The Calayan Clause

Quite a surprise on Celebrity Duets yesterday, when instead of culling the Sensational Six down to the Fab Five, GMA instead threw in a "Wild Card" - all votes were reset to zero and texters were only given from 6:45 PM to midnight to text in their votes. A further kicker was thrown in: only a maximum of ten text votes per cellphone would be counted.

Needless to say, T and I spent the rest of the night forwarding texts to everyone we knew. We'll know by next Saturday whether she gets to stay on the show.

I suspect the Wild Card was thrown in because the rumors had been that Doc Manny was buying load for his drivers and employees and just having them text in to keep him on the show. Whether true or not, I have to say that this tactic was well within the rules.

To the Doc, it made perfect sense. Why buy 30-second TVC's at P150,000 a spot when a text vote is only P2.50? In other words, everyday the good Doc stayed on Duets was free advertising for Calayan Surgicenter. So if the rules allowed didn't prevent a cellphone from submitting a hundred thousand or more votes, so be it.

Unfortunately for Doc, this oversight on the part of the Rules didn't necessarily make for good television.

Again the rumor mill was that yes, Doc was ahead in the total vote count, but if the rules only counted unique cellphone numbers, he was in fact, behind. So the rest of the Dueteers are actually more popular, but their texters just don't have enough load to spend.

Thus, new the Wild Card rule, which gives the unique cellphone numbers greater weight due to the ten-vote cap. IMHO, the Wild Card rule should truly be known as the Calayan Clause.

So all Six stay alive for another week.

Meanwhile, I actually believe that T's performances are improving. Here she is with Rufa Mae Quinto, singing "Like a Virgin" in flagrante delicto.