MANILA, Philippines - Have you noticed? All sorts of people are ?daring? to host TV shows these days?and their ineptness is depressing and irritating to behold.

We fault the network executives who approve these unqualified hosts? appointments in the first place. What accounts for the drastically lowered standards that appear to be currently in place?

A major shift seems to be TV channels? preference for program hosts who are already celebrities in their own right. This runs counter to the industry practice some decades ago of tapping qualified newcomers and professionals, who became popular after working on TV for years.

These days, the competition has become so stiff that TV people don?t seem to have the time for career development. New programs have to become hits now, so stars are preferred as TV hosts because their popularity can help boost their new shows to the top in only one season.

Trouble is, stars-turned-hosts aren?t given the training required for them to do well in their new line of work. Hosting isn?t acting or singing, so stars are often stymied by their new hosting assignments.

Beyond spiel-reading

They seem to think that TV hosting consists mainly of being able to read spiels and questions written by somebody else. Wrong! A good TV host stamps his show with his attitude, personality and interests, so if he can?t go beyond spiel-reading, he?s a goner and his program goes down in flames with him.

Inept star-hosts and mere spiel-readers are all over or clueless lack of initiative is embarrassing to behold. Worse, they are so spiel-dependent that they lose their distinct personalities, and come off as cookie-cutter clones of each other.

Even more disturbingly, inept on-camera work is being turned in by some TV news people whose utter dependence on the news script is dismaying. They aren?t stars, but appear to have been hired mainly for their good looks and modulated voices.

Sometimes unable to think or ad-lib on their own, they reveal their limitations when they have to handle ?breaking news? events that happen too fast to be scripted. They look terrified and find it difficult to speak, let alone think up articulately incisive questions that could clarify the important unfolding events for viewers? information and edification.

Interesting, interested

Other program types that seem to attract more than their share of hapless hosts are youth-oriented, lifestyle, magazine and music shows. Since they?re generally supposed to be slick and trendy, they?re usually hosted by young lookers or erstwhile stars who?ve married well and gone ?society.?

Alas, the looks and social veneer turn out to be superficial, and some hosts can?t get far beyond the predictable hip jargon and shallow ?insights into life? that pass for perceptive and heartfelt hosting on TV these days.

If wannabe hosts want to do well, they should realize more that being on top of a TV program requires much more than just looks, popularity and scripted spiels.

They have to be interesting?and interested?personalities in their own right, can ad-lib their way out of a conversational elevator that?s stuck between floors, are as unflappable as a tungsten flapjack, and have a heart as big as their ego is small.

Feel that you qualify? What a difference a good TV host makes! Don?t think that you?ve got what it takes? Quit while you?re ahead?and do all of us a great, big favor.