Sometime back, we urged our TV people to prevent “talent” show contestants from risking life and limb with extremely dangerous numbers performed in order to impress both judges and viewers and win the top prizes.
Sadly, it looks like the desire to impress and win big is still motivating contestants, including some stars, to keep pushing back safety and risk limits—so, the likelihood of serious and even potentially fatal miscalculations and accidents happening on local TV could be not a matter of “if,” but when.
The most recent cautionary example of this was “Eat Bulaga’s” finals for its “Bulaga Pa More” competition for the popular show’s cohosts, in-house talents and guest stars.
In that stress-inducing competition, the celebrity contestants did their best, utmost and worst to out-dare and out-risk one another, by way of aerial throwing and hurtling of stars’ “dancing” bodies high up in the air and clear across the stage, etc.
To make things worse, the finals’ judges and members of the studio audience encouraged the determined risk-takers to do their worst, by way of their “scared” but excited and thrilled reactions.
Good judgment
Some of the judges were news personalities admired for their maturity and good judgment—so, they shouldn’t have given the risky proceedings their tacit approval.
In other words, most everybody involved in the finals’ dangerous “fight to the finish” was complicit with the “extreme” competition’s extremely risky outcome. All of them—performing cohosts, guest stars, other performers, judges, studio audience—should seriously reconsider their rash, brash “excitement”—and decide to observe safe performance limits from here on it!
For starters, all risk-taking and injury-tempting performances must be done with a safety harness and other protective equipment. Some stellar performers opt to perform without a safety harness in order to pump up their number’s “danger” and “courage” quotients in order to win—but, TV shows should disallow such dangerous stellar “courage.”
If this basic caveat is stringently observed, contestants will be forced to focus not on sheer danger, but more on creativity and artistry in the performance numbers they come up with!
After all, that’s what “talent” tilts are supposed to be about, right? Let’s not wait for the worst to happen to any contestant, star or “unknown”—because it will eventually happen if we continue to be so blithely blind to the dangers involved.