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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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.

The Voice Kids Returns for a Third Season

‘The Voice Kids’ is back.

A new crop of young singers take the stage beginning this weekend to see who will be the next grand winner of the most popular singing competition in the country. The third season of ‘The Voice Kids’ will get underway with the blind auditions, but before that, there were some significant changes that took place.

This season’s set of coaches/judges will be different from prior seasons. Gone is Sarah Geronimo, and in her place will be the country’s ‘Megastar’ Sharon Cuneta, who will join holdovers Lea Salonga and Bamboo.

Geronimo, who had been a judge for all two seasons of both ‘The Voice Kids’ and ‘The Voice of the Philippines’, stated that she left the show in order to focus as a performer on ‘ASAP’. However, she hinted that she may return to ‘The Voice’ in the near future.

Also joining ‘The Voice Kids’ for this season will be Kim Chiu, who will be one of the show’s hosts alongside Luis Manzano and Robi Domingo. This will be Chiu’s first major hosting role.

As in prior seasons, ‘The Voice Kids’ is divided into several levels, starting with the blind auditions. From there, singers on each of the three teams will be gradually eliminated, culminating in the series of live performance and results shows that will determine this season’s winner.

The first two seasons of ‘The Voice Kids’ constantly ranked atop the most-watched programs in the country. Season 1, won by Lyca Gairanod, averaged nearly 35%, while Season 2, won by Elha Nympha, averaged nearly 42%.

Overall, the ‘The Voice Kids’ normed over 39%, which is better than the 25% average of its sister show ‘The Voice of the Philippines’. That alone, coupled with the success of some of the former’s finalists, became a key reason why ABS-CBN chose to produce a third season of ‘The Voice Kids’ first instead of the latter’s own third season.

If the second season’s high ratings were any indication, expect an equally excellent, if not improved turnout for the third season of ‘The Voice Kids’. The popularity of the show has been impressive so far, and now, it’s up to the viewers to take it to the next level.

Season 3 of ‘The Voice Kids’ Philippines airs Saturdays at 7:15 p.m. and Sundays at 7:00 p.m. on ABS-CBN.

ABS-CBN, GMA Unveil Christmas Station IDs

Christmas came early for ABS-CBN and GMA.

On Thursday, November 12, both networks unveiled their Christmas station IDs during a broadcast of ‘TV Patrol’ and ’24 Oras’ respectively. ABS-CBN’s slogan for the Christmas season is ‘Thank You for the Love’, while GMA’s slogan is ‘MaGMAhalan Tayo Ngayong Pasko’.

ABS-CBN’s Christmas station ID is sung by the three hottest love teams in LizQuen (Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil), KathNiel (Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla), and JaDine (James Reid and Nadine Lustre), and were joined by Bamboo Mañalac and ‘The Voice Kids’ season 2 winner Elha Nympha.

GMA’s Christmas station ID, on the other hand, was solely sung by Alden Richards.

As always, both networks assembled their contract artists and news personalities for this occasion. Still, much of the attention was centered around ABS-CBN’s aforementioned love teams, and GMA’s accidental pairing that is AlDub (Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza).

Minutes following the premiere, social media quickly took notice of the Christmas station IDs. Despite the presence of AlDub, ‘MaGMAhalan Tayo Ngayong Pasko’ failed to make an impact, as ‘Thank You for the Love’ ended the night as Twitter’s top trending topic both in the Philippines and worldwide.

The same can also be said on YouTube, where ABS-CBN’s Christmas SID received nearly 500,000 more views than GMA’s (as of Monday, November 16). In the end, ‘Thank You for the Love’ proved to be more compelling to viewers than ‘MaGMAhalan Tayo Ngayong Pasko’ upon release.

ABS-CBN and GMA will continue to show an edited version of their Christmas station IDs during commercial breaks for the rest of the year. Until then, enjoy watching the full version of either ‘Thank You for the Love’ or ‘MaGMAhalan Tayo Ngayong Pasko’, and give your thoughts on the videos above.

