I am surprisingly well-reasoned for having written this in an hour and a half
Willing Willie: Bread and Circuses
By Amy Mosura
In 2006, as ABS-CBN staged daily press conferences in response to the Wowowee stampede, a reporter from the Inquirer asked if the network executives were concerned about the show’s promotion of a mendicant mentality among its masa viewership. The execs, as responsible captains of a publicly-listed company, denied it, but the question seems alive again with the old-but-new-again jewel in TV5’s crown, “Willing Willie.”
With the pilot episode airing last Saturday, Willie Revillame is finally back on TV, and not just on the news shows. In a masterstroke of broadcast scheduling, however, TV5 pulled him out of the noontime morass - where a revitalized “Eat Bulaga” is back to being king - and put him on primetime, where he has the chance to ramp up their new shows,.
Despite a sinking feeling that any project Mr. Revillame is attached to is automatically review-proof, let’s get things started by enumerating the good things. With the production team headed by Jay Montelibano, whose resume includes Eat Bulaga and a stint as the executive producer of “Magandang Tanghali Bayan” during the Willie-Randy-John era, and as a Kapamilya marketing exec, “Willing” has emerged in its first episode to be a slick TV package. This comes from the fact that “Willing” is pretty much “Wowowee” with a different color scheme - 26 staffers even walked out on their ABS-CBN contracts to follow their host. And it was, in general, well-done, and has been well-done in the week since its October 23 premiere.
The thing, however, is that reviewing “Willing Willie” as a production alone is beside the point, because the host and his show are a cultural force, as the stampede, Mr. Revillame’s lucrative endorsement career, and the close coverage most media outlets gave to Mr. Revillame’s post-Kapamilya movements, made painfully clear. A game I’ve started playing in recent days is trying to figure out if a piece of pop culture - whether it be a TV show, album or movie - likes its audience or feels contempt for it. While Mr. Revillame seems wildly adored by his audience, and despite the fact that he constantly hammers in the fact that he loves his audience, and, yes, he’s only there to make them happy - I can’t help but feel there’s an underlying contempt there.
It’s a tribute to his charisma that the host gets people to believe that Willing Willie is a venue by which Willie Revillame gets to help people. In the strictest sense of the word, maybe he does give two or three people an extra few thousand a day. Maybe he gets to give someone the millions and free house that he promised in the pilot in the next few days. But he is very handsomely paid, and the network accepts money for sponsorships and ads in the hope of getting their investment back and being handsomely paid themselves, and only a fraction of that is turned into prize money that goes to the audience. It’s disingenuous to even hint that it’s public service. And the fact that they say they’re only there to help in every episode - and have done since the ABS show - shows they don’t expect their viewers to figure it out anytime soon.
In the days to come, it’s possible that people will come out defending Mr. Revillame and crew for only being true to their promise to make people happy, or, to properly quote them in the vernacular, “Nandito lang kami para magpasaya ng tao.” And they may well be right. Revillame, despite the negative vibes some people get from him, has always been a perfectly pleasant guy when I’ve had the chance to see him in person, and his staff and network may only have the best of intentions in mind - apart from killing it in the ratings, which the show has already done according to the AGB figures. And it’s true that the format, and the platitudes that come with the show, are not TV5’s invention.
But Willing Willie, like its predecessor, is bread and circuses. When the people are well-fed (or being promised the chance at being well-fed) and having nominal fun, they can easily forget their concerns and uphold the status quo, no matter how dehumanizing it is. In the pilot telecast And if the chance to be the star of the circus - alongside Mr. Revillame, of course - is up for grabs, then redemption, or the chance for a better life, or whatever payoff there is, is there, in the spotlight. What else is there outside but pain and suffering, anyway?
The show’s prime berth actually makes the metaphor stronger, as Mr. Revillame spent a lot of time in the pilot dismissing the news shows “Willing Willie” competes with by saying “Tama na ang balita, tama na ang bad news. Magsaya naman tayo.” (“Enough with the news, and the bad news - let’s go have fun.”) And competing for one of his first games was one old lady, who, in protest over the rest of her team choosing to go home before winning the big prize, protests with “Ayokong umuwi, wala akong pamasahe.” (“I can’t go home, I don’t have fare.”)
One wonders what this means for our cultural evolution. With the flubber-like survival of the show, the format, and its host, “Willing Willie” can become the new template for how shows will become in the future. What followed Ancient Rome’s bread and circuses was a long, slow, fall into a Dark Age. With many arguing that we’re already in the darkness, maybe Willing Willie’s brand of cultural morphine can help the dark feel less scary. At least with him, there’s a chance to win cash and prizes, and maybe a new house. But first, a word from the sponsor.
