Amanda Van Cooll Wins Survivor Philippines Season 2

Amanda Van Cooll in Survivor Philippines25 year-old construction worker Amanda Colley Van Cooll was hailed as the sole survivor for the second season of reality TV show Survivor Philippines. She garnered 4 votes from the jury against 3 votes received by transsexual beauty queen Justine Ferrer. 3rd placer Jef Gaitan, a 22 year-old print and commercial model, didn’t receive any votes.

For more of Survivor Philippines: Palau, please proceed here.

Survivor Philippines Season 2 in Beautiful Palau

Survivor Philippines Palau The second season of Survivor Philippines, premiering August 17, 2009 on GMA, will feature the beautiful island of Peleliu, Palau wherein 16 castaways are going to stay for 39 days and compete for the title “Pinoy Sole Survivor”. Besides the title, the winner of Survivor Philippines will also take home P3,000,000, the largest ever cash prize in the history of Philippine reality game shows.

Paolo Bediones returns as the host of the show.

Let’s meet the 16 castaways…

Angel’s Darna vs Marian’s Darna: Ratings Comparison

Marian Rivera as Darna Marian Rivera’s Darna had a succesful pilot episode, garnering a 44.1 percent AGB Nielsen Mega Manila rating. Angel Locsin’s Darna in 2005 had a 47.1 percent on its pilot. Back then, Angel’s Darna was the undisputed winner in the ratings game unlike Marian’s Darna which is strongly challenged by two programs (May Bukas Pa & Tayong Dalawa) from GMA 7’s rival network, ABS-CBN.

It is expected that ratings will escalate when Marian Rivera makes her first appearance as Darna, basing from the ratings Angel’s Darna

2009’s Battle of the Summer Station ID

The rivalry between GMA and ABS-CBN, 2 giant TV networks in the Philippines, has always been intense…From ratings, to their stars, movie productions (ABS’ Star Cinema vs GMA’s GMA Films) and even their respective station IDs. For this summer, the station ID war continues with ABS-CBN’s “Galaw-Galaw sa Tag-araw” performed by Kanto Boys (Vhong Navarro, Billy Crawford, Luis Manzano and John Lloyd Cruz), and GMA’s “Sabay Sabay Tayo” using a modified version of Marian Rivera’s first recorded song and latest dance craze.

Full House Philippine Version Main Casts

Richard Gutierrez and Marian RiveraGMA 7 bought the rights for the Philippine remake of Korea’s TV Hit Full House. The original version was aired in the Philippines on 2005 (also in GMA) and it became a huge hit, being the highest-rated Koreanovela with a peak of 52 % and an average of 42.3% during its entire run.

There have been a lot of petitions running in the net for who should portray the lead roles in this Pinoy remake and some of the names that came up for the male lead are Chris Tiu, Richard Gutierrez & Billy Crawford and Sheena Halili, Heart Evangelista & Marian Rivera for the female

Filipinized Zorro

richard-gutierrez-and-rhian-ramosGMA 7’s latest primetime offering Zorro, topbilled by Richard Gutierrez and Rhian Ramos, premieres March 23, 2009 and it looks like this is gonna be another hit for the network. Quite a big preparation was made for this upcoming series. For one, it’s not easy recreating a “period” setting. Also, some fencing, horse riding and Spanish lessons were made prior to shooting. One thing very interesting to watch about it is how they made it to become “Filipinized”. The story is taken from Johnston McCulley’s The Curse of Capistrano (1919) but it seems like some