Pinoy Big Brother Needs Fill-In Hosts Amid Toni and Mariel Pregnancy Leave

Toni Gonzaga-Soriano and Mariel Rodriguez-Padilla are both pregnant.

Both are expected to take a maternity leave, and as a result, they have no choice but relinquish their hosting duties on ‘Pinoy Big Brother’: Lucky 7. That said, ABS-CBN must figure out a way to spread the hosting workload for the reality show while Toni and Mariel are tending to their soon-to-be offspring.

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Ahoy ⚓️ its a boy!!! 👶🏻🍼🍭 extremely happy for you Toni 💙 congratulations to you and Paul 👪 #StarStudioToniPaul #StarStudioBabyShower #WorkingMomBabyShower

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With the two out of the picture, only Robi Domingo and Bianca Gonzalez-Intal are left to shoulder the burden. So where will ABS-CBN go at this point?

They could consider Toni’s sister Alex Gonzaga to fill in for her. After all, she had hosting experience of her own, having hosted ‘ASAP’ on a regular basis, and more recently played the same role on season 2 of ‘The Voice Kids’.

They could also use Billy Crawford as well, whose prior hosting experience may be an asset. Or they may consider Anne Curtis, whose only hosting job at this point is on ‘It’s Showtime’.

Overall, ABS-CBN has a vast reservoir of talents who can also be capable host. But it will be up to them to decide on who will fill in for both Toni and Mariel.

Meanwhile, ‘Pinoy Big Brother’: Lucky 7 introduced a new set of teen housemates shortly after returning to Manila earlier this week. They are:

• Maymay Entrata
• Rita Gabiola
• Kisses Delavin
• Edward Barber
• Aizan Perez
• Vivoree Esclito
• Marco Gallo
• Christian Morones
• Fenech Velloso
• Yong Mujahil
• Kristine Hammond
• Heaven Peralejo

The 12 teen housemates join the ‘Lucky 2 Stars’ Jinri Park and Hashtags McCoy de Leon and Nikko Natividad inside the refurbished Big Brother house in Quezon City. Over time, however, some of the teen housemates will either be evicted or leave for personal reasons to make way for the regular ones, which will be announced soon.

‘Pinoy Big Brother’ season 7 currently airs weeknights after ‘Born for You’, Saturdays after ‘Maalaala Mo Kaya’, and Sundays after ‘Rated K’ on ABS-CBN. An afternoon edition also airs weekdays after ‘Tubig at Langis’, except for select regional areas.

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PBB Goes Vietnam

Season 7 of ‘Pinoy Big Brother’ will be a little different this time.

For the first time ever, ‘Pinoy Big Brother’ will not be held in the Philippines. Instead, the seventh season (dubbed as ‘Pinoy Big Brother: Lucky 7’) will take place in Vietnam, at least for the first few weeks (unless plans change later on).

While the season premiere will take place this Monday, preparations for PBB: Lucky 7 were already in full swing in the week leading up to it. In fact, nine celebrity housemates were revealed during this stretch, which are the following:

• Nikko Natividad, Hashtag Boy Sipag ng Bulacan (revealed on ‘It’s Showtime’ July 2)
• McCoy de Leon, Hashtag Boy Tatag ng Tondo (revealed on ‘It’s Showtime’ July 2)
• JK Labajo, Ang Cute-Kiti ng Cebu (revealed on ‘ASAP’ July 3)
• Yassi Pressman, Ang Dance Floor Dream Girl ng Antipolo (revealed on ‘TV Patrol’ July 4)
• Jinri Park, Ang K-Hot Cover Girl ng South Korea (revealed on ‘TV Patrol’ July 4)
• Hideo Muraoka, Ang Hunky Daddy ng Taguig (revealed on ‘TV Patrol’ July 6)
• Nonong Ballinan, Ang Kanto Komikero ng Quezon City (revealed on ‘TV Patrol’ July 6)
• Elisse Joson, Ang Hugot Babe ng Mandaluyong (revealed on ‘TV Patrol’ July 6)
• DJ Chacha, Ang Bibig ng Pag-ibig ng Tondo (revealed on ‘TV Patrol’ July 6)

All nine housemates were flown to Vietnam (though three of them were initially denied passage by the Bureau of Immigration) where they will live inside the house that was used on ‘Big Brother Vietnam’ (‘Người giấu mặt’). To abide with the show’s ‘house rules’, they were covered with black bonnets so that they will not be recognized by the public, and to not learn of their destination.

Upon entering the Big Brother house in Vietnam, housemates were given various tasks by Big Brother himself. In the meantime, their progress was followed on PBB’s social media pages, leading up to the season premiere this Monday night.

‘Pinoy Big Brother: Lucky 7’ will be hosted by Robi Domingo, Toni Gonzaga-Soriano, Bianca Gonzalez-Intal, and Mariel Rodriguez-Padilla. Both Toni and Mariel are pregnant during the season, and are expected to take a maternity leave as the season continues.

The first few weeks of ‘Pinoy Big Brother: Lucky 7’ will have celebrities as the main attraction. But as the season continues, expect more housemates, this time of the teen and regular variety, to be revealed soon.

The seventh season of ‘Pinoy Big Brother’ airs weeknights after ‘Born for You’, Saturdays after ‘Maalaala Mo Kaya’, and Sundays after ‘Rated K’ on ABS-CBN.

It’s Showtime Brings Back Tawag ng Tanghalan

‘It’s Showtime’ has promised to do things their way this year.

No longer having the desire to oppose the popular Kalyeserye of ‘Eat Bulaga’, ‘It’s Showtime’ decided to clean house to begin the year. One of the changes they implemented was the revival of the iconic ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ singing competition as its main segment.

