North and Central Luzon protege Reese Tayag was eliminated in the said artista search, August 26 after scoring the lowest in an acting performance wherein all proteges were given the chance to act alongside the “Diamond Star” Maricel Soriano in five short films directed by Cannes Film Festival awardee Brillante Mendoza and written by Palanca awardee Floy Quintos.
Only thirty percent of the total score was based on the text votes while seventy percent was taken from the average of the scores given by the four judges — director Bert de Leon, actress Cherie Gil, GMA executive Anna Teresa Gozon-Abrogar and actor-comedian Joey de Leon. Reese, however, does not take her elimination personally against the judges.
Aside from Reese, two other proteges came close to leaving the competition. They are Vien Alen King of Mega Manila and Japs de Luna of North and Central Luzon.
One of the surprises this week was the awarding of special awards to proteges who showed commendable performance in the short films. Maricel Soriano herself picked Elle Ramirez and Andres Vasquez (Mega Manila) as the Best Female and Best Male Proteges, respectively. Andres also received the Director’s Choice Award for Breakthrough Performance.
The Visayas team, on the other hand, received the Best in Ensemble Acting.
The special awardees were automatically saved the eliminations.
The number of proteges who survived the cut so far is down to 14, and it will even get smaller each week until the grand finals wherein only one male and one female protege will be hailed as victors.
Who will get eliminated next week? We’ll find that out next Sunday during the next gala night of Protege: The Battle for the Big Artista Break hosted by Dingdong Dantes and Carla Abellana. It airs live after iBilib on GMA-7.
