New TV shows vie for viewers’ patronage

ROACH. His six-episode reality series is impressive and inspiring.

Many TV shows have ended their run on the tube, so viewers have a lot of new programs to sample. For one thing, it’s interesting to note that quite a number of new morning shows and newscasts have started telecasting.

On Solar News TV, Jing Magsaysay is hosting “Daybreak” at 6 a.m., a one-hour waker-upper in English. It’s a big departure from the loud and hectic morning shows on other channels, so viewers who want a less strident way to start their day could opt to watch it, instead. We should observe, however, that the show is sometimes too low-key and even dour.

Preponderance

Another new morning show is “Kape at Balita,” hosted on the GMA News Channel by Susan Enriquez, et al. What makes this show different is the fact that its key hosts are female, so it could be trying to appeal to a largely female viewership.

Other new programs include teleseryes like “Coffee Prince,” in which Kris Bernal’s character tries to pass herself off as a boy—not very successfully at all. Don’t shows like this care about the importance of believability? Kim Chiu was similarly unsuccessful in this regard in “My Binondo Girl,” but she did better than Kris is phlegmatically faring in this one.

An HBO limited series that is of particular interest to local boxing fans is the six-telecast “On Freddie Roach” show, a reality program aired every Monday at 10 p.m. Roach owns and operates the Wild Card boxing club in Los Angeles, and one of the champion boxers he has helped develop is Manny Pacquiao.

But, the series is focused on much more than just Roach’s involvement in boxing. It turns out that he has Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating condition that constantly tests his resolve, and makes his achievements all the more impressive and inspirational for viewers who are fighting their own battles in real life!