Newsbreak has an interesting take on The Religion of Noontime Shows.

The reality is that noontime shows in Philippine television are mere copies of each other. “Student Canteen,” “Kalatog Pinggan,” “Kwarta O Kahon,” “Eat Bulaga,” “Lunch Date,” and “Wowowee” share the same format.

What have changed are technology—TV sets are more affordable—and viewer profile. Orlando Mercado, former senator and host of GMA-7’s “Student Canteen” and “Lunch Date,” says: “TV ownership is so high now that even the smallest shanties of informal settlers have TV antennas.”

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The noontime show starts with a production number and then mix talent searches and game throughout the show. They are basically variety shows and you can trace their format to the vaudeville shows of pre-television age.

“The format is still the same,” said Malou Fagar, executive vice president and assistant general manager of Tape Inc., the producer of GMA-7’s “Eat Bulaga.” “We only adapted to new trends but the format never changed.”

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In the noontime shows, ratings matter and the most entertaining show wins.

Ratings Champ

“Eat Bulaga” has always been the show to beat. It has moved from RPN-9 to ABS-CBN to GMA-7 in its 27 years in the industry. They always carried with them their audience.

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MTB gained a tremendous following from noontime viewers after it launched Pera o Bayong and became a “bigger apple” than “Eat Bulaga.”

“Eat Bulaga” was forced to copy Pera o Bayong and came up with Meron o Wala. But ratings didn’t pick up immediately. MTB topped the ratings of “Eat Bulaga” for about two years, Fagar disclosed. So the management decided to give away the first million on television in 2001.

“It was our way to get audience interest back,” Fagar said.

Noontime shows were never the same since then. Gone are the days when top prizes were about P100,000 and contestants were happy with P1,000 consolation prizes.

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Unfortunately for ABS-CBN, its noontime dominance was short-lived. ...Last year, it introduced a different noontime package. Primetime hit “Pilipinas Game KNB” with Kris Aquino is timed with the first half of “Eat Bulaga,” and “Wowowee” with Revillame coincides with the second half of “Eat Bulaga.” “Wowowee retained Pera o Bayong.

They, too, weren’t big enough for “Eat Bulaga.

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Then the “Wowowee” tragedy happened and ABS-CBN had to cancel yet another noontime show. ABS-CBN introduced about eight noontime shows since “Eat Bulaga” left the station in 1995.

The tragedy didn’t seem to faze the devotees of noontime shows. Monday after the “Wowowee” tragedy, people still showed up in the ABS-CBN compound for Pera o Bayong, unaware that the show had been cancelled.

This time, ABS-CBN offered its primetime hit, “Pinoy Big Brother,” to noontime viewers. It has yet to draw fanatics.

It is a distressing time in TV history. The first year anniversary of Wowowee, ABS-CBN's current lunch time game show hosted by Willie Revillame, caused a stampede that killed 74 people and injured hundreds more. ABS-CBN's website at 6:25 pm reflected that 5 more people have died.

Red Cross officials said 74 people who had come to watch the first anniversary presentation of the popular ABS-CBN noontime show "Wowowee" were crushed to death in an early morning stampede at the Philsports Arena (formerly Ultra) in Pasig City, a shocking spectacle many saw as a telling measure of the hard times.

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It was one of the deadliest, if not the deadliest, incident involving a stampede to occur in the country in years.

The victims were predominantly from the poorest parts of the metropolis and nearby provinces, generally jobless and lured by the show's promise of instant millions.

Some came from as far as the Visayas.

The victims included the elderly, pregnant women, toddlers, entire families or neighborhoods who since Monday had taken shelter in jeepneys or slept on mattresses and newspapers in the open street leading to the gates of the Arena.

Many of the dead were women crushed against a closed steel gate at the bottom of a slope or trampled underfoot. At least one child was killed, hospital officials said.

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It is a sad, sad day not just for TV history, but a depressing reflection of the state of our country. Filipinos are pinning their hopes and dreams on a television game show for lack of anything else to cling to.

God bless their souls.

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