Here come the ‘news hunks’

LANTIN. “Buffing” up the news. PHOTO from Facebook account

Don’t look now, but something relatively new is taking place on the TV news front: In the past, the emphasis in terms of building up newscasters and reporters was on maturity, credibility and probity. These days, however, there’s a perceptible shift in developing new on-cam TV news people, most of them male, who not only look good but are veritable hunks, with rippling muscles and impressive abs to prove it! Our informal survey of local newscasts has come up with these “hunky” examples:

Jerome Lantin is seen on ABS-CBN as a Ronda Patroler on “Umagang Kay Ganda,” “TV Patrol,” “TV Patrol Weekend,” and on ANC and abs-cbnnews.com.

On dzMM TeleRadyo, Johnson Manabat regularly reports from the field—while wearing tight T-shirts that proudly call attention to his buff bod. In addition, Johnson has moved up one notch since he was first introduced, and can now be seen cohosting an early-early show, “Gising, Pilipinas.”

On TV5, his counterpart is the similarly buff Mon Gualvez, who has a deep and full voice. To emphasize Mon’s “physical factor,” he’s occasionally given coverage assignments of the action and adventure sort, like his recent “in the swim” encounter with stingrays and other big sea creatures.

Not to be outdone, GMA 7 has its own resident hunk in the person of Hadji Rieta, whose signature “tight T-shirt” look is obviously a viewing plus. Like the other young comers cited here, he’s good at what he does, and the fact that he’s “built” is just icing on the cake.

On ABS-CBN, his physique may not be as impressive as the others, but Atom Araullo is the big  rising star of the moment, going from simple field coverages to doing cohosting chores on “Umagang Kay Ganda.” Clearly, the network has big plans for the “ma-appeal” Atom, and they’re merited, because he doesn’t just look good, but is obviously intelligent and “sensitive,” to boot.

Fact is, Atom’s build-up campaign started last year, but it didn’t prosper because he was given a weekly “kababalaghan” show to host (“Misteryo”), and it simply wasn’t a good fit for him. He’s finally extricated himself from that awkward assignment, so his prospects (on “Red Alert”) are better now.

Why has “physical appeal” suddenly become a plus for today’s crop of young TV news people? “Blame” it on the rise of the youth market even for TV news—and on the continuing “infotainment” trend, which  slickly tries to make information more “entertaining,” by “sexing up” the TV news.

That’s OK if the news hunk in question is a competent professional on top of looking “sexy” and easy on the eyes. When that all-important combination isn’t achieved, however, it can be very embarrassing.

A long time ago, for instance, another hunk became very popular on the TV news, but he failed to measure up to the instant challenge of covering a very important “breaking news” political development—and was quickly taken off the air, never to regain his “star comer” status again!

Let’s hope that nothing of the mortifying sort happens to the new TV news hunks this season.

P.S. Other new “lookers” on TV include Mark Salazar, who doesn’t wear a T-shirt but a coat-and-tie ensemble, because he cohosts a newscast. Plus:  Cedric Castillo and Zandro Ochona.