Potential star discoveries among ‘My Girl’ finalists

We were pleasantly surprised last week when we caught the grand finals of the “My Girl” beauty contest on “Happy, Yipee, Yehey.” Unlike other tacky tilts on TV, this one featured 24 generally pretty finalists who comported and disported themselves rather well and didn’t come off as silly bimbos.

In addition, their opening “parade of floral costumes” was visually varied and diverting, a bit like its much bigger counterparts in national and international pageants— well, within limits.

Like stars

Some of the finalists were so pretty, they looked like movie starlets and future stars.

Topping our list were Margo, Xzania and a dusky charmer of Indian parentage, who ended up among the Top 5.

Unfortunately, and quite unfairly, Margo wasn’t on that final list, no thanks to the tilt’s reliance on text votes for determining its winners.

Billed as the bet from the United Kingdom, she may not have had enough local contacts and connections to vote her into the winners’ circle.

Well, so much for text votes accurately determining the best in a competition—the system may make money for the station involved, but it hardly ever works.

Margo can find inspiration in K-La, another promising bet who didn’t win the talent tilt she joined last year, possibly because she used to be based in the Unites States. Since her loss, however, she’s come into her own as a VJ and musical-theater star.

If Margo acts as well as she looks, she should be developed into a TV-film star, because she looks better than some of our established luminaries today. The same goes for other beauties we’ve cited. While they may have failed to go home with the biggest prizes, they can recoup by finding fame and fortune on the big and small screens.

Replaced

Ironically, the successful “My Girl” finals were held on “Happy, Yipee, Yehey’s” last telecast day. The show has been replaced on its noontime slot by the expanded “Showtime.”

Another downer was the guest performance of Pokwang, who did a “serious” dance number that won raves from her program cohosts, but was actually less than memorable. She did work hard at it, but made some flubs along the way. Worst of all, some of the “faceless” female dancers “framing” her did better than she did— something that should never be allowed to happen in a stellar showcase.

Well, the less than “Happy” show is history, so our focus now shifts to the new “Showtime” and its prospect for dislodging “Eat Bulaga” from the premier position it’s held at noontime for many years now.

Before “Happy,” other shows had tried but similarly failed to pull that major upset off, so everybody’s watching to see if “Showtime” can swing it.

It’ll take a while for a pattern to emerge, but when it does we’ll be sure to report on it. Meantime, we can bet that “Eat Bulaga” won’t be resting on its laurels—and ratings—and will meet the new challenge posed by the expanded and improved “Showtime” with smart and sassy improvements of its own.