PWNW off to P1-million start

MANILA, Philippines -  There are no permanent friends and foes in show business. This is also true about shows.

Last week, Willie Revillame’s iconic Wowowee officially bid goodbye when Pilipinas Win na Win (PWNW) took its noontime slot on the Kapamilya network. Although it received a varied reaction from the audience, Pilipinas Win na Win is the start of something new. That’s the Queen of Talk (Kris Aquino) and the action star (Robin Padilla) bringing you cheer during lunch time not to mention a new set of interesting games although reminiscent of its predecessor’s segments.

During the show’s first week, a contestant brought home P1-M cash. Good sign.

It is a new noontime entertainment fare waiting to be embraced by the televiewers, especially — and hopefully the Wowowee loyalists.

“Tough is an understatement,” replies business unit head Jay Montelibano when asked about the preparations his team went through in mounting Pilipinas Win na Win. “The concept was handed down to us on a Tuesday. It took us three days to come up with a sound concept. (Good thing I had a) reliable team who was almost not sleeping anymore. We were up until 3 or 4 in the morning constructing the set and tweaking the concept.” It means going over and over every production aspect of the show to get the feel of the audience.

The brains behind Pilipinas Win na Win studied first the current viewers in the market. They found out that Wowowee was a hit both locally and globally. It was hitting a core market from 40s up, the elders. Reaching that target market was the initial challenge they had to hurdle. The tandem of Kris and Robin is the answer.

Jay says Robin was able to address the market for the weeks he had been with Wowowee. Kris, on the other hand, has multi-segment viewers, plus they will be backed up by reliable hosts like Mariel Rodriguez, Valerie Concepcion and Pokwang.

But what Jay found more daunting was mounting Pilipinas Win na Win in a short-time notice. They had to construct the set, do dry run, come up with production numbers, look for artists and create games.

With its launch, Jay and his team took the challenge with flying colors.

Games such as Yaman ng Bayan have community-family component. This approach is bigger and involves more people. In some way, it sticks to the station’s thrust to be of service of the Filipino people.

Although it will take time, let’s give Pilipinas Win na Win a chance to entertain us and to be part of our daily TV life. Wowowee is Wowowee. Pilipinas Win na Win cannot replace the rapport and relationship Wowowee established with the viewing public.