28, 2016, Luis was the presenter on all 28 episodes of ‘The Voice Kids” third season.

Finally on April 16, 2017, Luis accepted another hosting stint within ‘The Voice of the Philippines’ franchise. This time, he became the host of ‘The Voice Teens’, which has now aired seven episodes and counting.

This does not include his additional responsibility as one of the hosts of ‘ASAP’. That said, for all intents and purposes, ‘ASAP’ will not be added in this count.

It was clear that ABS-CBN is paying the price for their overreliance on Luis Manzano. Overall, the host accumulated a total of 770 episodes within nine shows (as of May 7, 2017) in a span of 925 days, which speaks of how ABS-CBN became too dependent on this star hosting-wise.

While ratings for Luis’ nine shows were not a problem, it is ABS-CBN’s utilization that became a dilemma. Let’s face it, they have a deep plethora of talent who can be just as proficient in hosting, yet they stuck with Luis for some reason because, he’s the only guy they can depend on to deliver a good show.

Now that Luis is freed of the burden of hosting too many shows on a daily basis, the time is definitely now for ABS-CBN to develop more hosts. After all, there are plenty in the pipeline so why not breed at least one or two of them to relieve some pressure on the veterans.

For now, Luis Manzano can breathe easily. A period of less strenuous activity is all he needs at this point.

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People vs. the Stars Tries to Give Family Feud a Run for Its Money

The itch to topple ABS-CBN’s ‘Family Feud’ led GMA to unveil a game show of their own.

After months of witnessing ‘Family Feud”s rise into a popular yet controversial celebrity-exclusive game show, GMA decided to give ABS-CBN a harsh lesson in viewer and audience participation. This led to the network’s newest game show called ‘People vs. the Stars’, which premieres this Sunday.

Hosted by the husband-and-wife tandem of Drew Arellano and Iya Villania, ‘People vs. the Stars’ features a unique strategy. Celebrities have a chance to win P 200,000 by answering eight mind-boggling questions with an allotted value, and if they answer incorrectly, viewers have a chance to steal the prize by answering a ‘People of the Week’ question through text.

With that, ‘People vs. the Stars’ encourages viewer participation through each episode, something that its soon-to-be rival ‘Family Feud’ has not been able to do. Kudos to GMA for being more generous to its viewers.

However, if there is one thing that holds ‘People vs. the Stars’ back, it is its schedule. While ‘Family Feud’ airs every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, ‘People vs. the Stars’ was only given a Sunday afternoon slot as GMA continues to air ‘Imbestigador’ opposite ‘Family Feud’ on Saturdays.

The unusual weekend afternoon schedule will not help ‘People vs. the Stars’ at all. That said, if GMA were smart enough to compete with ‘Family Feud’, they would have been better off if they move ‘Imbestigador’ to an earlier timeslot (against ‘SOCO’, of all shows) and cancel the more dramatized and irrelevant ‘Wish Ko Lang’, in order to give way to ‘People vs. the Stars’.

Regardless of this situation, viewers who were fed up by ‘Family Feud”s celebrities-only approach should look at ‘People vs. the Stars’ and see why this game show is worth watching. After all, everyone is welcome to earn the big bucks just by watching and participating on this game show.

‘People vs. the Stars’ airs every Sunday at 5:00 p.m. on GMA.

ABS-CBN Game Shows a Celebrity Overkill

Since its premiere, ABS-CBN’s version of ‘Family Feud’ has been criticized for relying too much on celebrities, a trend that was previously established in the network’s other game shows. (Screenshot courtesy of ABS-CBN Entertainment Official YouTube)

What happened to the phrase ‘In the Service of the Filipino’?

For many years, ABS-CBN has been able to live up to its iconic slogan by delivering quality programs and services to all Filipinos, both in the Philippines and abroad. However, not all programs are fulfilling its vision.

ABS-CBN’s recent game shows, in particular, are defying the standards that the network set in the early 1990s. Just ask ‘Family Feud’.

Ever since the franchised game show made a well-publicized comeback in early April, ABS-CBN made numerous changes that did not sit well with the loyal viewers from the ABC 5 and GMA days. The most radical of these changes were that of the teams involved, where instead of family members, celebrities from a particular show or group would participate.

With all these revisions in the game’s format, one would rather consider ABS-CBN’s version of ‘Family Feud’ as more of a spinoff rather than a true franchise. Perhaps the name ‘Celebrity Family Feud’ could be more appropriate.

This is not the first time that ABS-CBN frequently used its celebrities in their game shows. Recently, ‘The Singing Bee’, ‘Kapamilya Deal or No Deal’ and ‘Celebrity Playtime’ were known to utilize celebrities more often than not.

With that being said, the Kapamilya network’s regular use of celebrities in their game shows is an insult to what the network stood for. Yes they may be convincing Filipinos to buy a TVPlus digibox or be admired with their love teams such as KathNiel or LizQuen, but an opportunity for them to play games for cash prizes is not in their vocabulary.

While they do give chances to ordinary people in their talent shows (e.g. ‘It’s Showtime’, ‘Pilipinas Got Talent’), it’s not quite the same as giving a jackpot prize to a deserving game show winner. It’s a shame that despite all the revenue they have in their pocket, they don’t seem to share it unless a major calamity happens.

ABS-CBN may be called the Kapamilya network, but this act is not a family-friendly one. Too bad.

It remains to be seen if ABS-CBN will be able to give their loyal viewers a chance to play for cash prizes on ‘Family Feud’ and future game shows. Until then, the best course of action is for the viewers to tune out if it continues to favor celebrities.