georgina wilson is the new host of asia's next top model cycle 3

filipina model georgina wilson is the new host of the 3rd cycle of the reality show asia's next top model. in her instagram account wilson announced this together with some photos. quoting from her instagram post:

I've been SO excited about this announcement and been keeping it for months now! Extremely honored to be hosting ASIA'S NEXT TOP MODEL!!!!!!!!!!! Career milestone!!!!!

here are the photos posted in her instagram account :

this is not wilson's first exposure to the top model show. it can be remembered that wilson previously appeared as a stylist when bench was featured in episode 9 of america's next top model all stars (cycle 17).

wilson replaced indonesian model nadya hutagalung as host and now joins fellow filipina model joey mead king who is the model coach of the contestants. the show is expected to be shown in 2015 and will be shot in singapore.

10 things we learned from the amazing race philippines season 2 leg 5

here are the things we learned from leg 5 of amazing race philippines season 2:

1. team mag-ama has a fighting chance if they work together

this is team mag-ama's first time to win a leg after finishing in the top 5 in all the previous legs. what worked for them in this leg is that they worked more as a team this leg and bickered less. but of course, they were really lucky this leg, especially in the araro task and the salt task. they can really compete for the grand prize if they maintain this attitude.

2. not only team mag-ama had a good leg, team chefs also had a breakout leg

in my last blog entry, i wrote that team mag-ama and team chefs have to get out of the middle of the pack and finish strong. and in this leg, that is exactly what both teams did. the chefs stayed in the middle in the first few task but it was their last push in the end that got them to 2nd place. what is working for this team is their good disposition and their positive attitude. and i think chef roch's power hug at the pit stop is working its magic.

3. team dating couple can be beaten

team dating couple finished 5th in this leg after three straight legs of finishing on top. their consistent showing in the first four legs has put a big target on their back. for the second straight leg, they were delayed since the other teams all voted for them and they were awarded the u-turn. what is also hurting them is that they are starting to get into each other's nerves. they are fighting more often as compared to the previous legs. they have to regroup after this if they want to regain that top spot.

4. team magkapatid is the most consistent team - finishing in the top 3 but never 1st

team magkapatid again finished in the top 3 of the leg, slipping down to 3rd place. even though they are in the top 3, they still failed to get that top spot. they still need to keep their focus, where they lost in this leg a few times. special mention on the rock stacking task where jet enjoyed gathering the stones over stacking them. eye on the prize guys!


5. team nerds is the unluckiest team this leg

team nerds finished strong at 4th place even after a series of unfortunate events. before the rock stacking challenge, vince fell off the horse. at the sand dunes task, they also had a hard time finding the correct station, the clues even flying out of their hands because of the winds. they even got lost before the salt task. what is working for them is that they are working well together as a team, they do not fight and they do not fight at all. they need to go back to the race mode that they had in the first leg where they finished on top. hope #teammalas ends soon!

6. who is the luckiest team? the miracle continues for team mr. pogi

after making us believe in miracle last week, the lucky streak continues for team mr. pogi. after proving their teamwork last week, they really got their act together and avoided finishing last again! only team mag-ama can argue that they are the luckiest team this leg but i think the good breaks still went to team mr. pogi. if they continue to have that positive attitude, good teamwork and avoid being lost, team mr. pogi can barge into the top 5 in the next leg.

7. team sexy besties got a 2nd chance

this is a virtual pit stop, and the race continues. in the US version, this is commonly called the "to be continued" leg. that is why team sexy besties was not eliminated even if they finished last. they need to embrace this opportunity and get back into the fighting form that they had in the first two legs. do you remember how rr was pushing jeck during the wall climbing task? they need to go regroup and go back to that never say die attitude.

8. yield and u-turn will be a big part of the race

in the US version, u turn and yield appear once or twice in the whole race and can be used by any team only once in the race. if you decide to use it, you can only use it on the team that is behind you so you can build a good lead between you and that team. but this season, it has been in all legs and is decided through voting, so any team can be u-turned or yielded. if all the legs will have u turn or a yield, it wil definitely have a big impact on the race.

9. the tasks are getting more familiar

we can see similarities of some tasks in this leg to previous tasks of other seasons of the amazing race. the araro task was the famous plow detour in leg 11 of the 5th season of the amazing race. this is the task where colin coined the famous line "my ox is broken." the massage task of the detour is a variation of the turkish bath task in tunisia in leg 4 of the 1st season of amazing race. the music task in the detour is very similar to the BINGO task in the 1st leg of the first season of the amazing race philippines. the salt task is somewhat similar to the salt detour in mauritius where teams needs to find a salt shaker in a pile of salt. this was in the 7th leg of the 10th season of the US version.

