Extra Challenge

infobox television
show_name = Extra Challenge


caption = "Sa Extra Challenge, ikaw ang bida" (In extra challenge, you are the star)
format = Reality show
runtime = 45 Minutes
creator = GMA Network
starring = Paolo Bediones and
Ethel Booba as hosts
country = Philippines
network = GMA Network
first_aired = 1999 (then known as "Extra Extra" - an entertainment magazine journal until 2003)
last_aired = May 26, 2006
num_episodes = 700
imdb_id = 0362359

"Extra Challenge" was a one-of-a-kind Filipino reality show that has blazed a trail in Philippine television. The show has attracted a wide following after it presented episodes where strange yet amusing predicaments befall on participants. It is shown in the Philippines by GMA Network every weekday evenings. The show is a top-rater in its time slot and it started the era of reality-television in the Philippines.

The show was patterned after American reality-based series, such as Survivor, Amazing Race, and Fear Factor. "Extra Challenge", however, offers a distinctly Filipino style to entice and entertain local viewers. Also, majority of the contestants featured in the show are celebrities. It rarely casts unknown individuals, contrasting the standard of their American counterpart. Another difference is that sometimes the hosts themselves initiate or participate on the challenges.

Extra Challenge aired its last episode on May 26, 2006.

Extra Challenge was re-aired on QTV 11 (now Q-11) as "Extra Challenge Reloaded last August 2006.

History

"Extra Challenge" began as the lifestyle show "Extra Extra", but its ratings suffered during the rise of the television series "Meteor Garden". It was refurbished as a reality show, and has made remarkable progress in the ratings.

The revamped show was aptly called "Extra Challenge", offering reality television in a "Pinoy Reality TV" format, which took participants to the edge of personal endurance amid never-before-experienced challenges and presented spur-of-the-moment and spontaneous scenes.

Hosts

Paolo Bediones was in the show since it started. He was first co-hosted by journalist Karen Davila in the lifestyle tele-magazine show Extra Extra. Karen Davila, after she transferred to ABS-CBN, was replaced by beauty queen (1st runner-up, Miss Universe 1999) turned TV host Miriam Quiambao in 2000. "Extra Extra" still continued its tele-magazine format but when the "chinovelas" (Chinese TV series) topped TV ratings in the Philippines, the format became reality-based. The name was then changed to "Extra Challenge".

In 2004, when Quiambao decided to marry her Italian fiance and give up hosting, "Extra Challenge" came up with an episode to search for her replacement. The episode "Ang Kapalit" (The Replacement) featured five contestants — model Phoemela Barranda, TV host Reema Chanco, comedian Ethel Booba, and beauty queens Joanna Penalosa and Josephine Canonizado — that competed among themselves in a series of challenges to be the new host. Phoemela Barranda won the contest but Ethel Booba was picked by millions of texters and won the "Viewer's Choice" award. After the episode, both Barranda and Booba hosted the show as the replacements of Quiambao. Booba is known for being a comic relief in the show during serious challenges. In 2006, Quiambao returned to "Extra Challenge" during the few last episodes of the show.

Later that year, MTV Philippines VJ Mariel Rodriguez replaced Barranda, co-hosting for one season. After Rodriguez left the show, Paolo Bediones and Ethel Booba continue to host "Extra Challenge" up to its last episode.

Several guest hosts appeared in the show when the main hosts were unavailable. Among them are the following: Pops Fernandez, Jolina Magdangal, BJ "Tolits" Forbes, Nikki Gil, K Brosas, Ate Gay, Teri Onor and Angel Locsin

Notable challenges

In September 2004, during the bungee jumping challenge of Ethel Booba, Willie Revillame, Andrew E., Francine Prieto and Michelle Bayle in Bali, Indonesia, "Extra Challenge" garnered 47.1% rating according to AGB - the highest rating yet for the show.

The second highest rating for the show was the "Road Trip to Sagada episode" in August 2004, garnering 43% rating according to AGB. In this episode, the show challenged the contestants to travel from Manila to Sagada using a 1973 Volkswagen combi van. This particular episode of Extra Challenge won 3rd place in the 38th US International Film and Video Festival Entertainment Category.

The P2M challenge, the celebration of Extra Challenge’s second anniversary, was aired on September 2005. Paolo and Ethel took the celebrity challengers to race from Luzon, Visayas to Mindanao on an adventure similar to the Amazing Race. The celebrities faced challenges along the way and compete for the 2,000,000 million pesos jackpot prize.

In November 2005, "American Idol's" Jasmine Trias participated in the "Promdi" episode of Extra Challenge, which she competed against MTV Asia VJ Donita Rose and former Miss World 2nd Princess Ruffa Gutierrez.

Criticisms

In June 2005, the program was criticized and condemned by a Filipino Muslim community following their "Mga Pasaway sa Dubai" episode, wherein they allegedly disgraced the virtues of Islam. According to the Islamic organization, Billah Islah, the show offended Muslims because the challengers, Ara Mina, Aubrey Miles, and Rufa Mae Quinto, who are non-Muslims recited the Al-Fatiha, the first chapter in the Qur'an, while being in a Land Cruiser and not wearing proper Muslim attire.

For this instance, Philippines' MTRCB (Movie and Television Classification Board) has issued the program a stern warning to screen its episodes very carefully before airing it. The incident also caused some of them who rallied to burn the names of the women contestants involved in that certain challenge done at Dubai.

After hearing the complaint, Extra Challenge wrote an apology to the Office on Muslim Affairs Undersecretary Datu Zamzamin Ampatuan. They also clarified that their tour operator requested permission to the Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing for using the Qu'ran verse in the challenge.

Extra Challenge also issued a public apology, which read:

:in Tagalog: "Kami po sa Extra Challenge ay humihingi ng paumanhin sa mga kababayan nating Muslim tungkol sa episode na ipinalabas kagabi...Hindi po namin intensiyon na gamitin sa maling paraan ang nasabing dasal. Higit sa lahat nirerespeto po namin ang kultura at relihiyon ng ating mga kapusong Muslim..."

:translated in English: "We at Extra Challenge are begging for an apology to all of our fellow Muslim countrymen for the episode aired last night...It is not our intention to use the said prayer in a wrong way. Furthermore, we respect the culture and religion of our fellow Muslims..."

Despite the apology, MTRCB issued a one-day suspension for the show and it is unclear whether the Muslim organization had accepted the apology.

See also

*Survivor Philippines
*List of Philippine television shows
*List of shows previously aired by GMA Network