By Amy Mosura
In 2006, as ABS-CBN staged daily press conferences in response to the Wowowee stampede, a reporter from the Inquirer asked if the network executives were concerned about the show’s promotion of a mendicant mentality among its masa viewership. The execs, as responsible captains of a publicly-listed company, denied it, but the question seems alive again with the old-but-new-again jewel in TV5’s crown, “Willing Willie.”
With the pilot episode airing last Saturday, Willie Revillame is finally back on TV, and not just on the news shows. In a masterstroke of broadcast scheduling, however, TV5 pulled him out of the noontime morass - where a revitalized “Eat Bulaga” is back to being king - and put him on primetime, where he has the chance to ramp up their new shows,.
Despite a sinking feeling that any project Mr. Revillame is attached to is automatically review-proof, let’s get things started by enumerating the good things. With the production team headed by Jay Montelibano, whose resume includes Eat Bulaga and a stint as the executive producer of “Magandang Tanghali Bayan” during the Willie-Randy-John era, and as a Kapamilya marketing exec, “Willing” has emerged in its first episode to be a slick TV package. This comes from the fact that “Willing” is pretty much “Wowowee” with a different color scheme - 26 staffers even walked out on their ABS-CBN contracts to follow their host. And it was, in general, well-done, and has been well-done in the week since its October 23 premiere.
The thing, however, is that reviewing “Willing Willie” as a production alone is beside the point, because the host and his show are a cultural force, as the stampede, Mr. Revillame’s lucrative endorsement career, and the close coverage most media outlets gave to Mr. Revillame’s post-Kapamilya movements, made painfully clear. A game I’ve started playing in recent days is trying to figure out if a piece of pop culture - whether it be a TV show, album or movie - likes its audience or feels contempt for it. While Mr. Revillame seems wildly adored by his audience, and despite the fact that he constantly hammers in the fact that he loves his audience, and, yes, he’s only there to make them happy - I can’t help but feel there’s an underlying contempt there.
It’s a tribute to his charisma that the host gets people to believe that Willing Willie is a venue by which Willie Revillame gets to help people. In the strictest sense of the word, maybe he does give two or three people an extra few thousand a day. Maybe he gets to give someone the millions and free house that he promised in the pilot in the next few days. But he is very handsomely paid, and the network accepts money for sponsorships and ads in the hope of getting their investment back and being handsomely paid themselves, and only a fraction of that is turned into prize money that goes to the audience. It’s disingenuous to even hint that it’s public service. And the fact that they say they’re only there to help in every episode - and have done since the ABS show - shows they don’t expect their viewers to figure it out anytime soon.
In the days to come, it’s possible that people will come out defending Mr. Revillame and crew for only being true to their promise to make people happy, or, to properly quote them in the vernacular, “Nandito lang kami para magpasaya ng tao.” And they may well be right. Revillame, despite the negative vibes some people get from him, has always been a perfectly pleasant guy when I’ve had the chance to see him in person, and his staff and network may only have the best of intentions in mind - apart from killing it in the ratings, which the show has already done according to the AGB figures. And it’s true that the format, and the platitudes that come with the show, are not TV5’s invention.
But Willing Willie, like its predecessor, is bread and circuses. When the people are well-fed (or being promised the chance at being well-fed) and having nominal fun, they can easily forget their concerns and uphold the status quo, no matter how dehumanizing it is. In the pilot telecast And if the chance to be the star of the circus - alongside Mr. Revillame, of course - is up for grabs, then redemption, or the chance for a better life, or whatever payoff there is, is there, in the spotlight. What else is there outside but pain and suffering, anyway?
The show’s prime berth actually makes the metaphor stronger, as Mr. Revillame spent a lot of time in the pilot dismissing the news shows “Willing Willie” competes with by saying “Tama na ang balita, tama na ang bad news. Magsaya naman tayo.” (“Enough with the news, and the bad news - let’s go have fun.”) And competing for one of his first games was one old lady, who, in protest over the rest of her team choosing to go home before winning the big prize, protests with “Ayokong umuwi, wala akong pamasahe.” (“I can’t go home, I don’t have fare.”)
One wonders what this means for our cultural evolution. With the flubber-like survival of the show, the format, and its host, “Willing Willie” can become the new template for how shows will become in the future. What followed Ancient Rome’s bread and circuses was a long, slow, fall into a Dark Age. With many arguing that we’re already in the darkness, maybe Willing Willie’s brand of cultural morphine can help the dark feel less scary. At least with him, there’s a chance to win cash and prizes, and maybe a new house. But first, a word from the sponsor.