10. ilocos is such a beautiful place

this leg just shows how beautiful ilocos is. i have been wanting to go to ilocos for quite sometime now and this leg made me more excited to go there soon!

images are from the following:
1. margie natividad's twitter page
2. team magkapatid's facebook page
3. team nerds' facebook page

coca-cola philippines launches its new christmas campaign

coca-cola philippines launched its 2014 christmas campaign thru its newest television commercial, titled "sari-saring hapiness". quoting from their youtube video:

"Para maramdaman ang diwa ng Pasko, hindi kailangan ng bagong damit, engrandeng party at mahal na regalo. Simpleng bonding at salo-salo lang sa may kanto with your friends and neighbors, sobrang enjoy na! Dahil ang saya ng Pasko,malapit lang sa’yo"

here is the newest tv commercial:

at the end of the tv commercial, coca-cola also reveals that they are now supporting women microentrepreneurs, especially women sari-sari store owners. they are key business partners of the company nationwide:

the company also launched the lighting of thousands of parols nationwide as a celebration of the women sari-sari store owners and the christmas season. you too can make your own coca-cola parol. here is how from the company's youtube video:

jimmy and kring are the first grand winners of "i do"

power couple yong jin kim and kring elenzano was declared as the first grand winner of the reality show "i do". the couple jimmy and kring wins their dream wedding which will be aired next week as the conclusion of the show's first season.

the couple has been in a relationship for 3 years. they met in an event that kring organized where jimmy was hired as a photographer. jimmy is kring's first boyfriend.

aside from their dream wedding, the couple also received 1 million pesos in cash, a house and lot, a kitchen showcase, a spa franchise and a honeymoon package.

they received 56.8% of the total text votes to beat the other power couple, chad and sheela who got 43.2% of the text votes. it was announced during the show that the runner up couple will also receive PhP500,000 as a consolation prize.

congrats jimmy and kring!

image is from the couple's profile at the i do site at abs cbn entertainment web page

9 things we learned from amazing race philippines season 2 leg 4

it is already the 4th leg of the 2nd season of the amazing race philippines. the race is really getting exciting and we are still learning a lot as the race progress.

so here are the 10 things that we learned from this week's leg:

1. team dating couple is still the team to beat

this is the 3rd straight leg that team dating couple finished first and they have never finished out of the top 3. i think this team is very competitive and this has helped them keep their lead. in this leg, they were even yielded by all the other teams but their lead was huge enough that even with the time penalty that was imposed to them due to unsafe driving did not matter and no one arrived in the last task after the time penalty.

but this team needs to watch out because they now have a huge target at their back. it was evident in the yield voting that their past actions really affected the team's votes. they need to rebuild their relationships with the other teams or they will be the target in the next u-turn or yield.

2. team magkapatid is still a big threat, but finishing 2nd is never good enough

if this leg is team dating couple's 3rd first place finish, incidentally, it is also team magkapatid's 3rd runner up finish. these two teams are the only teams that has never been out of the top 3. what is working for this team is that they know each other very well. jet has been the typical kuya and has been controlling their race, in a good way.

the team has been communicating way and both are willing to listen. i like their disposition in the race, they still appear calm and they panic less as compared to the other teams. but evidently, running is not one of their strengths. they were beaten in the season's first footrace to the mat. finishing 2nd is a good thing but finishing runner up this many times is quite frustrating. they need to step up and advance to the top spot.

3. team sexy besties needs to control their emotions

this leg gave us how the race stress is getting into the teams, especially into team sexy besties. their confrontation scene at the car on the way to the paint ball challenge was very intense, particularly rr. it was a good thing that jeck was able to control herself and just kept quiet. the words that were thrown during that confrontation can easily provoke rr and that could have easily blown to a big girl fight.

lucky for them, they easily patched things up and moved on as if nothing happened.

4. miracles do happen, ask the miracle boys (team mr. pogi)

during the start of this leg, team mr. pogi got lost and jp said that they are now called "miracle boys" because it will be a miracle if they still make it to the next leg. up to the last task in this leg, this team finished last in all task. but by a miracle or something, they were able to have a last ditch effort and was able to check in the pit stop at 7th place, escaping elimination. it only proves that you should never quit until derek tells you that you are eliminated.

in this leg, this team worked more in sync as compared to the previous legs. their car confrontation was really scary which almost led into a fist fight (or so we thought it would). but in this episode, they were more supportive of each other. i was impressed with jp, he was really motivating the kelvin during this race. but this team needs to step up and finish in a higher place and move out of the bottom.

