'Idol' producers made RP their last stop, says Pilita

Pilita Corrales says the producers of "Pop Idol" made the Philippines their "last stop" because "they knew they were going to have a difficult time here."

Pilita is one of the judges of the country's version of the reality talent search that originated in England in 2001 (and whose most popular version is the wildly popular "American Idol"). The two other judges are master composer Ryan Cayabyab and singer-TV host Francis Magalona.

"That's what the judges are experiencing now. It's really tough to say no to so many talented youths," Pilita told Inquirer Entertainment. "In 'Philippine Idol', we're not looking for just any singer -- there are other contests for that. What we're looking for is a singer with plus and plus."

The first phase of the auditions that began on June 8 at the PICC in Pasay City yielded 240 contestants from Luzon.

SCREENINGS

Another 25 are expected to be picked from the Mindanao auditions on June 23 at the Waterfront Insular Hotel in Davao City. Still another 25 will come from the Visayas region via the auditions in Cebu City on July 4.

ABC 5 acquired the "Idol" franchise from the UK-based Freemantle Media. The "Idol" franchise is now in 35 countries.

"Freemantle has had Indonesian, Singaporean and Malaysian Idol shows, but their expectations with the show here is really high. They know how much talent we have here," explained Pilita.

The most difficult part of being a judge, she said, was being firm before applicants who beg, cry and drop to their knees when rejected.

"If we could only say yes to everybody," she sighed. "But the applicants are told, 'You have only one chance [to sing].Make sure it's the right song.' I know it's nerve-wracking for them. But usually, after hearing the first four or five lines of the song, we already know whether the applicant will make the grade or not."

According to ABC 5 Creative and Entertainment Production head Perci Intalan, the three judges will eventually whittle down to 100 the number of contestants. Of these only 24 -- 12 girls and 12 boys -- will then be chosen as semi-finalists during the theater elimination at the CCP Main Theater in August.


REGISTRATION DESK

Intalan said a special registration desk will be put up in SM Davao for fast-track screenings. He added that his team is currently discussing with Big Foot Entertainment, a Hollywood production company based in Cebu, the possible use of a portion of the 8,200-sq. m. facility for the auditions there.

"I guess it's also because this is the search for the first 'Philippine Idol' that so many want to join," Pilita said. "Even the professional singers and recording artists have turned up; they're not embarrassed. But not much has come out of this, so far. We don't even have a final date for the start of the show."


by Marinel R. Cruz
Philippine Daily Inquirer

DAVAO: 'Philippine Idol' auditions next stop

Philippine Idol took eight days to audition the thousands who came from all over Luzon. As the Luzon main auditions ended, 116 talented contestants were given the much-coveted "Golden Ticket" to go to the next round -- the CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines) theater eliminations.

But before it goes to the CCP theater elimination, Philippine Idol will still have to go to Cebu and Davao for the Visayas and Mindanao main auditions.

Philippine Idol Fast Tracks in Mindanao, organized by ABC radio partner for VisMin Radio Mindanao Network (RMN), is already in full swing.

The first two legs were held in SM Zamboanga last June 3 and in SM Cagayan de Oro last June 10.

The final Fast Tracks before the main auditions were held last June 17 at SM Davao.

"We're very proud and excited to be the official partner for the first Philippine Idol and we're giving our all-out support," said Vince Jaen, network operations director for iFM.

"We're one in this search. We really want to be part of this project," he added.

The main auditions for the Mindanao will start on June 23 at 7 AM and will be held at the Waterfront Insular Hotel in Davao.

There will also be a special registration on the same day at 10 AM in SM Davao for those who are near the vicinity.

Fast Tracks for Visayas was held last June 17 in RTR Plaza, Tacloban, SM Iloilo last June 18, and in SM Cebu on June 24.

The main auditions for Cebu will be on July 4 (venue to be announced later).

Philippine Idol will air this July on ABC-5.


source People's Journal Tonight

First Audition Day - June 8, 2006

According to Mr. Ryan Cayabyab, judging the Philippine Idol is a tough job. He says their first day with the aspirants was filled with pleadings and weepings. The second was marked by "intense reactions" that gave him a sleepless night.

Latests Scoops:
Some of the scenes at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City during the judging for the first season of the reality talent search on ABC 5.

The mother of an aspirant was rushed to the hospital when her daughter failed the audition.

Two contestants had fever on Thursday, so they were instructed by judges Ryan Cayabyab, Pilita Corales and Francis Magalona to come back the next day. Both were sent through to the next round.

