ABS-CBN's new noontime show Pilipinas, Win na Win! is being tagged as "the bagong mukha ng saya at pag-asa (the new face of fun and hope)."
During its pilot episode aired last Saturday, July 31, host Kris Aquino told viewers here and abroad: "Let's look forward to... maghangad na tayo, sampung taon. Let's look forward to ten years."
PAST NOONTIME SHOWS. Pilipinas, Win na Win! (PWW) is one of the noontime shows launched by ABS-CBN over the years.
Channel 2 used to be the home of the long-running noontime show Eat Bulaga!, which was pioneered by comic trio Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto and Joey de Leon. It started airing on ABS-CBN on February 1989 until it moved to GMA-7 in January 1995.
As a result, the APO Hiking Society was tapped to host the week-long show, 'Sang Linggo nAPO Sila, which was a spin-off of their Sunday variety show Sa Linggo nAPO Sila. Danny Javier, Jim Paredes and Buboy Garovillo hosted the said program until it stopped airing on 1998.
An ensemble of hosts was tapped for MTB, which ran for several years on the Kapamilya Network. It started out as Magandang Tanghali Bayan in November 1998 until it was reformatted and became known as Masayang Tanghali Bayan in February 2003. Its main hosts were Randy Santiago, Willie Revillame and John Estrada. The trio were no longer part of the spin-off called MTB: Ang Saya Saya, which aired for a year, from February 2004 until February 2005.
Wowowee, which was led by its main host Willie Revillame, lasted for almost five years on ABS-CBN. It started airing on February 5, 2005 and bade farewell last July 30, 2010.
NEW TANDEM. ABS-CBN's current noontime show, Pilipinas, Win na Win! is now led by hosts Kris Aquino and Robin Padilla together with Mariel Rodriguez, Valerie Concepcion and Pokwang.
The July 31 pilot episode opened with a montage of Kapamilya stars proclaiming their support for the new show. There was a festive Mardi Gras mood on the set while the Black Eyed Peas' upbeat song "I Gotta Feeling" was played in the background.
Mariel, Valerie and Pokwang came onstage and danced before Robin entered with his declaration: "It's nice to be back." The action star even attempted to do a stunt by jumping off and doing a front roll.
Kris then entered and announced that she's here to stay. All of the hosts performed the show's theme song, with matching arm movements.
PASA-LOBO. Unknown to the audience, some of the balloons that were handed to them contained printouts of the PWW logo. Kris asked those present in the studio to pass the yellow balloons to their seatmates. On her signal, the balloons were popped and only ten persons with the printouts could join the game called "Ping Pong Pang."
Pokwang and Kris then facilitated the game, which is similar to "Hep, Hep Hooray" of Wowowee.
When Pokwang places the mic in front of the first contestant, he or she must shout "Ping" and cross his arms. When it goes to the second contestant, s/he shouts "Pong" and places hands on the thighs. The third contestant who shouts "Pang" must raise his/her arms up. The faster it gets, the more confusing it becomes for the contestant to do the next movement.
Kris briefly interviewed one of the contestants, a shy girl whose voice was hardly heard by the audience. "May pamilya ka ba?" Kris asked.
"Opo, meron po," the girl answered meekly.
"Bakit parang hindi ka sigurado?"
The girl answered louder this time, "Siguradong, sigurado po."
"Bagong hiwalay ka din ba?" said Kris with a smile. (The TV host-actress is currently seeking the nullification of her marriage to James Yap.)
Kris and Pokwang gamely joined the remaining two contestants to see if they could keep up with the hand movements. Kris ended up making a mistake and ousted herself from the game. Cleo from Intramuros won the game and went home with Php 15,000 from the sponsor of the segment.
STAR-STUDDED PILOT EPISODE. A lot of Kapamilya stars took part in the pilot episode of Pilipinas, Win na Win!
One of them, Piolo Pascual, could not escape the probing questions of Kris. The former host of The Buzz asked the matinee idol: "Kamusta love life mo, Papa P?"
Piolo answered, "Steady naman."
Kris commented, "Steady is better than wala. Maganda ang steady, relax lang. Mariel, sinasabi ko sa iyo, pag kalmado, 'yan ang tatagal."
