Pinoy Big Brother, more popularly known by its abbreviated title PBB is the Philippine version of Big Brother. The series premiered on August 21, 2005, on ABS-CBN. The show bills itself as the "Teleserye ng Totoong Buhay" (lit. Real Life Soap Opera) and revolves around its concept of "Pagpapakatotoo" (eng. authenticity). The word "Pinoy" in the title is a colloquial term that refers to Filipino people, culture, and diaspora.
When the show first aired, it made history as the first-ever reality show produced in the country in an era dominated by soap operas, talent shows, and game shows. Since then, Pinoy Big Brother has dramatically impacted the history of Philippine television, cementing its reputation as the most successful and longest-running reality show in the Philippines. Elements such as a family-friendly narrative, giving importance to Filipino values and culture, the contestants' life stories, and the countless life lessons shared by Big Brother have contributed to the series' success, resonating with millions of Filipino audiences around the world.
Because of its nationwide success, the show eventually became a household name, with numerous contestants gaining celebrity status after living inside the house.
How it works[]
Pinoy Big Brother - Big Brother 20th Birthday Celebration Big Brother Universe
Pinoy Big Brother in Big Brother's 20th Anniversary Tribute in 2019.
Original Pinoy Big Brother logo used from 2005 - 2009
Official Logo used during 2010 - 2015
Season 7 Logo used in 2016-2017
Big Brother is a reality television show in which a group of people lives together in a large house, isolated from the outside world but continuously watched by television cameras. Each series lasts for around three months, and there are usually fewer than 15 participants. The housemates try to win a cash prize by avoiding periodic evictions from the house.
Philippine Series[]
Pinoy Big Brother follows the premise of the original international format of the show wherein a group of Filipinos volunteers to live in Big Brother house for a certain number of days without any contact from the outside world. However, unlike its foreign counterparts, the Philippine version revolves around authenticity and sincerity and continuously highlights Filipino morals and values. Because of this, Pinoy Big Brother evolved as a reality series that revolves around authenticity, determination, hard work, self-discovery, friendships, and love for family. This Filipinized approach to the international Big Brother format popularized the show to a culturally conservative and religiously Christian Philippine society.
Similar to the international Big Brother series, weekly budget tasks, nominations, and evictions were among the essential aspects of the show. It focuses on its social experiment nature by restricting the housemates from discussing and influencing nominations and having Big Brother as the most powerful character in the show.
The essential elements of the show are:
Big Brother[]
Big Brother, also called in Filipino as "Kuya" (a Tagalog honorific and kinship term for an elder male sibling), is the most important element of the series. He is the unseen voice and owner of the Big Brother house and is characterized in the franchise as wise, motivational, nurturing, and fatherly. He's known for imparting life advice and words of wisdom to the housemates throughout the season and for his strict discipline that housemates must always adhere to. The show's unique characterization of the Big Brother character helped popularize the show to Filipino viewers, who would often relate Big Brother's life lessons and wisdom to real-life scenarios.
Tasks[]
The tasks are one of the main activities that the housemates do throughout their time in the house. From time to time, various tasks are given by Big Brother for housemates to accomplish.
- Weekly Tasks: Every week, the housemates must accomplish weekly tasks given by Big Brother in order to receive a food budget for the following week. Weekly Tasks challenge the housemates' teamwork and camaraderie to succeed.
- Reward Tasks: Throughout the series, Big Brother gives tasks to either one housemate or the entire house to accomplish in order to receive a special reward. These rewards vary from a simple house party to a special cash or house prize.
- Personal Tasks: This type of task is given individually for one housemate to accomplish. Most of the personal tasks are in relation to the housemate's life or family, and succeeding in the task would give a reward to the housemate's loved ones.
- Secret Tasks: This type of task requires one or a group of housemates to accomplish the task in secret. Losing the task would give the housemate punishments that vary from simple fun punishment to forced eviction.
Nominations[]
Every week, the nominations take place inside the Confession Room where all housemates have 3 points and must give 2 points to one housemate and 1 point to another one that they want to nominate. The housemates who received the three highest nomination points become the week's set of nominees.
- In All In, the viewers were given a power to nominate. The housemate who received the highest vote joined the week's set of nominees.
- Since All In, nomination challenges became a reoccurring nomination process wherein the housemates who failed to win in the challenges become nominees for eviction.
Evictions[]
Every weekend, the nominated housemates face the public voting for eviction. Throughout the week, the viewers vote via SMS for who they want to save and by the end of the week, the nominee with the lowest save votes would be evicted out of the house.
- In the first half throughout the three batches of Lucky 7, eviction challenges were introduced wherein instead of public voting, the nominees compete in a challenge for eviction.
Challenges[]
Since Pinoy Big Brother 2, the series introduced challenges that give certain advantages such as power and safety to the housemates. Some of these challenges eventually become a mainstay in the series' format.
- Ligtask Challenges: Since Pinoy Big Brother 2 Ligtask Challenge has been an important safety competition among the housemates. Throughout the seasons, Ligtask appeared in various forms such as immunity, veto, nomination and eviction challenge.
