 |
| (L-R): Kumu Chief Commercial Officer Luis Paolo Pineda, TV5 and Cignal TV President and CEO Robert P. Galang, and Cornerstone Entertainment President Erickson Raymundo and Vice-President Jeff Vadillo (Image Source: PhilStar.com) |
TV5 through Cignal TV's entertainment production division Cignal Entertainment has officially joined forces with Cornerstone Entertainment's CS Studios and top Filipino community streaming app Kumu for what is slated to be Philippine television's most exciting search for the next Pinoy pop group. This is part of the network's continuing commitment of providing a platform for fresh and premium content for the Filipino viewing audiences following its return in the local entertainment production scene through formidable content partnerships such as CS Studios, Viva, Brightlight Productions, and ABS-CBN Entertainment.
Entitled "Top Class, The Rise To P-Pop Stardom", the original talent hunt survival series that will delve into the world of future male superstars and chart their trail into fame and glory in the entertainment industry. The show will highlight these young aspirants who will take on challenges and push them to their limits as they compete for the coveted prize of becoming the next Filipino boy idol group. With 30 dreamers’ lives on the line, the number of hopefuls will be whittled down to the final spots that will punch through the top and spearhead what could be the next wave of Pinoy talents that will set fire to the world of showbiz. The newly-forged partnership for the new original reality talent search was inked on February 28, 2022 by TV5 and Cignal TV President and CEO Robert P. Galang, Cornerstone Entertainment President Erickson Raymundo and Vice-President Jeff Vadillo, and Kumu Chief Commercial Officer Luis Paolo Pineda and eventually made public through TV5's social media platforms.
In an interview with The Philippine Star, Galang shared, "This (Top Class) is one of the fresh, new content that we’re introducing this year from quite a number of other titles that we will launch. But this is very exciting because it’s a reality edition and it will cut across different platforms, not just broadcast free-to-air, but also digital. And we’ve also partnered with one of the best talent management agencies in the country, Cornerstone, so it’s exciting. It’s been very encouraging that our decision in 2020 to work with different production and live production companies has bore fruit and we really have a strong conviction that in order to be able to create the best content, we have to work with the best talent, best creative minds in the industry, rather than doing it on our own. So this way, we get access not just to the writers and directors, but also to the stars and artists that are normally not accessible to us. We’ve partnered with Cornerstone as a producer and as a line producer. So, when their ideas come up, it’s natural that we get together and work together on this. So this is a fruit of our continuing partnership with Cornerstone. Now, a new element would be Kumu, a very popular app now.”
According to Cornerstone's Vadillo, “We really want to incorporate the world-class element to the show. We are yet to announce the details as we go on moving onwards. But definitely, I’m very proud because we are going to get the best of the best, international caliber hosts and mentors with like international body of work that can compete on the global stage, and not to mention the production elements or production value of the show. We’ve really invested quite an amount just to make sure that it’s going to be a show that would really be a platform and a springboard for the future P-pop icons and hopefully shine on the world stage." Asked why they chose to stage a P-pop talent search program, Vadillo said, “Nakikita natin na yung genre na K-pop (or K-pop artists) were actually able to conquer the entire world through their music, through their excellence, without even singing English songs. Imagine, they were only singing like their own language, but they do it really well. And they were able to capture a world market.” He continued, “We feel that Filipinos, in terms of talent, we have it. We have the raw talent, we have the packaging and lahat nasa Pilipino and it’s just a matter of providing the right training, the right influences, and the right support. So, that’s why we’re doing the show because we want to provide that kind of support to our talents, to help them become the best they can be. Even other bands who have been ahead of us, like there are a lot of P-pop groups which are actually making waves right now, not just in the Philippines, but even all over the world. And from our experience with Vxon and even with G22, every time we release something, it’s not just the Filipinos who appreciate it. It’s actually people from other countries doing reaction videos, watching and appreciating the things we do and we release like mostly Tagalog singles. But that is the kind of future that we’re working on — to be able to create Filipino artists who have very strong roots and then making it, doing so excellently that other people from other countries can appreciate and relate with it.”
The three-year old Kumu has grown to become the largest social entertainment platform in the Philippines. With its growing popularity and considering that it is built for the Filipino millennial generation, the move to discover the next Pinoy pop group together with TV5 and Cornerstone Entertainment will empower more content creators around the world to showcase their talents. Kumu's Pineda noted and told The Philippine Star, “To date, more than 10 million people have registered on Kumu. We have the Kumunizens all the way from the US to Europe. Of course, the majority are still in the Philippines. But millions of streams on a monthly basis. So with what we’ve been doing the last few years, we’ve partnered with other brands like Big Brother with ABS-CBN. And just now, we’ve partnered with Miss Universe also for the exact same thing — to find talent or people who want to join Miss Universe. We all do it on Kumu. So, it was a natural progression that we actually put together a show where we allow these creators to even progress in their career. And we are not in the business of talent management and production. So, we work with Cornerstone who will help us and guide us through that. But the platform and Kumu will always complement the show that we’re putting together. And, of course, you need a free-to-air platform so that the majority of the Filipinos get in on what’s going on. It’s our first (partnership) so we’ll see where this goes. But definitely, we will have more things with them (TV5) as with all the others. We really want to work with everybody (and) make sure that everyone is discovered in their own way, in one way or another.”
The talent series will feature top-notch Pinoy hosts and mentors who are known globally for their body of work to guide and prepare our dreamers for the world stage. There will also be some exciting surprise guests. Catch all the drama and the joys of our young male candidates vying to be this generation’s newest P-pop boy group on your Kapatid Network, TV5, and on the official account of Top Class on Kumu at http://app.kumu.ph/topclass.
