First of all, let me make it clear: I am biased for Philippine Idol but I am not anti-anything. American Idol is just my bread and butter reality show over at rickey.org — and I only hope that the Pinoy version Philippine Idol will be a tremendous success as it reflects well on the Idol franchise. That said, I watched ABS-CBN’s “answer” to Philippine Idol, Pinoy Dream Academy over at TFC to see what the competition has to offer.
As a backgrounder, the “Star Academy” franchise from Endemol was a hit in Spain (Operaci?n Triunfo), and this year, ABC in the U.S. picked it up for the Summer and called it The One: Making a Music Star. Of course I watched it (because of one lone cutie), even if everybody hated it — and even it had the lowest debut in history of any new show on the major networks. After just TWO WEEKS, ABC cancelled it — and no one will ever become “The One”.
I doubt that ABS-CBN will cancel Pinoy Dream Academy since they’ve obviously invested heavily on it, but the official Pinoy Rickey verdict is this: PDA is totally unwatchable. Even worse than The One. How they thought they could show this every single night is beyond me. I was totally confused by this show since the “scholars” looked the same (the uniforms didn’t help) and no one stood out, among what? 20? 100? Who knows. Hahaha. It would have helped if there was a cutie, pero there was none. It was just so boooooring. Hasn’t ABS-CBN learned from Endemol that its all about storyline-storyline-storyline? Look at what’s happening in the U.S.-version of Big Brother — it’s absolutely fantastic. Having the franchise alone won’t make something a hit, it’s what you do with it. I really pity the Filipino televiewer if this is the kind of stuff that is shown on TV. Ang panget talaga. Two words: ZERO RECALL.
On another front, I am also partially loyal to Pinoy Pop Superstar, since that is the show that kicked off Pinoy Rickey last year (I was quite impressed before, but unfortunately not now). However, the fact that disqualified Pinoy Pop Superstar contestant Ronnie Liang is in Pinoy Dream Academy is my personal bias icing on the cake. Pinapalabas pa nila na PPS had something to do with Ronnie’s traumatic experience when it was clearly Ronnie’s fault. Tsk tsk. Taking damaged goods like this is so low. (Just like Ethel Booba who is now in Wowowee — hahaha, utang na loob, I guess she needs to work). There’s also reports that one of the PDA contestants was pirated from the Philippine Idol Top 24. Low. Low. Low. Puwede pa sana if the show itself was worth it, pero walang kuwenta.
Good for me, since showing Pinoy Dream Academy in the U.S. has no value, TFC is actually showing it every night. However, it’s pure torture. I now can’t wait for StarStruck 4 to come by kahit napaaga ng konti because of the competitive atmosphere on Philippine TV now. And don’t get me started with Super Inggo… it has Panday-level mediocrity but I’m not going there. I have so many things to do…
