I was passing by Gateway the other day and a promo lady (for lack of a better term) gave me a
Survivor Philippines button pin. It got me thinking...eh-hum.
Philippine television airwaves are flooded not only with telenovelas (local, Korean and Mexican/Puerto Rican), but with imported reality tv shows and concepts. When reality shows first invaded normal TV programming, they were, in fairness, good. I distinctly remembered watching and enjoying Mark Burnett's adventure race show entitled
Eco Challenge. The first seasons of the original Survivor were enjoyable, my favorite being
Survivor: Africa.
Nowadays, reality tv shows (especially those centering on dating, that encourages catfights, etc.) shown in cable are poor quality and looks fake (meaning the producers deliberately create scenarios for the "contestants" to create controversies; the editing also misleads audience; more of a contest than a show about real life), which makes the reality tv tag a misnomer. I mean, I doubt if networks are really interested in investigating the complex facets of human nature.
In the Philippines, reality tv served another purpose: to find new talent. And judging from the tarp I saw while riding at the MRT, our version of Survivor aims to find that lucky guy and lucky girl to be the next Sam Milby, Kim Chu, Gerard Anderson, etc, etc. If the contestants are cute and pretty enough (not necessarily talented enough), they might get an offer from
GMA, the network producing the show.
Aaahhh, yes. If you want to join Philippine show business, join a reality show. That's the message I've been getting. Well, it worked for the
Pinoy Big Brother contestants as mentioned above. Whatever happened to doing things old school? Like joining school plays/theater groups for experience, attending workshops, auditioning first for supporting roles then working your way up. In order words, really working hard for it. Oh well.
