LYCA Gairanod and Darren Espanto topped the first season of “The Voice Kids.” RICHARD A. REYES
New editions of TV talent tilts are about to start telecasting, so we hope that the right lessons have been learned from previous seasons, and the follow-up tilts will turn out to be improved versions of the originals.
Take “The Voice Kids,” which is currently auditioning talented tots for its 2015 edition. Last year’s tilt was hampered by the presence of contenders who were no longer small kids and were more of the adolescent, tween and even teen variety!
As a result, their careers as child performers are being drastically shortened by inexorable changes in their bodies and singing voices. Therefore, the people auditioning talents for the new kiddie tilt have to make doubly sure that the contestants who get into the 2015 competition are really young—5- or 6-year-olds preferred!
In addition, the new tilt should discourage the choice of songs that are too grown-up for the kiddie talents to perform. No more songs about girls on fire, love on the rebound, wild party animals, broken hearts—please! There are many child-appropriate songs that can take their place, for more properly innocent and inspirational effect!
Foisted on viewers
On GMA 7, a new edition of “Starstruck” is being lined up, and we hope that the voice of experience serves that talent competition, as well. For starters, auditions should be held months before the actual tilt starts, so the best auditioners can be honed in private, out of camera range, before they’re foisted on the viewing public!
All too often in past editions, talents made it to the competition process still raw and trying-hard, and viewers felt exceedingly put-upon and shortchanged!
ALLIYAH Leammuelle Cabato, Judy Ann Santos “mini-me” on “It’s Showtime”FACEBOOK
Three months of rigorous, off-cam training would make this season’s contestants much better performers, and more contestants can emerge as genuine star discoveries, instead of eager but inept tyros whose “careers” can’t go anywhere but down.
Another teen tilt, “Pinoy Big Brother,” is similarly starting its audition process, so we trust that it will also benefit from learning hard-knocks lessons from the gaffes and goofs of the past.
As for TV5, it’s launching its own star-discovery tilt, and we hope that its products will be genuinely talented and promising—knock on wood! The channel already has too many less-than-exciting contract starlets in its stable, and many of them aren’t going anywhere, fast. So, it would make no sense at all to just add to the glut by way of its new search for tomorrow’s stars.
On “It’s Showtime,” there’s a new “Mini Me” talent tilt for tykes who are encouraged to look, act and sing like adult stellar personalities, both local and foreign. Some of the tiny contestants are cute and lively, but aside from “signature” costuming, not enough effort is being expended by the tots’ parents and handlers to make the kids come off as authentic mini-me versions of their stellar faces.
The young talents themselves can’t be expected to come up with those telling and convincing touches, so their adult handlers have to do the shaping, training and directing for them.
Finally, it would be great if the tilt could offer more unexpected surprises, not just the usual parade of tiny Michael Jacksons or Sarah Geronimo imitators, all in a snooze-inducing row!