This was my post in pex for a thread about Extra Challenge "Kasal-kasalan..." featuring Richard Gutierrez, Paolo Contis, Chynna Ortaleza and Nancy Castiliogne. I'm just reposting it here for posterity.

Paolo and Nancy at EXTRA CHALLENGE
Disclaimer: We are in a free country and I am just airing my opinion please don't hate me for it. Thank you.

What did the makers of the hit reality tv show extra challenge have in mind when they conceptualized it? Glam? Of course not. For a show showcasing celebrities' guts, endurance, and mind power, glamour is out of the question. Nowadays, the Philippine TV industry’s foundation has morphed from fantasy into reality and reality is not always what people want it to be. It is sometimes hard to live in reality but even harder to get real.

Get real Nancy!
Saying that losing a child is not reality, Nancy is definitely not yet ready to raise children. When she lost a kid, she obviously did not know what to do except of course bring this matter of urgency to the crew and complain. A person with maternal instinct would go all the way to seek the child. A person who doesn’t have it, doubts if that was really happening and will easily get tired and cry (not because of the loss, but because of stupidity). If the sibling of the lost kid did not tell them about the loss, I doubt if the couple would figure it out at all.

What do you expect??!?
A show is a show and business is business. Goals vary but all of it boil down to higher ratings. To say that a show is made to entertain people is hypocrisy. Of course for every venture there are expected returns. And Extra Challenge is achieving their expectations. When Paolo said he hoped they enjoyed the ratings, I almost fell from where I was sitting. Of course they did enjoy it! Especially that they had a participant like Mr. Paolo Contis. Thanks to him and his lack of common sense.

The other team
When the other team Richard and Chynna lost a child, what did they do? Simple. They looked for him. They may have had doubts on the crew’s innocence of his whereabouts, but the important thing there is that they looked. Although they were not completely aware whether it was reality or just a challenge, they had a reason to look for him and that is responsibility. They had every little bit of what an ideal Extra Challenge participant should have. Mind power, srength and endurance.

When Paolo and Nancy lost a child, what did they do? They looked for him at first alright. But then they were more concerned of themselves that they harassed the crew into telling them the truth so that after they knew that was just a challenge, they could just go to rest.

Why didn't they just look for the kid? I know they were concerned about the child. It might have been just a setup or have really happened. Either way, the proper thing to do is to Look.

A challenge for Pete’s sake is to be done and to be conquered. To complain is to prove your stupidity. It is even wiser to give up! They obviously did not have the comprehension to digest even the smallest detail of this concept. What were they there for anyway? Para magpa-cute? Oh we already know that!

I am not here taking the side of this other team. I also do not hate Paolo and Nancy. I just do not like the way they reacted.

Extra Challenge’s participants’ usual reaction to unusual happenings like this is to think all is just a setup. Just a setup or not, do you think the responses for each should be different? Whether it is a setup or not, viewers are still into the excitement and anticipation of how the participants react to these situations. I think that future contestants should react properly to each challenge given, perhaps whether to keep up or give up. In a show like Extra Challenge, charming us viewers rarely pleases us. It is the participants’ culture and education that amuses us and brings us to write up an opinion like this.

But one thing is for sure. Getting real has never been this cool!
Extra Challenge rocks!