The original ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ was initially a radio program of the original Bolinao Electronics Corporation (forerunner of ABS-CBN) before making a successful jump to television. During its run in the 1950s and 1960s, the show discovered some of the industry’s future icons, such as Nora Aunor, Pepe Pimentel and Bobot Mortiz.

In the new ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’, four contestants face off in hopes of impressing the audience and the judges. The winner will receive P25,000 and may defend his/her crown against other contestants in subsequent episodes, while the runners-up will receive P5,000 as consolation.

In the event that a singer goes out of tune, a gong will be hit to signal the end of their performance. The gong will be operated by Jhong Hilario.

‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ on ‘It’s Showtime’ kicked off last Saturday, with Michelle Arcain of Davao emerging as the first winner of the revived competition. Arcain returned during Monday’s episode, but lost to Israel Alano of Batangas.

The segment is hosted by Vice Ganda, Amy Perez and Mariel Rodriguez-Padilla. The latter two were recently introduced as new co-hosts of ‘It’s Showtime’, and are no stranger to hosting variety shows.

Judges on ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ will vary each week. This week’s episodes will feature Rey Valera, Rico J. Puno, Bobot Moritz, Nyoy Volante and Yeng Constantino as judges.

After a tough 2015 where ‘It’s Showtime’ plummeted to new lows following the emergence of AlDub, they now begin 2016 with a clean slate. The hope of entertaining the ‘madlang pipol’ the only way they can is something they need to address, and the revived ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ is a good way to start.

A New Breed of Sunday Noontime Show

‘ASAP’ finds itself with a different kind of opponent.

Last Sunday, GMA and APT Entertainment launched ‘Sunday PinaSaya’, a new variety show that features mostly comedy skits with a few hints of musical performances. The new Sunday noontime show is hosted by Marian Rivera, Ai Ai Delas Alas, Jose Manalo, Wally Bayola, Alden Richards, Julie Anne San Jose, Barbie Forteza, Valeen Montenegro, and Jerald Napoles.

‘Sunday PinaSaya’ marked the first time that GMA did not play a key role in producing a Sunday noontime show. The said program is produced by APT, whose founder, Tony Tuviera, is the director of ‘Eat Bulaga’.

The new offering did give ‘ASAP’ a run for its money, scoring a 21.4% rating over the latter’s 16.8% in the AGB Nielsen NUTAM figures. In the Kantar ratings, however, ‘ASAP’ still emerged the winner, but just barely (17.1% over ‘Sunday PinaSaya”s 16.1%).

Judging from the first week, it is safe to say that ‘Sunday PinaSaya’ is still a work in progress. Their ratings in the first week are purely based on the viewers’ curiosity, so it remains to be seen whether or not the show’s second week will have the same kind of performance.

 

‘Sunday PinaSaya’ is not the only Sunday noontime show that is offering something different, however. Just ask TV5’s ‘Happy Truck ng Bayan’.

The two-month-old program employs a more unconventional approach, as they hold shows in various barangays. It is essentially a modern-day ‘Kwarta o Kahon’, albeit outdoors, with various games and segments to entertain the audience.

Though ‘Happy Truck ng Bayan’ airs an hour earlier, it is still considered a noontime variety show for all intents and purposes. The show is hosted by Ogie Alcasid, Janno Gibbs, Derek Ramsay, Gelli de Belen, Mariel Rodriguez-Padilla, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, and various other Kapatid stars.

While its ratings pale in comparison to ‘ASAP’ and ‘Sunday PinaSaya’, TV5 seems unconcerned about its performance. After all, the Kapatid network values alternative programming, and ‘Happy Truck ng Bayan’ exemplifies that.

Gone are the days where musical performances dominate every viewer’s Sunday noontime habits. A new dawn in Sunday noontime programming has indeed arrived, with skits and games to keep people entertained.

The Sunday noontime slot is definitely back in business.

AniMega Has a New Timeslot, Plus Other Updates on TV5’s Weekday Schedule

TV5’s AniMega block was moved from weekday mornings to weekday afternoons beginning last Monday. (Logo courtesy of TV5)

Another tweak took place on TV5’s weekday lineup.

As reported by Anime Pilipinas, the AniMega block was moved from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, effective last Monday. The new AniMega lineup consists of:

• Transformers: Animated
• Rockman.EXE Beast
• Street Fighter
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple

In doing so, TV5 avoided competing with the animes of ABS-CBN and GMA and instead focused on alternative programming in a slot dominated by noontime shows and teleseryes.

But while TV5 gave anime fans a favor, they did not announce a replacement for the vacated slot of AniMega. Instead, ‘Movie Max 5’ filled in following the TV5 Kids block, which is by far the earliest timeslot for movies on TV5 since the takeover by Manny V. Pangilinan.

There were also questions as to what happened to ‘Healing Galing’ and ‘Solved na Solved’, the two shows that briefly shared the 10:30 a.m. slot for two weeks. At the moment, it remains to be seen whether or not the two shows were cancelled or up for renewal, so wait for further updates.

With ‘Healing Galing’ and ‘Solved na Solved’ currently out of the picture, and with ‘Movie Max 5’ now part of the morning lineup, ‘Happy Wife, Happy Life’ was moved to a new time of 10:15 a.m. The lifestyle show recently added Mariel Rodriguez-Padilla as its new co-host, replacing original hosts Jeck Maierhofer and RR Enriquez.

Other than the aforementioned changes in TV5’s weekday lineup, the rest of the list remain untouched.

Regardless, the transfer of AniMega to weekday afternoons is a huge boost for TV5. Their continued push for alternative programming became a factor to this decision, and it should benefit the block’s fierce and loyal anime fanbase in the long term.

It remains to be seen if TV5’s anime fans are buying into this matter, but from the looks of it, this is perhaps one of the best decisions TV5 has made to date.