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".