On with the awards season

The awards season this year is pushing through after all – way behind schedule though.

Kicking off the awards season is the Star Awards of the Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC), which will be staged on June 30 at the Philippine Plaza Hotel ballroom. The show’s carrying station is Studio 23.

The Gawad Urian of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino will follow in July. Target date is July 22, a Saturday. Show producer (for the fifth time) is Mr. Tony Tuviera’s APT Entertainment – with the very efficient and organized Malou Choa-Fagar supervising the production.

As venue, the Manunuri is considering the 990-seater Center Stage in the newly-inaugurated Mall of Asia. The people of APT Entertainment are currently doing an ocular inspection of the place.

In August (I think the exact date is still unconfirmed), it’s the turn of the members of the Entertainment Press Society (the breakaway group from the PMPC) to hold their Golden Screen awards night. But they already have a venue: the Meralco Theater in Ortigas Avenue.

Probably also in August is the FAMAS, except that the people within the organization are still fighting (in court) over the leadership. (Strangely enough, among the Manunuri members, we twist arms because nobody wants to be chairman since that entails a lot of work.)

The FAMAS people actually have a producer – Airtime Marketing, Inc.’s Tessie Celestino-Howard, who used to do the Urian, Golden Screen and Star Awards (for TV and movies) – and she is just waiting for the members to get their act together. If they don’t end their bickering soon, Tessie will proceed with her other project in October – the Star Olympics, the schedule of which had also been pushed back since this is traditionally done in May or early June.

The Star Olympics is a venture of the Actors’ Guild, which is under the umbrella organization of the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP). Ironically enough, the Star Olympics already has a producer, while its mother organization – the FAP – is still waiting for a TV outfit to produce its awards show. Albert Martinez, who produced the show twice (the first one was successful, but the one last year bombed) – complete with red carpet entrances for the movie stars – is no longer touching it after reportedly losing so much on the project.

Now, is this the reason why the awards season was delayed this year? (Last year was also delayed, but this year is really behind schedule.) Because there’s no more money in it and producers are afraid to invest in awards presentations? The answer is yes and no.

These are difficult times to begin with. If they have to part with their money, advertisers would see to it that their products get maximum exposure. And how do you do this? By buying spots that are aired on the top two networks – GMA 7 and ABS-CBN. Sad to say, if your show is not being aired on either Channel 7 or 2, the perception is, nobody watches you.

Prospective producers of awards presentations therefore are scrambling for time slots in either GMA 7 or ABS-CBN – preferably Channel 7 because it is undeniably the top network today. (I’m not only saying this because I am from GMA 7 – you can check the ratings sheets.)

Unfortunately, it’s so difficult to get a time slot from either station. ABS-CBN, at least, sometimes sells its Sunday late-night time slot to independent TV producers (or block timers – as they are often referred to by the television industry). ABS-CBN cannot produce the awards shows out of delicadeza since they have Star Cinema as sister company.

Over at Channel 7, it is totally impossible for block timers to get in because every slot is filled up every day of the week.

The Saturday late-night slot – very ideal for airing awards shows – is now occupied by Ricky Lo’s Showbiz Stripped and GMA 7 doesn’t want to touch this as much as possible because it is doing very well in the ratings. As the saying goes: Why tamper with success? During the entire year that Showbiz Stripped had been airing, it had been pre-empted only twice: for the Binibining Pilipinas and the StarStruck Reunion, a production of GMA 7. After these two special projects, I don’t think Channel 7 would still want to give away that slot to anyone – until next year’s Binibining Pilipinas perhaps, but only because of the network’s long-standing commitment with the people behind this prestigious beauty pageant.

The Sunday night time slot of GMA 7 is unavailable either because that’s where they air Sunday Night Box-office (foreign movies) and the network had already committed this to advertisers. And like ABS-CBN, Channel 7 cannot be tapped to produce awards shows because the company is now also very active doing films. Again, this is out of delicadeza.

Actually, an independent TV producer can still make money out of awards programs if only he or she gets an efficient marketing arm. You can still air your awards show outside of Channels 7 and 2 – but make sure you market your product well. But let’s wait and see what’s going to happen this awards season.

(Next: The other reason for the delay of the awards shows this year.)