STATION: TV5
HOST: Ryan Agoncillo
FORMAT: Talent show
PREMISE: Contestants try to impress the judges (talent scouts) to earn their thumbs-ups.
TIMESLOT: 8PM every Saturday
WHY YOU SHOULD SEE IT
The restrictions caused by the government-imposed quarantine measures to combat the ongoing pandemic prompted BANGON TALENTADONG PINOY’s show runners to make format adjustments for them to accommodate contestants who can not perform live at the studio. The impressive creativity of the players in trying to earn thumbs up from the talent scouts should earn the nods both of the judges and home viewers.
The importance of the return of Talentadong Pinoy to television can not be overstated. The same way prize-giving game shows are of great help to those in dire need of any form of economic relief, ‘Bangon Talentadong Pinoy’ will be greatly appreciated by every Filipino who wishes to use their talents as a means to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic. While it isn’t the only option available, TV5 offering the show at a time when help is scarce makes things even easier.
Keeping much of its original form, the show showcases a number of talents every episode. Three talent scouts critique the acts and by the end of the show, choose the top five performances of the night.
The winner of that episode faces last episode’s winner to battle for the ‘Defending Champion’ title. For the past two episodes, actors Joross Gamboa, Janice de Belen, and John Arcilla, have been the show’s talent scouts, but they may be replaced in the coming weeks.
Choosing all actors to sit in the panel of judges can be easily viewed as an unwise idea, given their very limited experience on judging talents outside their field, but their inputs have been valuable, and they’ve been very fair in their assessment of the acts so far.
Of course, tapping experts from various fields would be ideal and since part of the format involves not having a permanent set of judges, the audience will be thrilled by the possibility of seeing their favorite celebrities on the show.
The contestants now are in charge of setting their own stage as live performances in the studio is made almost impossible by pandemic restrictions.
This may be advantageous to technical talents like Erwin Reyes, who can now choose angles of his performance that are most impressive to the talent scouts whose view of the acts is limited by the barriers imposed by video conferencing. For acts, the new format can be easily turned to their favor as they are now free to do as much polishing as they need to make their official entry flawless.
For the August 22 episode, Yoyo master ‘Macky D’Spinner’, faced last week’s winner, Light artist Erwin Reyes, for the Defending Champion title. The latter emerged victorious again and added another PhP50,000 to his prize from last week.
Perhaps, the greatest challenges talent scouts will have to confront in assessing the performances are that acts are not done real-time and entries are most likely polished and shot from the right angles to come up with a finished product that may not look as good when performed in front of a live audience. Unlike before when judges can observe acts performed live and without enhancements, their capacity now to see the acts raw is awfully limited.
However, since every performer now has the chance to perfect their acts, talent scouts can now fairly give judgment to each talent. It is also amazing how the talent scouts interact and create fun banter even in spite of the fact that they are not physically interacting with each other. How they also converse with the talents to relay their opinion and judgment is also fun and creative.
At a time when loss of lives and livelihoods is taking a toll on every Filipino, the return of ‘Bangon Talentadong Pinoy’ to the small screen is very much welcome. Its vision to inspire the common Filipino to rise up amid a crisis gives a sense of hope and makes everything less difficult for every aspiring talent whose venues to make a livelihood out of what they can artistically do, is severely hampered.
There may be a lot of improvements showrunners still need to do, but as it is, ‘Bangon Talentadong Pinoy’ already deserves the audiences’ thumbs-up.
BANGON TALENTADONG PINOY airs on TV5 and CignalTV
