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.

TV Coverage of Typhoon Yolanda

 

One of the many houses damaged during the landfall of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in the Visayas region. Haiyan is perhaps the strongest recorded typhoon in history, with a 315 kph wind.

Last night the Philippines experienced the wrath of Typhoon Haiyan (local name Yolanda). The 315 kph typhoon struck much of Visayas, and even brought strong winds in Southern and Central Luzon, Metro Manila, and Northern Mindanao, leaving nearly 60 casualties and counting. And every news outlet were there to cover the storm.

The ABS-CBN News Channel, DZMM TeleRadyo, GMA News TV, AksyonTV and Solar News Channel extensively covered the news of the typhoon last Friday. However, during the afternoon press conference at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, only the ANC, DZMM TeleRadyo, SNC and GNTV were willing to air the live proceedings, while AksyonTV continued with the Radyo5 hookup of ‘Wanted sa Radyo’ and ‘Cristy FerMinute’. While AksyonTV did give way to breaking news on the NDRRMC press conference, their reluctance to air the press conference rather than continuing with their radio hookup still befuddles viewers.

ABS-CBN, TV5 and GMA also provided up-to-date reports on the storm during their newscasts. That said, it was a busy day for the writers, producers, anchors, reporters and cameramen who were present in covering the latest reports on Typhoon Yolanda. However, two lasting images involving news reporters stand out.

The first image came during ABS-CBN reporter Atom Araullo‘s report in Tacloban, where he braved the strong winds and heavy rains in order to provide the latest updates on the storm. Araullo first reported on the situation during ‘Umagang Kay Ganda’, but it was during ‘TV Patrol’ where his gutsy reporting became the talk of social media. Even CNN and various others news outlets around the world reported on Araullo’s bravery.

On the other hand, netizens criticize GMA‘s 24 Oras for cutting its program short during Jiggy Manicad’s report. Perhaps the network couldn’t wait to start their GMA Telebabad block, hence the decision not to go ahead with Jiggy’s report. Eventually Jiggy reported on the situation during News TV’s ‘State of the Nation’ and on GMA’s ‘Saksi’, where he and fellow reporter Love Anover reported on the casualty count and the damage Tacloban endured during Yolanda’s landfall. While his report was already belated, netizens were still keen to praise his bravery and calmness.

Typhoon Yolanda is scheduled to depart the Philippine Area of Responsibility later today. In the meantime, news outlets around the country and internationally will continue to give reports regarding the path of the storm.