According to AGB Nielsen Philippines’ ratings for July 6, 2008, GMA7’s newest show, the Philippine television remake of the popular Mexicanovela “Rosalinda”, posted a modest 26.3% from among the Mega Manila households. Despite high expectations on its performance, the show’s premiere telecast fared poorly compared to other GMA7 primetime shows like Darna, Captain Barbell, Marimar and Dyesebel when they debuted.

Personally, I think this is attributable to bad casting. Although the show’s leads Carla Abellana and Geoff Eigenmann (who play Rosalinda Perez and Fernando Jose Altamirano, respectively) look good onscreen, they both lack the experience and character which are required in handling a soap of this magnitude. Carla is a first time actress and Geoff has, well, a speech problem and a lot of fine-tuning to do acting-wise. Had I been given the power of choice, I would have paired Carla with a more experienced actor like JC de Vera. The moreno actor has proven that he has the flare and bearing of a leading man as well as depth of an actor when he was cast opposite another relative newcomer Rhian Ramos when the latter was made to topbill the Philippine adaptation of the Argentinian soap “Lalola”. For me, a Carla-JC team up would have been the tandem to beat. Well, just my two cents worth.

Those from GMA7 who are reading this, can still do some damage control, though. How about casting JC for the role of Alex Durantes (popularized by actor Victor Noriega in the original soap) who turned Rosalinda/Paloma into a singing sensation? I think that would be the show’s saving grace. Again, just my opinion.  Incidentally, you can catch JC de Vera every afternoon in “Ngayon at Kailanman”, one of the soap operas aired in GMA7’s Dramarama sa Hapon block.