Former vice president Noli De Castro returns on Monday to the primetime news program that served as the perfect springboard for his short-lived political career. He is showing up with Korina Sanchez who is also fresh from a year-long hiatus from daily-grind news work for her husband’s ill-fated vice presidential bid. De Castro and Sanchez are joining former congressman Ted Failon in ABS-CBN’s flagship news program TV Patrol.

It is surely a dream team. ABS-CBN is bringing together three of the biggest names in local broadcasting. Not everyone is happy, though. These celebrities are tainted by their past and present political links—and news is supposedly objective.

Well, news has never been objective. It is not usually overtly subjective, either. Some are not comfortable with the idea of hearing political news from an ex-future president or from the wife of a possible 2016 presidential bet.

This is a casting coup indeed—a move obviously motivated by a desire to catch up in the ratings game considering a serious threat from a former network employee. Put the big names on TV and viewers will be glued. It is not the quality of news coverage that matters. This unfortunately shows a low regard for the audience—a move that does not speak well of the profession people depend on for information. But if it is true that viewers are obsessed with celebrities than with substance, who is to blame, then?