To this, Mariel asked Kris directly: "Ikaw? Kalmado ka ba ngayon?"
Kris said with a laugh: "Hindi. Ask me again next year."
Pinoy rock legend Pepe Smith did a medley of songs from the Juan Dela Cruz band with Robin Padilla. They started off with the sentimental rock ballad "Himig Natin" and then they revved up with "Balong Malalim."
Cristine Reyes also did a risqué dance number and promoted her upcoming primetime show Martha Cecilia's Kristine.
Child wonders Xyriel Manabat and Zaijian Jaranilla sang a medley with Queenie Padilla and Ejay Falcon. Christian Bautista partnered with Karylle and Juris and Duncan Ramos joined them as well. Martin Nievera also participated in the song number.
The Buzz hosts Boy Abunda, KC Concepcion and Charlene Gonzales surprised everyone with their dance number. After this major production number, Kris prodded KC to sing a few lines of the song, "It Must Have Been Love." There was a hush as the daughter of Sharon Cuneta sang the lines.
Robin got a congratulatory message from his daughter Queenie, who told him: "Masayang-masaya po ako para sa inyo. Lahat po nagawa niyo na po. Directing, writing, acting and ngayon, hosting."
YAMAN NG BAYAN. The next segment had a host of celebrities joining in while Kris and Pokwang again served as game masters.
"Para po sa inyo at sa bawat Pilipino dahil kayo ang yaman ng bayan. Dito magaganap ang chikahan, kamustahan, pasiklaban, at kung anu-ano pa para sa ating mamamayan. Dito natin malalaman ang saloobin ng bawat Pilipino at kung ano ang ating angking galing," Kris said of the game.
Three teams will aim to complete the lyrics of hit songs. Each team will have a team leader and ten other members. On that day, Christian Bautista, Bb. Pilipinas 2009 Bianca Manalo and Jericho Rosales were the selected leaders. Meanwhile, Karylle and Duncan Ramos were the house singers assigned that day.
Each leader must guess the jumbled picture of a singer on the giant videowall. The first one to buzz in gets the chance to identify the singer on the videowall. The house singer will partially sing a hit song of the singer and the teammates will have to give the correct lyrics of that song.
The team leader gets Php 10,000 while the group members get Php 20,000. The winner of Yaman ng Bayan also gets to advance to the jackpot round. The group of Jericho was able to score two points so the actor moved on the next game called "Open Susi-Me."
OPEN SUSI-ME. Robin Padilla joined Kris as game master for the final segment.
In "Open Susi-Me," the contestant must open five doors within the specified time period. Jericho had 60 seconds to open the first three doors that contained corresponding prizes: Php 10000, Php 20000 and Php 50000.
Jericho took 45.4 seconds to completely open the first three doors. He was given a bonus of ten seconds if he took the chance of opening the fourth door which contained Php 200,000 but he had eight random keys to choose from. Or he can go home already with Php 50,000 as sure win. If he failed, he would go home with nothing. Jericho took the chance as he was encouraged by his "ka-baranggay" from La Union to continue.
Luckily, Jericho got to open the orange door on the third try. The actor then had the option to take home Php 200,000 or try his luck in opening the million-peso door which had twelve random keys. Jericho pushed on with the game. However, his luck ran out and he was unable to open the red door.
NEW TV FAMILY. The show concluded with a few messages of the hosts to each other. Robin handed out flowers to his four co-hosts and gave a special message to Kris Aquino.
"Salamat at natanggap mo ako. Matagal na panahon na hindi tayo nagkita. Maraming salamat at inaalalayan mo ako sa bago kong trabaho," said the actor who used to be romantically linked to Kris.
Kris thanked Mariel, Pokwang and Valerie for welcoming Robin and her to be part of the noontime family show. She also thanked all the staff and crew and hoped that they can continue building a new TV family.
"Hindi mabubuo ang programang ito kung wala dito ang mga sumusubaybay sa amin at tumatangkilik sa mga Kapamilya. This is the start of something new para sa ating lahat. Panibagong [simula] po ito at sabay-sabay po tayong matuto as the days go on. Sabay-sabay tayong mag-e-enjoy. At sabay-sabay natin pasasayahin ang bawat pamilyang Pilipino," Kris ended.