5. the express pass did not make an impact in the race

after winning the first leg, team nerds was able to get the express pass. it is a free pass that the team needs to exchange for the clue if they decide not to do the task. as the nerds explained throught their twitter account, the express pass can only be used up to the 4th leg so they really need to use it in leg 4. (which is quite weird because in the US version, it can be used anytime in the race).

even though they really need to use it in this leg, i think they still used it in the wrong task. they can easily finish the paintball task but they had real bad luck in the last surf paddling task. i think they could have finished at a better placing if they used it in the last task.

6. team chefs and team mag-ama needs to get out of the middle of the pack

these two teams has consistently been in the middle of the pack and they need to improve their placings as well. team chefs finished 2nd in the 3rd leg but is now back to 4th. team mag-ama entered the top 3 for the first time in this leg and has improved their placing after each leg.

i think what both teams needs to improve on is their communication. team mag-ama has been fighting in several legs and their competitive nature is really showing in how they are running this race. on the other hand, if there is one team that i think is enjoying this race, it would be team chefs because they have the highest level of energy of all the teams, especially after finishing their tasks. but what they need to improve is their navigating skills because most of their fights are when they are trying to locate their next location.

7. luck is a big factor in this leg.

luck played a big factor in this leg. 2 tasks in this leg mainly rely on pure luck - the surfer's code task and the surf paddling task. it is a good way to even out the playing field for some teams but it can also be damaging to the unlucky teams.

aside from the luck challenges, there were also some unlucky moments in this leg. team blondies' car got stuck in the mud after the pottery task and they were stranded for quite a long while, allowing team sexy besties to overtake them and team mr. pogi to catch up with them. after the surfer code challenge, it was team mr. pogi's car that got stuck in the sand.

8. team blondies proved that they are a strong team

honestly, i picked team blondies as one of the first teams that will be eliminated. in the first leg, they were really outcasted and had to rely in their own skills and abilities to survive that leg. in the 3rd leg, they started the talk about the bottom teams alliance but that never got together. they made some mistakes along the way but they proved that they can do a lot of things on their own. they even out lasted team juan direction. it was sad to see them go but it is really their time.

9. the twitter party every night continues!

i really like the fact that the teams are interacting a lot with the fans during the episode. every night, almost all of the teams are live tweeting and are actively answering tweets of the fans. always present every night are team chefs, team magkapatid, team dating couple and team nerds. team mag-ama, team blondies, team mr. pogi and team sexy besties would retweet or favorite fan tweets.

team mr. pogi also had a new twitter gimmick this week. they launched #AskKelvin, where fans can ask anything to kelvin and he will reply back with the answer. so if you are a fan and is still not joining the twitter party every episode, make sure to tune in the show every 9pm and be online and tweet with the hashtag #AmazingRacePHILIPPINES

photos are from margie natividad's twitter account and team magkapatid's facebook fan page

amazing race philippines season 2 leg 3 review

the third leg started at taal, batangas and teams were instructed to board charter buses to manaoag, pangasinan. the first bus contains team dating couple, team magkapatid, team nerds, team chefs and team mag-ama. In the second bus were team mr. pogi, team juan direction, team sexy besties and team blondies. During the bus ride, the teams in the second bus were plotting to work together to eliminate team magkapatid because they think they are rich and don't need the prizes anymore. But team sexy besties declined the alliance and wanted to race fair.

upon arrival at the our lady of manaoag church, teams have to ask the stalls in front of the church "may clue ka ba para sa akin?" if they ask the correct stall, they will be given the next clue. the next clue instructed the teams to get a car key from the store and go to the back of the church, they need to find the kia sportage car that will be opened by the key and memorize a prayer. once they memorized the prayer, they will recite it to a priest that will perform the blessing rite to the car.

the 2 charter buses arrived only minutes apart so the lead that the first five teams got was gone. it was chaos at the market stall but almost all teams quickly found the stall. once again, it was team juan direction that made another mistake of not reading the clue as they did not get the car key before going to the back of the church. i do not know if they are not reading the clue of they simply do not understand the clue. fortunately, team blondies saved them and told them to get the keys from the store.

at the task, most of the teams did not actually memorize the prayer. only a few of them did. but the priest was quite easy to please and still made the blessing and gave them the next clue.

the teams then faced their roadblock at the magsaysay fish market in dagupan city. one of the team members need to carry two large buckets of fish from a marked boat to a marked stall inside the market. they need to transfer the fish into another large container before they receive their next clue. this challenge is very similar to one of the detour task in amazing race season 21 leg 2 (fish by the barrel task) in indonesia. in this task, it was team magkapatid who did not read the clue correctly they went directly to the market and not to the port where the boats are. yna even dropped one of the buckets in the water. and also team juan direction only brought 1 bucket of fish and had to go back which affected their performance in the race.

