Choose Your Own Adventure: The TV

For the first time in the history of Philippine television, the ending of a soap opera will be determined by the viewers thru SMS voting. The show Sana’y Wala Nang Wakas (Wishing There Won’t Be An End) will end with a wedding, but whose? Let the viewers decide.

First choice: Ara and Christian. The soap started with Ara (Kristine Hermosa) and Christian (Jerico Rosales) falling for one another. Unfortunately the two actors, who were reel- and real-life lovers, broke up just weeks after the soap started airing; this fact was kept from the public. Still the viewers found out, so the production team faced a problem: a dip in ratings because the fans turned cold to the Ara-Christian tandem. So they introduced a new love interest for Ara.

Second choice: Ara and Leo. The soap’s story arch was rewritten so that Ara and Christian were forced to split up. Ara met Leo (Diether Ocampo) and the two fell in love. And, not surprisingly, the actors Kristine and Diether also fell in love with each other. (Or so says the media hype.)

But a funny thing happened a few months into the Ara-Leo pairing: the Ara-Christian tandem started heating up again. It seemed the fans just needed time to miss the original pair (their love team was a major reason why their previous soap, Pangako Sa Iyo [My Promise To You] became a monster hit.) Now the show’s leading lady has two leading men. Who will she choose?

Eager to cash in on the quandary, the producers chose to let the fans decide. They’ve actually shot two endings; cut-off time for voting is a few minutes before the finale. SMS votes are still coming in by the thousands (and at one peso per text going to the company, the promo is a most profitable one, indeed.)

In our office the people are split as to who should end up with whom. The gays in the office have raised our objection: why is there no choice for a Christian-Leo tandem, huh?!

In the second-to-the-last episode shown this evening, Ara, Christian and Leo were escaping from bandits (don’t ask, just accept). A gunfight followed, and Ara was hit by a bullet. That gave us gays in the office hope for a Christian-Leo ending if Ara would die. But true to soap tradition, the lead character always survives any injury no matter how grave.

So tomorrow a boring heterosexual wedding will end Sana’y Wala Nang Wakas. Sigh.