 

‘To the Top’ Avoids ‘The Voice Kids’

‘To the Top”s upcoming weekend schedule will see them pit against ‘Pinoy Big Brother: 737’ instead of ‘The Voice Kids’ season 2. (Logo courtesy of GMA & ‘To the Top’ Official Facebook)

“Avoid ‘The Voice Kids’ at all costs.”

This is the battle cry of a despondent GMA management upon revealing the schedules of the soon-to-air multi-platform reality boyband talent show ‘To the Top’. Starting July 25, ‘To the Top’ will air every Saturday at 8:50 p.m. following ‘Magpakailanman’, and every Sunday at 9:40 p.m. following ‘Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho’.

This means that ‘To the Top’ will only compete against ‘Pinoy Big Brother: 737’ rather than the ‘The Voice Kids’ season 2. With the latter having set a series ratings record of around 43% (according to Kantar Media) the previous weekend, GMA knows they’re in a losing battle, and wisely did what’s best for them.

But that doesn’t mean ‘To the Top’ will beat ‘Pinoy Big Brother’ once they get underway. As it stands, PBB remains a serious contender despite the recent spate of controversies, and for GMA to make ‘To the Top’ even more interesting than its adversary, they need to raise the level of skill and entertainment value to win the viewers’ hearts.

That said, a tough battle still lies ahead for ‘To the Top’. Even though they’ll no longer go head-to-head with ‘The Voice Kids’, they still have something to prove as far as ratings go, and that alone won’t be easy.

Good luck.

A New Rival for ‘The Voice Kids 2’

‘The Voice Kids’ season 2 will be having a new rival.

Opposing the hit ABS-CBN singing talent show soon will be GMA’s first multi-platform boyband competition in the Philippines, ‘To the Top’. Produced by GMA News and Public Affairs, this program aims to discover the country’s next great boyband.

Unlike other talent shows in the country, ‘To the Top’ did not conduct open auditions. Instead, it invited the best male singers from different schools and organizations to join and audition for the final 25 slots.

‘To the Top’ initially aired as an online-exclusive series where they document the journey of each finalist from being soloists/group members to being members of a boyband. These webisodes were hosted by Julian Trono, who was intensively trained in KPop.

The remaining 25 finalists were then trimmed to 14, with the 11 eliminated finalists competing for four wildcard slots that was decided through social media votes. The 18 finalists who will see action in the televised portion of the series are:

• AJ Ajrouche
• Lance Busa
• Ken Carpena
• Mico Cruz
• Cholo dela Cruz
• Martin de Vera
• Luis Gragera
• Joshua Jacobe
• MJ Magno
• Miko Manguba
• Seph Manlapaz
• Bryan Olano
• JP Palanca
• Adrian Pascual
• Louie Pedroso
• Lharby Policarpio
• Edric Ulang
• Chris Yumang

The 18 singers will then be divided into groups of six, and will be housed together and undergo further vocal and dance training in preparation for their performances. They will then be judged based on their singing and dancing ability, as well as their cohesiveness.

The panel of judges will be led by accomplished composer Ryan Cayabyab, and will be joined by The CompanY’s Moy Ortiz, Sweet Plantado and OJ Mariano. The quartet will also act as vocal coaches for the three groups.

The dance coaches will be Philippine Allstars alunmi and two-time World Hip-Hop champions Madelle and Prince Paltu-ob, and international breakdance champion Reflex Gotangco. The sound and music department will be led by Sonic State Audio’s Jonathan Ong, along with Chino David, Chrisanthony Vinzons and Brian Lotho.

‘To the Top’ was originally scheduled to air this Saturday, July 18, but for some unknown reason, it was moved to July 25. The show is expected to compete against ‘The Voice Kids’ season 2, which is currently on a hot streak as far as ratings are concerned.

By all accounts, GMA should have their hands full in this latest endeavor. Opposing ‘The Voice of the Philippines’ and its kids edition has been a difficult ordeal for the network, having seen its most recent talent show ‘Bet ng Bayan’ fail against the said ABS-CBN program.

That said, a daunting task awaits ‘To the Top’ as it nears its premiere. Will this show provide a tougher competition to ‘The Voice Kids’, or will it fall in the same manner as ‘Bet ng Bayan’? We’ll see.