Willie’s winning ways

Willie Revillame is clearly in his element in comeback show.

It’s been almost two years since Willie Revillame had a regular TV show, so we made sure to catch his comeback on “Wowowin” last May 10, 3:30 p.m. on GMA 7.

As expected, Willie intentionally opted to “go big” on his return to weekly TV.

His new show’s opening segment alone took up almost 20 minutes of TV time; instead of the usual 20 dancers, he opted for what looked like 50; everyone in the studio audience was gifted with a jacket—it was big, boffo and blockbuster, all the way!

Trouble was, the opening montage of musical numbers took so long that we got impatient for the game portion of the show to kick in. And, when it finally did, time appeared to run out and the program was only able to go into one major competition.

To its credit, however, the quiz-game tilt had a novel hook: The questions turned out to have been stashed in the pockets of the jackets that the 10 contestants were wearing—a cute and clever touch.

But some of the questions themselves turned out to be too difficult for the contestants to answer correctly—like, “What’s the Tagalog word for ‘sty’?” It wasn’t likely that a mere contestant would know the English word, so he was quickly eliminated. More contestant-friendly questions would clearly be appreciated.

Difficult questions

The quiz got interesting again when only one contestant was left standing: It turned out that the other pockets in his jacket contained even more difficult questions—but with bigger cash prizes, all the way up to P200,000! He ended up winning much less than that, but it’s good to know that a really smart and savvy contestant could go home with a fortune!

Bigger bonanzas

Other portions that the premiere telecast couldn’t accommodate promised even bigger bonanzas like a cool million bucks, house and lot, car—the works! Expect a lot more people to line up to compete on “Wowowin,” therefore.

How did Willie do as host-game master? The experienced impresario was clearly in his element, and as generous as could be, showing that he hadn’t lost his “touch.” Now, if only his new production can pace itself better, he should be A-OK.

One potentially controversial segment that the show featured was a music video showing Willie interacting with and helping the poor, the disabled and victims of disasters in different places, like providing bancas for fishermen in marginalized communities decimated by supertyphoons.

Willie said he did the feature to remind viewers that they too could and should help the poor and desperate, but there could be dissers who would find it self-serving and “promotional.”

Still, there’s no doubt that, for all his flamboyance, Willie has a generous heart, so reactions would be decidedly split, depending on where the individual viewer is coming from.

Our own pragmatic view is, if a celebrity donor spends a really huge amount to help others, as Willie obviously has (all those bancas!), he can be allowed some leeway.

What we can’t take are all those stars and starlets who spend only P20,000 or so to feed a bunch of people a single meal, while promoting themselves and their coming projects!