Hard-sell approach turns off viewers

The first telecast of TV5’s new noontime show, “Truck ng Bayan,” last June 14, Sunday (11 a.m.-1 p.m.) reminded us of the premiere show of Willie Revillame’s “Win na Win” program on GMA 7 some weeks back—its opening number was overblown, too long, too loud and frenetic, “desperately” bent on exciting and impressing the heck out of viewers.

Alas, the hard-sell approach only ended up irritating us into sullen silence, as we plaintively prayed for the very long number to end, so that the new show could finally and really get started!

When it did, we were again amazed to realize that the new production had too many principal and segment hosts for its own good! Main hosts Ogie Alcasid, Gelli de Belen, the comebacking Janno Gibbs and a few others we could take—but, when the others started crowding the performing area, the sheer glut of “talents” was simply too much for our orbs to handle. Most off-putting of all were the so-called comedians who were on hand to ostensibly make us laugh, but mostly ended up making us wince.

In addition, TV5 regular Derek Ramsay looked and felt out of place, and Jasmine Curtis-Smith just smiled and laughed as pretty as could be, but didn’t add much to the show’s entertainment quotient. —That’s what happens when quantity instead of quality is the operative norm in drawing up a new show’s hosting component.

Yes, a TV channel’s contract talents have to be put to work, but they shouldn’t all be shoehorned into one show to earn their keep and stay in the public eye.

Attractive concept

On the show itself: The production’s attractive concept is for the entire team to visit a barangay per week, inviting some of its residents to join its various tilts in order to win prizes—and to compete for the weekly jackpot of something like P250,000-plus—not a bad way to spend an otherwise sleepy Sunday, right?

Unfortunately, some of the show’s tilts weren’t very diverting, so they tended to end up in a blur and haze of good entertainment intentions, but not very diverting actual results.

It’s a good thing that the winner of the dance tilt was a lively performer who went on to vie for the big jackpot prize, so the show had a bright enough finale.

But, some of the features and games that went on before should be re-studied and improved, to keep the new program truly entertaining, instead of just long and loud.

The premiere telecast made a big to-do about Janno Gibbs’ TV comeback, now as a kapatid talent, who could end up as Ogie’s new comedy partner.

We’ve always believed in Janno, so this new chapter in his performing career is all to the good. But, we should realistically note that his stint at GMA 7 wasn’t all that great, because he tended to just coast along, and in fact was rather phlegmatic and appeared to have “issues” that kept him from coming across as a more dynamic performer.

Well, we hope that all of that is in the desultory past, and that the “new” Janno on TV5 has finally gotten his act together, and will be functioning at peak capacity from here on in—promise?