The Kids’ Choice Turns to Celebrities to Hike Ratings

ABS-CBN’s overdependence on celebrities in its talent and game shows is once again rearing its ugly head.

This time, the victim is ‘The Kids’ Choice’, whose last few episodes were celebrity editions. Since September 29, ‘The Kids’ Choice’ featured either Kapamilya child celebrities or sons/daughters of Kapamilya celebrities, a drastic departure from past episodes involving ordinary kids.

While ‘The Kids’ Choice’ is currently performing well in the ratings, it seems like ABS-CBN is in no mood to celebrate. After all, the program’s 27% average is less than that of its predecessor ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids’ which regularly peaked in the 30s.

To make matters worse, ‘The Kids’ Choice’ was nearly beaten by the finale of ‘The Clash’ during the weekend of September 29 as the latter came within 1% of the former’s ratings. Overall, since its premiere on September 2, the gap between ‘The Kids’ Choice’ and its competitor was only around 5%.

It was clear that the dominance of past ABS-CBN talent shows was nowhere to be found on ‘The Kids’ Choice’. While it was an original creation, a rarity for ABS-CBN these days, viewers were unimpressed with how the show is being conducted.

Considering that the judges are just 10-year-old elementary school celebrity children with raw trains of thought, the criticisms are undeniable. Exposing them to unfamiliar territory as superiors was just too much to ask for.

Somewhere in Timog Avenue, the folks from GMA Network are celebrating this near-victory. And it will not be a surprise to see either ‘Daddy’s Gurl’ or ‘Studio 7’ overtake ‘The Kids’ Choice’, unless something drastic happens.

That said, the shift from ordinary children to celebrities was a clear desperate move on ABS-CBN’s part to improve the ratings of ‘The Kids’ Choice’ and restore its dominance in that timeslot. The show may be intriguing and unique to begin with, but at the end of the day, the network only cares about the bottom line.

The Inevitable: Moving to ABS-CBN Might Rejuvenate Regine Velasquez’s Career

From Kapuso… to Kapamilya?

The future of Regine Velasquez’s career has been hanging in the balance over the past month. As Regine’s contract with GMA is set to expire, there were reports of her moving to ABS-CBN to join her husband Ogie Alcasid.

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Those rumors escalated further when Regine unexpectedly showed up at the ABS-CBN Ball Saturday night despite making an appearance on ‘The Clash’ for its final weekend (Saturday’s episode was pre-taped while Sunday’s episode was aired live). With all things considered, is Regine of no use to GMA and would be better off joining ABS-CBN?

First things first, let’s look back at recent history. Back in 2015, Regine was a host and performer on ‘Sunday All-Stars’, but low ratings and changing timeslots forced GMA to give up the show and allow APT Entertainment to take over the Sunday noontime slot with ‘Sunday PinaSaya’.

Regine did not join ‘Sunday PinaSaya’ because of a perceived ‘lack of familiarity’ and from that point on her career with GMA stalled. Her two acting projects in ‘Poor Señorita’ and ‘Mulawin vs. Ravena’ failed to beat Coco Martin”s long-running series ‘Ang Probinsyano’, while a primetime variety show in ‘Full House Tonight’ ran for only four months.

While Regine remained visible as an on-air talent via the cooking show ‘Sarap Diva’, it was clear that her days with GMA are being numbered. The fact is, Regine is no longer that relevant as a Kapuso star with all those recent projects that did not work out.

It only got worse when her one-time co-performers on ‘SOP’ (namely Ogie Alcasid, Jaya, Kyla, Jay-R and Janno Gibbs) found a new outlet in former rival ‘ASAP’. With GMA lacking any capable recording artists to keep up with ABS-CBN’s, Regine finds herself helpless to cope with the dearth in talent.

Which is why moving to ABS-CBN might help rejuvenate her career. Not only will she expected to make appearances with her former ‘SOP’ brethren on ‘ASAP’, she will also have an opportunity to become a judge in one of ABS-CBN’s upcoming talent shows (rumor has it that she might join ‘The Voice’ as a judge).

More importantly, Regine’s love for performing will be rekindled within Kapamilya walls, especially during ‘ASAP’. That alone may be a long shot given the abundance of performers on ABS-CBN, but given Regine’s track record that may be too good to pass up.

Still, it will be up to Regine Velasquez to decide the next phase of her career. Let’s just hope that she chooses something that will be best for her.