The fairly new noontime program, "Showtime!" is rating high in the viewership polls. It's a simple show--group performances are evaluated by a panel of judges. The group with the highest score wins and advances to the weekly finals, then to the monthly, until the grand finals. It's not very different from old school TV contests such as those in Eat…Bulaga!, the defunct MTB and Chowtime Na! There's nothing new in its mechanics either—the style of judges rating (or berating) contestants is stolen from American Idol and America's Got Talent.
I initially had doubts about this program’s success. With the many ABS-CBN programs that have come and gone, I thought that this would be just another program that was bound to die as soon as it learned to breathe. However, tuning in to the show, I can't help but be glued to the screen because of the promise of more surprises from the production numbers and the candor of the hosts’ and judges’ comments. But more than its production values, there is something in the show which engages the audiences both in the live studio and in the homes. Simply put, the show is entertaining.
When the show was just starting (and probably when it still wasn’t clear what it was about) Vice Ganda, one of the judges, was able to articulate what the show is about. He said, "This is not a talent show! We want to be entertained." And so began the entertainment. It came from the contestants’ acts, the diverse reactions of the judges, and the energies of its audience and hosts. And although the contestants are serious about their performances—they perform in the spirit of fun. The show is not stressful even to the contestants. That is the appeal of the show.
"Showtime!" came at the time when we were all dead tired from the successive disasters of floods, typhoons, capsizing ships, and, currently, confusion of our political situation. People just wanted to be entertained—they wanted not to have to worry about anything anymore, to just be hedonistically happy, to be free. "Showtime!" provided that entertainment. No contestant needed to be saved through text votes (the viewers though can get rid of heartless judges). The audience is not kept at the edge of their seats worrying if their favorite is going to win or not. Nothing is at stake—not even the contestants’ dignity. "Showtime!"promises nothing but raw entertainment.
Despite its clear entertainment value, we have to ask what is new about the entertainment this show is offering? Wowowee! and Eat… Bulaga! offer the same kind of entertainment. However, there is one difference –Showtime!’s entertainment isn’t tied to its prize money. Sure, it has a 50K prize for the daily winner but the hosts don’t harp on this fact as if it were the end all and be all of the show. Money is not used to make the participants act like fools on stage divulging every bit of drama in their lives. Neither is it used to make them exaggerate their own infirmities and bad traits. Their jingle hits it right on the mark: "'Di namin nais yaman sa mundo para sumaya... basta't kasama kapamilya..." What the contestants seek is their two minutes of fame, two minutes of realizing their dream to perform on stage, on national TV. Even contestants themselves validate this, "Gusto lang namin magperform. Mapakita ang kaya namin. Kahit hindi kami manalo." And that's enough for them. Hence, no dramatics and theatrics are involved. Just entertainment. Just fun stuff.
"Showtime!" gives hope to the underrated, unnoticed and unnamed talents out there. Hope comes not in the money they will win by displaying their talents on TV. The act of being seen and being heard is their signal fire--they refuse to remain nobodies. That is their motivation.
The success of "Showtime!" is its ability to reconnect and rearticulate this basic Filipino desire. The success of the Filipino is that it was given an avenue to be part of the mainstream forum again.
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