A grandson of comedy king Dolphy, a former Star Records artist, and two finalists on "Star in a Million" - a talent search on Channel 2 - all brought home highly coveted Golden Tickets on Frifay.

60 Golden Tickets were handled out fro Luzon, which exceeded the alloted 50 slots.
25 to Visayas and 25 to Mindanao.

Bearers of Golden Tickets will take part in the elimination round on Aug 1 at the CCP Main Theater, where 24 finalists willbe picked, said the program producer Emily Carlos Roque.

On June 7, 40 contestants from Luzon were chosen during the fast-track eliminations at the Star Theater in Pasay City. The fast-track audition judges are Eugene Villaluz and Roselle Nava. Luzon fast-track screenings were organized by Manila Broadcasting Corp., media partner of ABC 5. For Visayas and Mindanao, screenings will be facilitated by Radio Mindanao Network.

Hundreds turn out for 1st ‘Idol’ tryout

THOUSANDS TURNED OUT ON SATURDAY AT THE first major “Philippine Idol” auditions at the PICC in Pasay City, but only 80 went home with the highly coveted Blue Form.

“Blue means you’re in,” said ABC 5 executive Jim Libiran, half of an all-important duo in charge of the casting for the first season of the reality talent search on ABC 5. Carmela M. Buhain, supervising professor in music at the Philippine Normal University, helped Libiran pick the 80.

Only a total of 100 Blue Forms are supposed to be given out. But major auditions in Mindanao (Davao City) and the Visayas (Cebu City) are yet to be held on June 23 and July 4, respectively. The organizers said they will decide later whether or not to increase the quota.

On Saturday, contestants began lining up at the PICC Gate 2 at 6 a.m. They were asked to fill up application forms and were each given a number.

Read more at INQ7.NET

Philippine Idol judges panel complete

JUDGES: Francis Magalona, Pilita Corales, Ryan Cayabyab

In addition to Cayabyab, the other two judges for Philippine Idol are Asia’s Queen of Song Pilita Corrales and rapper/producer Francis Magalona, more popular known as Francis M.

The names of all three Philippine Idol judges - Ryan Cayabyab, Pilita Corrales, and Francis M - were announced by Perci Intalan, ABC-5’s head of Creative and Entertainment Production. The Fremantle Media and 19 Entertainment-owned American Idol franchise, of which Philippine Idol is a part, calls for three Philippine Idol judges. While Cayabyab was a hand-picked Philippine Idol judge from the beginning, both Francis Magalona and Pilita Corrales submitted to Philippine Idol judge auditions and screen tests, and it was only after UK-based Fremantle Media reviewed the Philippine Idol audition tapes of both Corrales and Magalona that a go-signal was given for all three Philippine Idol judge candidates came together in workshops that allowed them to interact with each other to gauge their chemistry.

Intalan said that Cayabyab, Corrales, and Magalona’s “Filipino”-ness, their passion for music, and their genuine concern for the contestants played major roles in their selection as Philippine Idol judges. ABC-5 made it clear that the selection of Philippine Idol judges was not to look for clones of American Idol judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell.

Philippine Idol VS PBB

EVEN the most uninterested viewers caught the implication: the next incarnation of ABS-CBN’s “Pinoy Big Brother,” dubbed “Pinoy Dream Academy,” is going head to head against ABC 5’s “Philippine Idol.”
“Dream Academy” premieres in August; “RP Idol” in July.

Both are reality singing contests in which unknowns are housed together and undergo training and/or a makeover in front of the camera.

Both are foreign franchises. “Academy” is from the same Dutch company behind “PBB”; “RP Idol” is from FremantleMedia, based in the United Kingdom.

According to “PBB” director Lauren Dyogi, Endemol’s show is called “Fame Academy” in the UK; “Star Academy” in France; “La Academia” in Italy and Spain.

“The housemates will be called students and they’ll still live in the same house [on Mother Ignacia Avenue, Quezon City], but we’ll modify it to include workshop and rehearsal areas, a recording studio, principal’s office and teachers’ lounge,” Dyogi told Inquirer in a phone interview.

He added that “Dream Academy” will be aired nightly. “If ‘Philippine Idol’ is anything like ‘American Idol’ it will air only twice a week.”Perci Intalan, ABC 5’s head of Creative and Entertainment Production, corrected Dyogi: “‘Philippine Idol’ is also a nightly, prime time show.

Philippine Idol soon on ABC 5

Who will be the first PHILIPPINE IDOL ?

IT'S CONFIRMED.

