Who will be StarStruck survivors?

MANILA, Philippines — From thousands of hopefuls who auditioned, only 14 of them were selected to be the final contestants in the seventh season of the GMA 7 artista reality search StarStruck. Now, after three months, only four survivors remain to compete for the two-part Final Judgment tonight (for the last acting test) and tomorrow, Sept. 15, (grand finals) and to clinch the coveted titles Ultimate Female Survivor and Ultimate Male Survivor.

Dubbed as the Final 4, the remaining survivors are Allen Ansay of Camarines Sur, Kim de Leon of Batangas, Shayne Sava of Rizal and Lexi Gonzales of Manila. They will have one final acting test in the special episode, where the 12 Avengers and StarStruck alums will participate in the competition.

The last two survivors eliminated from the contest were Abdul Raman and Pamela Prinster after garnering the lowest percentage of votes.

At 17, Shayne has been facing life’s toughest battle as the daughter who tries to help her family in their day-to-day living. Remember how Shayne and her grandmother would borrow money from their neighbors for their transportation fare to make it to the StarStruck auditions. She shared that her parents are separated and both already have a family of their own.

“My determination led me to reach the finals,” said Shayne in the vernacular. “I really strive hard to learn everything in order to improve my acting. And I’m also thankful to the people who continue to support me until this day. I am so happy because this is truly the biggest achievement of my life.”

However, Shayne does not discount the fact that Lexi is also a strong contender for the Ultimate Female Survivor title. “I will give my best until the end even if I know that between me and Lexi, it is me who had landed in the bottom of voting results. But I will never give up because I keep in mind all the (pieces of) advice of Cherie Gil in the last acting test we had. She taught me about the different levels of emotion na huwag mag-start ng mataas agad. I’m also trying to modulate my voice kasi masyado daw pong matinis.”

She considered acting in action and fairy tale the toughest, telling that the latter requires the ability of vividly displaying the words in the script through one’s body, heart, mind and imagination. With action, Shayne said she needs to double her effort in executing stunts.

Lexi, on the other hand, said reading books on acting is beneficial for her. “It’s hard to say that it’s my edge over Shayne but I continue to read (so I can) learn more.”

Part of her goal is to help her autistic younger brother in his therapy which was stopped due to financial reason.

Meanwhile, Kim said having appeared in TVCs prior to joining StarStruck honed his acting skills. No wonder, he has been the perennial highest scorer during acting tests.

As the youngest finalist, Allen said he enjoys everything that they do in the competition to avoid feeling the pressure of getting the highest vote to become the ultimate winner.

In the final round of the competition, the Final 4 will be given off-beat roles. The StarStruck council — Heart Evangelista, Cherie and Jose Manalo — will give comments, recommendations and scores. The total score of each finalist will come from the judges and the audience. Viewers can vote until tomorrow through SMS by typing Starstruck (space) Name of hopeful and send to 4627, online voting via www.gmanetwork.com/starstruckvote or through Google by searching StarStruck Vote.  

The Ultimate Female Survivor and Ultimate Male Survivor will each receive a GMA management contract worth P5M, P1M cash and a house and lot.