The end isn’t the end after all, in this ever-changing world of the MNL48 Audition. In a surprising change, it was revealed last Saturday, March 17, 2018, that voting will continue even after the Final 48 has been revealed.
Dancing to the beat of Kim Chui’s OPM song, Express Yourself, all 55 candidates appeared on the It’s Showtime stage. It’s possibly the first time the whole group appeared in one performance since becoming the Top 75. Candidates Ella, Dana and Nice were complimented for their charm and stage presence during the performance.
As expected, 7 girls were eliminated: Pam, Patriz, Bea, Heart, Yoana, Erah and Mara bid their goodbyes to their co-candidates and supporters for the fifth live elimination leaving the total number of candidates to 48 girls. Of the eliminated girls, it was Bea’s who surprised me the most because while she wasn’t getting the same amount of votes as her older sister Abby, she wasn’t exactly performing bad either. But unless you are in the Top 10, the votes are just one of various criteria being used to evalute them. And Bea performed poorly in the 48 Group quiz the girls took last week.
While the remaining girls are a step closer to their dream, I was surprised to find out that things won’t stop there. Voting is still ongoing, and it seems eliminations will still continue, throwing a shadow over their “Road to the Final 48” thing.
While I am happy that there’s no “wild-card” thing that ABS-CBN loves to add to their reality shows, I’m still quite confused why the sudden change in plans once more. All materials we have to date point to having the Top 48 be the final head-count needed for the first generation of MNL48 members. But we also know that things are always in a state of flux in this audition. We can only guess what changes HHE has decided to make this time. It’s not really something to be worried about because the audition is still moving through its last phases despite the change in the actual number of girls they’ll get. So we’re looking at an early to mid April when the final first-generation line-up will be introduced.
The remaining aspirants also saw an increase in their activities starting last week with their TV guesting on the Kapamilya show, Umagang Kay Ganda (which went on for the whole week) and later joined the MNL48 Plus mobile app promotional tour at Starmall, Alabang. This week, the girls are also slated to appear in other mall tours (including a potentially lucrative one in SM Megamall), as well as guestings in the week-day edition of It’s Showtime.
Now, with the reality facing these girls that there might be less than 48 girls in the first generation, getting those crucial votes is very important. My favorite, Ashley actually dropped several spots last week, which was surprising because she’s the favorite of the local wotas, or maybe I overestimated the voting power of the local AKB48 fandom.
It’s not just her, but Alice too. Alice – formerly of Kawaii5 – is the only candidate in this audition that has real working experience as a J-idol. Although her total vote count was still high, her rank saw a massive drop from Top 3 all the way out of the Top 10.
Sela, another one of my favorites, is hanging on just outside of the Top 10. I haven’t followed her as much as the other two, but I also would want her to get in. Among the girls I’m currently supporting, Sela’s the only one I’ve never met: I saw Alice in person when I accompanied the FilWota admins during Movie Stars Cafe’s last day in MOA, I met Ashley during Asia Pop Comicon, and I believe I saw Kaede in an event somewhere, but Sela, I’ve never met her in person. Be that as it may, I still like her, and not because of her good-lucks but because of her clumsiness that brings about hilarious results.
So, because it’s not yet the end, and voting is still on going, pardon me if I’m going to put these out again.
