Horror and supernatural themed programs have become the staple for the weekend nearest Halloween-All Saints’ Day-All Souls Day. I’m not a fan of those shows but I had no choice but to sit through them since it’s all that’s on.
There’s nothing wrong with shows that are themed depending on the season. It has been done for Christmas for as long as I can remember. What I couldn’t take is that so-called news and public affairs shows ride on the theme and I really can’t see how the stories that they feature relate to the supposed format and thrust of their shows.
From what I remember, what started this trend was Magandang Gabi Bayan or MGB, a show on ABS-CBN Channel 2. This used to be VP Noli De Castro’s show and is now anchored by his daughter Katherine with Henry Omaga Diaz and Erwin Tulfo. For many years, the show’s halloween episode is guaranteed water cooler fodder for the week ahead.
It seems that people keep on tuning in to see how they can be scared of the features on the show. From what I remember in the past years, they usually have features on white ladies, kapre, tikbalang, fairy folk, ghosts and the like. I didn’t catch this year’s episode of MGB save for the CBB so I wouldn’t be able to comment on how they did on the scare factor this year.
It’s not just MGB that put on the show this year. It’s competition Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho and Imbestigador on rival network GMA 7 also had features on death, supernatural events and the afterlife.
How does an episode on otherworldly creatures fit into the plan of a program that regularly features environmental advocacy, expose on government officials and employees and investigative reports on the hottest issues of the week? In my mind, it just does not connect. Such a special brings in the ratings so they do it every year.
For Kapuso… the theme worked since this program is more of a soft feature rather than a hard-hitting news/documentary/public affairs show. But tell me how many features on columbariums, coffins and funerals can one person take in a span of 24 hours? I saw similar features on Korina Sanchez’ show Sunday.
About Korina’s show, I caught parts of it along with several other members of our household. I stood up to get something from the other room when I heard something that didn’t sound right during her voice over on her feature on Biak-na-Bato. I had to ask the people with me if Korina just said “Katipunero noong panahon ng mga Hapon.” One of my aunts started laughing and said she heard the same thing but it didn’t really register.
For the uninitiated, the Katipunan was the revolutionary army headed by Andres Bonifacio during the Spanish times in the Philippines, which ended almost 50 years before the Japanese took over the country. If Korina did say Hapon (Japanese), she and her staff better review their history lessons.
Later in the show on another segment talking about cremation and columbariums, her spiel went “sa pagsusunog ng mga abo…” (burning the ashes) during cremation. Correct me if I am wrong but isn’t it that what you burn is the corpse and that the ashes are a result of the burning process? Just making sure that I got my facts right.
I may just be nitpicking but mistakes like this can build up and give her viewers wrong facts. The purpose of the show was to educate and inform which you can’t do without getting your facts straight. A lot of people tend to believe it when they see it on television.
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