‘De-energizing’ Kris Aquino on TV
What is the secret of Kris Aquino's success on television? Kris elicits equally intense reactions from both her fans and her detractors. Her admirers look forward to her off-the-cuff comments, her irrepressible personality and the latest chapter in her troubled love life. On the opposite side, her harsh critics hate her egocentric ways, calling attention to herself even when it's not called for. There are no fence sitters when it comes to Krissy. You either adore her or you hate her with a passion. To ABS-CBN, what matters is that loyalists and foes alike watch her shows.
The Queen of All Media, a title attached to her by the Kapamilya network, had an auspicious start on the boob tube. In 1986, Kris appeared on Inday Badiday's "See True" on IBC-13 when she was still a teener and reportedly gave the talk show its highest ratings ever. Eventually, she made a name for herself as a talk and game show host on both GMA and ABS-CBN. The rest, as they say, is history.
Her latest assignment is ABS-CBN's "The Price is Right," the Pinoy version of the popular game show in the US formerly hosted by Bob Barker for 35 years. Comedian Drew Carey replaced Barker when he retired in 2007. Bob and Drew succeeded in their jobs by being casual and relaxed. They left it up to the contestants to shriek and go crazy when they won valuable prizes. They entertained their viewers by reacting to whatever developed in the studio.
In general, contestants on the local "TPIR" are not as excitable as their stateside counterparts. Kris has taken it upon herself to raise the energy level of the show by being more enthusiastic than her guests. She raises the volume of her voice and shrieks when there are winners, always punctuating her comments with her favorite word: WOW!
Bob and Drew left the "Wows" and "Hurrahs" to their voice-over announcer who introduced the items up for bid and invited the lucky player to "Come on down!"
Speaking of voice-over announcers let me digress for a while and call attention to Krissy's barkers, Rich Herrera and Rich Hardin, winners of this year's "Amazing Race Asia.". They're fine when they speak English but retain their American accent when they encounter Tagalog words. And please, Filipinos refer to our currency as pesos, not "paysows."
Back to Kris. She really is fine if she just takes it easy. Television is a cool medium. There's no need to raise her voice to excite the audience. There's also no need to get a positive feedback from her guest by asking her, "Maganda ba ako?" Naturally, the answer will be in the affirmative or maybe Kris was just trying to fill dead air. Lastly, this may already be nitpicking but I expected an Ateneo graduate to be more careful with her grammar. "You can go here," referring to the Bangkok trip, is definitely ungrammatical.
On the showcase, where the minimum price is close to a million pesos because there's always a car in the package, one really needs a lot of luck to win it. The finalist must come within P10,000 to P50,000 of the total price without going over. In the US version, there is always a showcase winner everyday so long as the contestant does not go over the price. Of course, the stateside version has a bigger budget that cannot be matched by ABS-CBN.
On the whole, Kris Aquino comes across as a competent and entertaining host. She just has to bring her energy a few notches down for a more enjoyable show.
