MERCADO. Truly stellar discovery.
Last Saturday, we watched “StarStruck” to keep tabs on the discovery tilt’s winnowing-down process. The six remaining “survivors” were on tenterhooks, since two of them were scheduled for elimination. —Imagine the sweet relief they felt, therefore, when they were belatedly informed that no one was going to be bumped off just yet, so they would all be kept “alive” to compete for one more week!
That was fine with us, because one of the “endangered” bets, Arra, is the tilt’s only “acceptable” singer, so for her to be eliminated so soon was a puzzlement in our book. Doesn’t relative singing talent count for something in these parts? It should, because it’s a major asset in performance on the local scene.
This doesn’t speak well for the tilt’s selection process, because we have better young singers around.
“StarStruck” got off to a good start with its first winners, Jennylyn Mercado and Mark Herras, who are still doing “stellarly” to this day. Most subsequent editions’ winners haven’t done nearly as well.
Obviously, the tilt’s vetting process has become less reliable in developing and singling out real “Ultimate Survivors”—and winners.
This year’s ongoing competition isn’t panning out to be an exception to that desultory trend of diminishing returns, so the entire process should be objectively reevaluated and reconfigured before the next “StarStruck” search is announced.
Possible reforms: Much better and objective (walang konek) open auditions and talent scouting; a much longer training period of six months to develop its 50 initial choices’ different performing skills; better choice of jurors and mentors, who should be more hands-on, instead of just blithely coming up with “motherhood” statements and occasional performance notes. —Plus a stronger stellar build-up campaign for the new edition’s best bets!