A2Z | Kapamilya Channel
Hosts: Vice Ganda, Vhong Navarro, Jhong Hilario
Judging Panel: Kim Chiu, Jerald Napoles, Roxanne Guinoo
Premise: A talented contender picks from a group of five contestants, a challenger whose talent may be ‘waley’ or ‘havey’.
The latter means he may lose the battle, whose outcome can only be decided by the judging panel.
Timeslot: Within It’s Showtime, 12:00-2:30pm, weekdays
Why You Should See It:
The new segment of It’s Showtime does not only thrust the talented ones into attention but also the ones who do better work at making the studio explode in laughter or the unimaginable.
Following the viral success of Mas’ Testing and Hide and Sing, Kapamilya weekday noontime show, It’s Showtime, launches a new exciting segment that showcases jaw-dropping talented acts. But there is a catch—nuisance acts are in, to vie for the top prize, too.
In VERSUS, two weekly contenders will go against an unnamed challenger whom they will pick from a group of reserved challengers, whose talent or skill, maybe “waley” or “havey”–the former referring to nuisance acts that are just in the competition for comedic purposes. The weekly contender who picks a “waley” contestant automatically enters the weekly finals, but if he doesn’t, his chance of taking home the weekly prize and getting to the next round is at stake.
He would need to prevail the ‘havey’ challenger he unfortunately picked. When such an occasion arises, the verdict of the jury decides who gets to the next round. The weekly finalists, battle it out on a Saturday, and the winner advances to the next round.
During its pilot week, VERSUS showed an overwhelming potential (but all new shows try to impress during the pilot, don’t they?). The spotlight was on card magician, Tigas Abelgas, and solo dancer, Otso-Gwapito, who both advanced to the weekly finals, albeit picking a ‘havey’ challenger.
Interestingly—and adoringly—the highlight of their duel isn’t them being declared as both winners, but when hosts Vhong Navarro and Vice Ganda, fulfilled their promise of giving Otso Gwapito new shoes, with Navarro giving away two of his precious branded shoes, and Vice Ganda handing the contestant a startling four pairs of brand new VANS shoes!
Anyway, going back to their act, both delivered jaw-dropping performances, which made their respective wins totally deserved.
While the acts, themselves are enough to make talent shows like Versus work, the lack of studio audience who are usually the target of the performers in pulling-off their spectacles make the overall impression made a bit blander than the usual.
Fortunately, Vice Ganda and her funny antics and banters with his co-hosts and the performers satisfyingly compensate for that small shortcoming.
It also adds that Kim Chiu is part of the judging panel, which, to be honest, makes more alive.
The sophomore week delivered less impressive talents, but nonetheless still awe-inspiring, especially that moment when the weekly contender and the challenger performed together. That being said, the show still has many chances to at least duplicate the successes of the early editions of the now-shelved ‘Mas Testing.
Versus is a segment of It’s Showtime! which airs daily at noontime on A2Z Channel 11 and Kapamilya Channel. It also streams live on Kapamilya Online Live and iWantTFFC.
