Startalk turns sweet 16

(First of two parts)

Startalk turns sweet 16 this Saturday, Oct. 8.

Trust me — the road leading to those 16 years were far from sweet. There were bitter obstacles along the way.

Of course, I was not with Startalk yet during its beginnings. But I was watching and had a good view — from the other side, the enemy camp.

When the concept for Startalk was hatched in mid-1995 by GMA 7, my show then, Showbiz Lingo on ABS-CBN, already had a successful three-year run behind it.

Every network tried to duplicate the program and each one flopped.

Why was Channel 2 scared of Startalk on GMA 7? It had Kris Aquino. Not just Kris Aquino, but a Kris Aquino that had just given birth to Joshua Phillip after a very controversial pregnancy.

We did everything to dissuade her from accepting the Startalk offer: Flowers were sent and every token gift that we imagined would please her — please her enough to say no to Channel 7. But she already gave her word to GMA 7. And that’s Kris. She promised Channel 7 a season and was true to it.

ABS-CBN apparently was caught by surprise. It had nothing concrete to counter-offer Kris at that moment for her to join the Channel 2 fold instead.

In hindsight, maybe we could have just absorbed her in Showbiz Lingo. I would have loved working with her because I haven’t yet and that’s one of my career frustrations.

But then again, that wouldn’t have been a good idea. Cristy Fermin was a formidable force in Showbiz Lingo. You don’t put two strong women together in a house — or especially in a show: They will fight. Obviously, that happened between them when they were both in The Buzz.

Sure, Kris would be working with Lolit Solis (the only remaining original Startalk host), but her sense of competition is always completely focused on the more tangible matters — cartons of detergent bars, bottles of soy sauce and other ordinary household items she could take home (or share with the program staff).

And so Channel 7 succeeded in luring Kris to its side. Startalk premiered — remote from Ciudad Fernandina in Greenhills — with Kris, Lolit and Boy Abunda. It bombed — dismissed as a technical nightmare.

Immediately after its pilot telecast, I even bumped into Lolit at a children’s party at Max’s restaurant in its original location in the Scout Tuason area. I couldn’t even afford to gloat. Lolit wasn’t affected at all by their technical mishap so how could I even stress out the point that they were no good? They clearly were not a threat to us.

But the Showbiz Lingo people armed themselves — just in case. To make sure viewership didn’t shift we bought the viewers. On a weekly basis, we offered P50,000 worth of prizes — kitchen, living room and bedroom showcases. Anyone watching at home had to glue to us in order to win the bonanza being offered — we saw to that.

After a few months, we figured that Startalk wasn’t affecting our ratings at all. But to the credit of the Startalk staff, they kept soldiering on.

Then Kris left Startalk and moved to ABS-CBN, which by then already had a program for her — a talk show in its afternoon slot.

Dawn Zulueta was taken in to replace Kris. The beauteous award-winning actress who couldn’t hurt a fly ended up with a libel case — filed against Startalk and its hosts by Sabrina M. It was over a VTR feature Dawn had nothing to do with. Perhaps she didn’t even get to see it because the hosts hardly get to watch the show during a live telecast.

After Dawn, Rosanna Roces came in and things were never the same for Startalk. Osang was a Showbiz Lingo Darling winner (her first showbiz award ever). It was, in fact, during Showbiz Lingo’s second anniversary show at the Shangri-La EDSA that she realized she could make a living off doing concerts after she was made to perform in a solo production number and she turned out to be a hit.

Cristy stood as principal sponsor at her civil rites wedding (to Tito Molina) and the then Seiko star gave us good ratings during her live Showbiz Lingo interviews that revealed that she was not just a sexy body, but an intelligent woman as well.

But she and Cristy had a falling out and accepted the Startalk offer to spite her ninang. Oh, but deep inside they had always loved each other. I know Cristy truly cares for her and Osang will always be grateful for her ninang’s concern.

Around this time Startalk began making its mark as the showbiz authority. It must have started with the Jojo Veloso exposés, courtesy of Jobert Sucaldito who was with Startalk then. (To be concluded)