Boy Abunda Goes Solo Starting Tonight

The spotlight every late weeknights now solely falls on Boy Abunda.

Starting tonight, Abunda will be the host of the now-retitled ‘Tonight with Boy Abunda’, which will take over the timeslot of its predecessor ‘Aquino & Abunda Tonight. This comes after erstwhile co-host Kris Aquino left the show due to health concerns.

‘Tonight with Boy Abunda’ will carry some of the elements from its predecessor, except that Abunda will be joined by some guest commentators who will analyze some of the hottest stories today. As always, interviews with some of the country’s headliners will highlight the show, with the participation of viewers via social media.

While the transition to Boy Abunda going solo will not be a problem (he’s already used to hosting solo on ‘The Bottomline with Boy Abunda’), there is one problem concerning the title of the show. Some viewers may think that ‘Tonight with Boy Abunda’ is related to GMA News TV’s ‘Tonight with Arnold Clavio’, despite its differences in format.

If ABS-CBN were smart enough, they could have promoted Boy Abunda’s new daily solo show as a spin-off to ‘The Bottomline with Boy Abunda’. Perhaps ‘The Daily Bottomline’, ‘Bottomline 15’ or ‘The Bottomline in 15 Minutes’ would have been a more appropriate title, isn’t it?

Or they would just rename it as ‘ 15 Minutes with Boy Abunda’. Either way, ABS-CBN would have been more creative if they created a better program title instead of copy-pasting one that is already used on another network.

As for Kris Aquino, her departure from the show leaves her with just one program in ‘Kris TV’. Perhaps it’s only good for her to do only one show, given the recent health scares that affected her, not to mention other projects not related to television appearances.

All 15 minutes of Boy Abunda on his new show should be interesting. Let’s see how it pays off.

‘Tonight with Boy Abunda’ airs weeknights after ‘Pinoy Big Brother: 737’ on ABS-CBN’s Primetime Bida.

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GMA News TV Brings Back QTV as Last Resort

Two of the three logos used by the now-defunct QTV. In recent weeks old QTV programs were brought back by its successor GMA News TV in hopes of providing more ‘informative’ programming.

GMA News TV is taking a step back, and its latest lineup of programs showed how gradual their regression has been.

In an apparent sign of a rebrand or a relocation taking place, News TV is bringing back its predecessor QTV, albeit partially. Some of the programs that previously aired on QTV include: ‘May Trabaho Ka’, ‘At Your Service: Star Power’, ‘DoQmentaries’, ‘Here Comes the Bride’, ‘Ka-Blog!’, ‘Kids on Q’, ‘Proudly Filipina’, ‘Sana’y Muling Makapiling’, and ‘Secrets of the Masters’. Before that, when News TV debuted in February 2011, some of the QTV programs such as ‘Ang Pinaka’, ‘Balitanghali’ and ‘Tonight with Arnold Clavio’ were carried over to the then newly-established network.

The return of old QTV programs coincided with the third anniversary of GMA News TV this month. But despite recent claims that they are still the top-rated news network in the country, the last few months have been troublesome for the embattled network. Some of its programs were moved to GMA, while others were cancelled in favor of extended news programs. In addition, the network received some backlash from viewers when they aired classic movies in the afternoon slot, something uncharacteristic for a news channel.

Fortunately the network decided to cancel its classic movie blocks, but in its place came some of the previous programs from the old QTV. As a result, News TV is taking a ‘one step forward, two steps back’ approach in an attempt to appease its viewers. Unfortunately, replaying old QTV programs is not the answer.

If GMA management is seriously not willing to improve News TV, they should start considering two things: to reformat or relocate the network. That way, they can save themselves from further embarrassment. In the end, however, it is the management’s decision, not the viewers, so it’s up to them to make this decision. But right now, GMA News TV’s days as a news network are being numbered.

Igan is No Talk Show Host

 

In contrast to Arnold Clavio’s jovial look on this TV billboard for ‘Tonight with Arnold Clavio’, some episodes continue to display his more serious news reporting side in the midst of national issues.

Since Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) ravaged much of Visayas last week, the GMA News TV program ‘Tonight with Arnold Clavio‘ went serious in discussing the typhoon. The TWAC band was not present, and neither were the assigned special guests. The last two TWAC episodes went with a news reporting approach, featuring interviews with various experts.  Turns out I was not a fan of the more serious version of TWAC.

Arnold Clavio, the program’s host, is better suited as a news anchor than a talk show host. The reason why News TV decided to assign Clavio to a talk show was to showcase his fun side. But as it turns out, his heart remains news reporting, and in some episodes of TWAC, he decided to eschew the program’s talk show approach for serious news reporting, especially during nationwide disasters and conflicts.

In my opinion, GMA made the wrong decision. TWAC may be on the air for three years now, but it’s hard to fathom why Clavio continues to move back to his news anchor persona when his self-titled program was designed mainly as a late night talk show a la ‘Tonight Show with Jay Leno‘. ‘Tonight with Arnold Clavio’ is a joke, and it deserves to be axed.

If GMA were to produce its own late night talk show, why not bring back Jojo Alejar and his ‘Medyo Late Night’ band? Ever since Jojo A. and his late night talk show took a bow on TV5 last September, the television industry is still searching for a new weeknight talk show featuring monologues and special guests. Even though TV5’s ‘What’s Up, Doods?’ with Edu Manzano qualifies as such, it only airs once a week. And television programs of late portray a more serious tone than in previous years. So the need for such a talk show becomes even more pronounced.

In the meantime, ‘Tonight with Arnold Clavio’ will remain on the air, because ‘Igan’ is such a popular figure of late in the world of broadcast journalism. Popular with the fact that he grilled Janet Lim-Napoles’ lawyer Alfredo Villamor on ‘Unang Hirit’, which of course was criticized on social media and even earned him an MTRCB warning. But for some reason TWAC has become an exhibition for Clavio’s two personas: one as a jovial talk show host, and the other as a no-nonsense news anchor. And the clash of two worlds is not good for television.