ABC 5 has acquired the franchise for the world-famous talent search "American Idol" (AI) from the show's producer, FremantleMedia.

"It will be called 'Philippine Idol,' " said Perci Intalan, ABC's vice president for Creative and Entertainment Production. He called Inquirer Entertainment from Singapore, where he was meeting with Fremantle Asia execs over the weekend.

The local Idol will be the fifth in Asia, he said. "The others are in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and India. There are over 50 'Idol' productions all over the world." AI was inspired by "Pop Idol," which originated in the United Kingdom in 2001.

ABC 5 is eyeing a July launch.

Terra Daffon, senior vice president for Corporate Affairs, said ABC 5 started negotiating with FremantleMedia two years ago, when Filipino-American Jasmine Trias placed third in AI.

The Sole Host of Philippine Idol

APART FROM judge Ryan Cayabyab, there’s another Ryan on “Philippine Idol.”“Call me Ryan Seacreature,” joked Ryan Agoncillo, alluding to “American Idol” host and namesake Ryan Seacrest.

Evidently, humor clinched the deal for the TV star who won the first of two slots as hosts of “Philippine Idol,” which premieres on ABC 5 in July.

“Or Ryan Secret,” jested Agoncillo, referring to the shroud of secrecy that enveloped his latest career triumph. After all, it was no mean feat, besting dozens of hopefuls who auditioned for the coveted spots.Agoncillo was the first name to be confirmed; the identities of the remaining two judges and the other host are still being kept under wraps by ABC 5 producers.In fact, Agoncillo wasn’t allowed to divulge the good news to anyone. Not even to his girlfriend, actress Judy Ann Santos?“I haven’t told her yet,” he quipped.He said she’d surely be pleased with it because, “it’s a job… and an exciting one at that.”Inquirer Entertainment knew about it; Agoncillo even gamely recounted the audition process.

“I was very nervous,” he recalled. “I haven’t auditioned for anything in a long time. I went on a dinner break (from the taping of the ABS-CBN soap opera) ‘Bituing Walang Ningning’ and I rushed to the ABC 5 studio in Novaliches. I had to learn my lines as I walked to the studio.”Fortunately, the audition went smoothly… and swiftly. “It was over in three minutes,” Ryan recalled. He was asked to introduce the show and “console a female contestant that had just been bashed by a Simon Cowell-type judge because of her lousy fashion sense.”Agoncillo surmised that his “experience as TV host” gave him the edge over the other wannabes.

Spontaneity“I’ve been doing this for a living for seven years now,” he explained.“Spontaneity,” he believed, was also a factor.“I’m comfortable with ad-libbing,” he pointed out. “It’s easier for me because I get to dictate the tempo. I’m not constrained by a TelePrompter, idiot board or script. I’ve reached a point in my hosting where I now know when and when not to bend and break rules and put them together in one breath.”According to Agoncillo, producers encourage hosts and judges to speak Filipino, English or Taglish. “Whatever we’re comfortable with.”Agoncillo, who won a KBP Golden Dove Award for Best Talk and Magazine Show host in 2005 for “Y Speak,” isn’t aiming to be a Seacrest clone.“The producers were not looking for another Ryan Seacrest,” he said. “For the most part, they want his vibe, but they don’t want a carbon copy.”If there’s one Seacrest trait he would like to emulate, it’s the American host’s ability to elicit candid remarks from the contestants.“Seacrest can really make the contestants open up,” Agoncillo opined. “I also want to have a say in my spiels, in defending contestants when judges get too rough or reining in the contestants when they get too abrasive.”That, in a nutshell, is his job as host.

“More than the jacket, I am just the thread that holds the show together,” he affirmed. The jacket or the real stars of the show are the contestants.“My responsibility as host is to let the contestants shine. I should know when to leave them alone and when to pump them up.”Agoncillo, who follows “AI” (he’s rooting for rocker Chris Daughtry), said that “the local auditions in Manila, Cebu and Davao would definitely be fun.

”He’s all “psyched up” and confident that “Philippine Idol” will succeed because “its concept is something we are all familiar with. It will be very interesting to import something foreign and reinvent it into something genuinely Pinoy. It’s like being served the first hamburger all over again.”Or the first adobo?

Agoncillo himself is now caught up in the “Idol” frenzy. “I am looking forward to seeing the Filipino Idol. I don’t want to see the next Michael Jackson or ’N’ Sync. I want to hear the future of Pinoy sound.”

According to Inquirer Entertainment last Sunday, June 11, 2006, Ryan agoncillo was already announced as the lone host of "Philippine Idol".