the next clue instructed them to proceed to the giant clam statue at the dagupan city plaza where they need to perform a dance routine from the bangus festival. this is the 2nd performance task after the priscilla task in leg 1. most of the teams (even team mag-ama who had a difficult time in priscilla) got the approval of the mayor. surprisingly, it was the performers (team sexy besties, team blondies and team juan direction) who had to repeat the routine.

the teams were then instructed to proceed to the blue beach in bonuan and find the statue of douglas macarthur. once they get the clue, they need to find macarthur's old office in pangasinan. his old office is now the west central elementary school. most of the teams opted to use the internet to find this place but it was team mr. pogi who had a heated argument in their car that almost led into a fist fight. nut fortunately, they were able to control their temper and moved on.

once at the school, teams need to find macarthur and pick up 3 items on his desk that is not related to world war 2. this is a hard task, even for the nerds. the first 5 teams (dating couple, magkapatid, nerds, chefs and mag-ama) immediately decided to work together and tell each other once one of them get the correct answer. team magkapatid reiterated to not give the clue to the otehr four teams which team sexy besties overheard.

it was team dating couple who got the answer correct. unfortunately for the nerds, the couple went inside after them, relegating them to the back of the line. being friends with team juan direction, edward of team dating couple also gave them the correct answer, making them ahead of the nerds.

the detour was next and the teams was asked to choose between inspection or operation. in inspection, teams need to get 5 evidences correctly in a murder crime scene. in operation, team needs to give the doctor the correct medical instruments that he needs. both task have a mandatory lecture or briefing before proceeding to the task. some of the teams did not get the task on their first try and needs to repeat it. in the operation task, since the nerds already memorized the instruments, they went out of the briefing without finishing it. team sexy besties complained about this and the nerds were told they need to finish the briefing and were put into last place.

after the detour, the teams need to find the u-turn board before they can proceed to the next destination. and again, it was team mr. pogi who was u-turned. contrary to the fight that they had before the detour, they remained calm and positive and finished the task quickly.

the teams were then instructed to go to bella's calasiao puto factory where they need to find a marked base of the puto amongst trays of 100's. this is another challenge that needs a lot of patience. ost of the teams had a a hard time finding the marked base and had to do more than 5 trays. i think it was only team nerds and team mr. pogi who got it on their first tray.

the teams then needs to proceed to the next pit stop, the lingayen capitol center where derek and ritz azul is waiting on the mat.

the final team standings after this leg is as follows:

1st - team dating couple
2nd - team chefs
3rd - team magkapatid
4th - team mag-ama
5th - team nerds
6th - team sexy besties
7th - team mr. pogi
8th - team blondies
9th - team juan direction

it was sad to see the most relaxed racers go and eliminated.

it is laso good to note that team chefs has barged into the top 3 in this leg and team nerds are nowin 5th place. this is team dating couples' 2nd first place finish. i would also like to commend team mr. pogi because of finishing 7th despite the u-turn in back to back legs.

what is very striking in this leg is the talk of making alliances. the top teams and the bottom teams attempted to form alliances in this leg of the race. being a fan of the show, in its history, alliances do not work in the race. your alliances can help you but it can also slow you dow and can even lead to your elimination. in this case, team dating couple is stuck between their alliance with the top teams and their friendship with team juan direction. this will really make them a target in the next legs.

tempers are still flaring here and there in this leg. team mag-ama and team mr. pogi need to watch their tempers in the next legs. team chefs are also starting to bicker when they are driving. team blondies also needs to find a way to get out of the bottom pack, same as team sexy besties and team mr. pogi. team mr. pogi needs to convince the other teams that they are not the biggest physical threat in the game to avoid any more u-turns or yield.

videos are from amazing race philippines official you tube channel

team teddy, billy and jugs wins it's showtime's magpasikat 2014

the team of teddy, billy and jugs wins this year's magpasikat competition of it's showtime as part of the show's 5th anniversary celebration. performing last among five teams, the trio's performance started with spoof of all the other previous performances. then it gets into a conceptualized gameshow called "whatchamacul8" where they showed their hosting, singing, dancing and acting skills. teddy wrote the lyrics of the show's theme song and jugs provided the music.

the team's guests were popular love team and new kapamilya stars nadine lustre and pbb teen clash big winner james reed and the kalokalikes of jugs and teddy. the game show also choose someone from the madlang pipol as contestant who won PhP90,000 cash.

here is the video of their performance of the team from the abs cbn youtube channel :

the hurados for the week were the concert queen pops fernandez, apo hiking society member jim paredes and the primera contrabida cherrie gil. team vhong jhong got 2nd place with their contemporary dance number which ended with the two painting each other's faces. 3rd place went to team anne coleen with their aerial acrobatic number.

this is jugs and teddy's fourth win in 5 years.

all prizes will go to their chosen charities.