No more Robinhood.

I am not an authority in Philippine cinema nor TV, so this post is just an ordinary observer's observation.

I read awhile ago that Robin Padilla might not go back to his hosting job at the new television show, Pilipinas Win Na Win (PWNW). It's Ramadan so he'll be off for five weeks.

The PWNW show which is really WOWOWEE, re-titled and re-packaged, has had difficulty getting a male host since its original host, Willie Revillame went on leave. The producers tried Billy Crawford, Luis Manzano, Robin Padilla and a host of others.

Now, re-titled, the show got back Robin Padilla.

I have some assumptions about this new show. First, it may have been re-titled, because the network didn't plan to get back Revillame. Second, the network didn't intentionally hire back Revillame because it wanted to wean the show away from its "too masa" appeal.

Weaning the show away from its excessive "for the poor show" image bodes well for the network. First, Revillame boasted of having conceptualized most of the show's game segments, which he targetted to appeal to the "masa." Second, the tragedy which killed many people left a bitter taste in the mouth (what a way to die when all they wanted was to get a chance to earn quick money).

Third, and I think the most powerful one, is that the show sponsors could have clamored for a change in the show's image.

Sponsors. A show's sponsors make the show. They pay for airtime, which pays for production costs including costly talent fees. PWNW, like the original WOWOWEE has plenty of these sponsors, such as Rexona, and others I can't recall.

Now, these sponsors pay big airtime money so that their products could be seen and heard, and ultimately be patronized and bought by the viewers. Now, if a show is so targetted to classes C and D, which have limited purchasing power, will the products have a BIG chance of being purchased by the magta-taho, or magba-balot, trycicle drivers, etc?

The old show WOWOWEE had been heavily promoted overseas thru the TFC. My own sisters in Seattle and San Jose and their apo's tune in to the show. Yes, the sponsors over there may be different, but where there are built-in promo segments, such as Rexona's, they are the same products and sponsors.

What I'm saying is that the mix of TV viewership and thus the sponsor/product mix may not work out well for sponsors. In marketing, there is what we call "niche," or market segments.

Look at it this way. If I were an advertiser of an expensive car, would I choose WOWOWEE/PWNW to advertise? I might, because its viewership is high, but can these people afford to buy my car?

This, I believe, is what happened to WOWOWEE/PWNW. The network wanted to "up" its target market. That's why it brought Kris Aquino, who is a cross over host, and appeals to a wide range of markets and segments, ABCD.

Before Kris, it tried Luis Manzano, who is another cross over host. But Manzano was replaced because the network wanted a co-equal of Revillame for a male host - a Robin Padilla who also has the "masa" appeal.

So the host mix is a de-klase and a masa, Kris and Robin, to appeal and target a mixed target market: ABCD.

Watch for more quality segments from this show.

It's purely economics.