ABC fast tracks search for first Philippine Idol

ABC, licensee of the “American Idol” format and which will soon produce the country’s version, jump starts the search for the first Philippine Idol, with a series of Fast Tracks for prospective contestants to be held in 28 cities nationwide. For the lucky ones, the Fast Tracks will make the road for the mammoth auditions scheduled in the key cities of Manila (for Metro Manila, North and South Luzon), Davao (for Mindanao), and Cebu (for Visayas) more accessible, faster, and easier.

The Fast Tracks give interested applicants a chance to be pre-screened and to try out for the auditions proper. At the Fast Tracks, their credentials will be validated and they will perform before a set of judges. The ones who will be chosen in the Fast Tracks will be given a special VIP pass to the audition proper. It’s their ticket to the “express lane,” meaning their auditions are already scheduled and they do not have to stand up in long lines with the thousands who will try out only in the audition proper in Manila, Davao or Cebu.

Qualified Fast Trackers also win free transportation and food and lodging when they go to their main audition. The Fast Tracks are sponsored by SM supermalls, Manila Broadcasting Company, and Radio Mindanao Network.

Fast Tracks schedule in May follows: May 12 – SM Fairview (Quezon City), SM Lucena (Lucena City) and Pacific Mall (Laoag, Ilocos Norte); May 14 – CSI Mall (San Fernando, La Union), Mart One (Cagayan), CSI Mall (Dagupan, Pangasinan) and Pacific Mall (Legaspi, Albay); May 15 – SM Megamall and SM Pampanga (San Fernando); May 17 – SM Bacoor (Cavite; May 18 – SM Dasmarinas (Cavite); May 19 – SM Bicutan (Paranaque); May 26 – SM Baguio; May 27 – SM South Mall (Las Pinas and SM Sta. Mesa); May 30 – SM Valenzuela.

June Fast Tracks will be announced over RMN and MBC radio stations.

Applicants should be at least 16 but not more than 28 years old on July 1, 2006. They must not hold any talent or recording contract. They must present a valid ID or birth certificate or both and a 2×2 ID photo. They must be prepared to sing two songs from the official song list in the website philippineidol.com . Registration is from 10:30 a.m. to 12 nn.

FAQs ABOUT PHILIPPINE IDOL FAST TRACKS and AUDITIONS

1. What is the Philippine Idol Fast Tracks?
Philippine Idol Fast Tracks is a way to get to the Philippine Idol auditions. If you are able to show your superb singing talent to the live audience and impress the judges at the venue, you may win a Fast Tracks pass which will entitle you to a scheduled audition in Manila, Cebu or Davao. It was created to help Philippine Idol aspirants from around the country to have the chance to join the contest, wherever they are. Fast Tracks is sponsored by MBC and RMN radio stations with the help of SM and various malls in the Philippines. Philippine Idol Fast Tracks is limited to 150 qualified registrants.

2. What do I need to join the Philippine Idol Fast Tracks?
You have to be at least 16 years old but not more than 28 on July 1, 2006. You also have to be a certified Filipino citizen or of dual citizenship. Plus, be prepared to sing two (2) songs, one (1) fast, one (1) slow. And please don’t wear clothes with logos. All Fast Tracks will be held at the participating mall. The aspirant has to sing in front of a live audience and 3 judges.

3. What is the difference between the Fast Tracks and the Auditions?
Philippine Idol Fast Tracks is the way to the Philippine Idol Auditions. If you win the Fast Tracks, you will get a Fast Tracks Pass which will entitle you to a scheduled audition. If you pass the Audition, you will officially become a Philippine Idol contender. If you were not able to get a pass at the Fast Tracks, you can still join the Auditions in Manila, Cebu and Davao without the convenience of a specially scheduled audition.

4. When are the Philippine Idol Auditions?
In Manila, it will be held at PICC on June 3. In Davao, on June 23 and in Cebu on July 4. Please wait for announcement of venues in Davao and Cebu.

5. What do I need to join the Philippine Idol Auditions?
You have to be at least 16 but not more than 28 years old on July 1, 2006 and a certified Filipino citizen or of dual citizenship. Complete the application forms available at ABC, RMN, MBC stations or SM malls or at www.philippineidol.com.Prepare two (2) songs, one(1) fast, one(1) slow. Bring one(1) valid ID plus two photos, 1 close up (at least passport size) and 1 full body (at least 3R size). And also don’t forget to bring your original plus two(2) certified copies of your birth certificate.