Boyband jurors have instant rapport

MANILA, Philippines - The audience primarily consists of ladies, who choose their bets from among the good-looking and talented male singers vying for the title, Pinoy Boyband Superstar. Even before the contestant sails through the much-awaited performance, he will be immediately graded by the all-female crowd. Passing grade is 75 percent, before the contestant faces the judges.

Pinoy Boyband Superstar is the latest reality singing search launched by ABS-CBN. The show, which airs Saturday and Sunday nights replacing The Voice Kids, is hosted by Billy Crawford. Pinoy Boyband Superstar is Billy’s second solo show after hosting Your Face Sounds Familiar, which is also slated to air its third season next year.

Simon Cowell, creator of the Latin-American TV competition, La Banda, gave the franchise to ABS-CBN for Pinoy Boyband Superstar. As most everyone knows, Simon created a number of talent competitions like X Factor and is also recognized as judge in other shows like America’s Got Talent and the recently-defunct American Idol.

Simon helped create the superstar boyband One Direction, which was formed after the members — Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Niall Horan and previously Zayn Malik — auditioned individually for X Factor UK Season 7 back in 2010.

Meanwhile, the pilot weekend of Pinoy Boyband Superstar revealed promising talents who immediately got high percentage approval from the female audience. The show will discover the most talented and versatile contestant to form the country’s next boy band.

Allen Cecilio from Caloocan City and Niel Murillo from Cebu City, both 17 years old, merited above 90 scores from the audience. Subsequently, they also got strong nods from the judges.

Markus Paterson from Pangasinan, 18, and 22-year-old twins Jayvee and Bjorn Mendoza from Batangas, also merited high scores from the audience and passed the judges’ votes.

Sitting on the judges’ panel for Pinoy Boyband Superstar are Aga Muhlach, Vice Ganda, Yeng Constantino and Sandara Park. Although it’s the first time for the four celebrities to work together, they surprisingly displayed instant rapport.

Two of the celebrity judges — Aga and Sandara — made their comeback to ABS-CBN with Pinoy Boyband Superstar. After a nearly three-year absence on TV, Aga is seen anew on primetime. Sandara, now fondly called Dara, returned to the network, where she gained fame when she won first runner-up (to Hero Angeles) in Star Circle Quest in 2004.

Vice makes his new foray into weekend primetime, aside from his Gandang Gabi Vice seen every Sunday night. Early this year, Vice was also seen as judge in Pilipinas Got Talent. Yeng, meanwhile, is an ideal judge for this boy band search, having won Pinoy Dream Academy in 2006. She recently celebrated her 10th year in the business.

A contestant who earned an audience approval below 75 percent will be readily dislodged from Pinoy Boyband Superstar and will not be given a chance to perform before the judges. However, a judge can override the audience’s score by readily tapping the table and letting the contestant enter the competition. All four judges will have the chance to do it once during the auditions.

Dara gave the chance to 15-year-old Keanno de la Cruz from Pampanga by overriding the decision of the audience.