- Big Jump Challenge: Since its introduction in Double Up, the Big Jump has become an important challenge for the remaining housemates to secure their slot in the finale. The winning housemate automatically gets a spot in the Big Four and becomes immune to nominations and evictions.
- KarAPATdAPAT Challenge: During the run of Pinoy Big Brother: Connect, the remaining seven housemates will undergo tasks to determine the Big 4. The tasks will determine who has self-trust ("Tiwala sa Sarili"), camaraderie ("Pakikisama"), resourceful ("Madiskarte"), and steadfast ("Matatag"), which are the traits of a housemate worthy of securing a Big 4 slot.
Big Four & Big Night[]
Every season, the Big Four consisting of the final four housemates are named and are able to advance to the live finale.
The live finale named Big Night is the most anticipated evening throughout every season. Big Night is a grand finale event and is held in different arenas or stadiums throughout the country every season. The event usually begins with opening performances from guest celebrities and shows memorable moments throughout the season. The viewer vote results are also announced after a week of voting. At the end of the night, the Big Four's final placements are announced where one of them is eventually hailed as Big Winner. The Big Winner wins the grand prize package usually including a cash prize, holiday package for two, and a house/condo unit.[1]
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Big Night was not held in any public area. Instead, the said event was held in front of the Big Brother house. Performances of celebrities were held in a separate area, taped and live.
Casting[]
Typically, the housemates are chosen via open casting auditions held in different cities throughout Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao areas. Open Auditions are also held overseas in countries with a large Filipino population, such as the USA, Australia, United Kingdom and others. From there, the auditionees would undergo a series of closed-door interviews with the network's executives and Endemol/Banijay representatives as part of the selection process every season.
- In 2018, ABS-CBN had launched Star Hunt, a grand audition event for people who want to join reality shows, talent shows, and game shows aired by ABS-CBN, including Pinoy Big Brother. The audition caravan was held in various places in the country and overseas.
- From 2020-2022, auditions were held via the Filipino livestreaming app "Kumu" due to community quarantine restrictions brought by the COVID-19 Pandemic. In addition, the final casting round required a 14-day quarantine and COVID-19 clearance to become part of the official cast.
The series typically cast contestants whose ages range between 13-18 years old for Teen Housemates and 19-40 years old for Adult Housemates. The auditions are open to all Filipino citizens in the Philippines and people in other countries that belong to the Filipino diaspora. Foreign-born individuals who reside in the Philippines, alongside foreign people who have an affinity with Filipino culture, are also welcome to audition.
Season Theme & Twists[]
Every season, themes and twists were one of the most anticipated to appear by avid viewers. A season's theme and its twists play a major role in the series, making each season different from one another. Some notable season-themed twists were double houses, rich and poor houses, face to face nominations, mass evictions, fake evictions, housemates entering the house in the middle of the season's duration, all types of housemates living inside one house, show's hosts becoming houseguests and many more.
Some of the notable season themes and twists that appeared in the series are as follows:
- Celebrity Housemates: A group of celebrities would become housemates to fight for charity. This theme eventually became one of the three editions of Pinoy Big Brother.
- Teen Housemates: A group of teenagers would enter the house and become housemates. This theme also become one of the three main editions in Pinoy Big Brother.
- Teen Housemates + Guardians: In Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition Plus, the Teen Housemates entered the house together with their Guardians who lived in an adjacent living quarter called "Plus Base". These guardians have a separate game-play of their own but if their teen housemate relative got evicted, they will also get evicted.
- Multiple Houses: This theme first appeared on Pinoy Big Brother: Double Up featuring two equal-sized houses and two sets of housemates. The Double House theme was carried over to Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Clash 2010. The theme was used again for Pinoy Big Brother: Unlimited with having three houses reflecting different social statuses.
- Rich vs Poor: In the first half of Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Clash 2010, the first group of housemates was sorted based on their social status.
- Pinoy vs. Foreigners: Another theme that appeared in Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Clash 2010 after the Rich vs Poor Housemates were merged, a group of foreign-born housemates came in and fought against the remaining Philippine-born housemates on their place in the finale.
- All In: Considered a Big Brother first, Pinoy Big Brother: All In featured all types of housemates; Celebrities, Teens and Civilians in one edition.
- Batch Editions: Two or more batches of housemates would enter the house one after the other within the entire season. This theme was first introduced in Pinoy Big Brother: 737.
- Dream Team: In Pinoy Big Brother 7, the top four finalists from each of the season's three batches return back to the game in a special final chapter called Dream Team.
- Official Housemates vs. Star Dreamers: In Pinoy Big Brother: Otso, the season featured unique gameplay involving Official Housemates who managed to enter the Big Brother House and waitlisted contestants called Star Dreamers of Camp Star Hunt wherein every time an official housemate gets evicted, a Star Dreamer becomes an official housemate and cross-over to the Big Brother House to replace the evictee for their slot as an official housemate.
Air Schedule[]
Pinoy Big Brother typically airs around 10:00 PM PHT on ABS-CBN's primetime block. The series airs 7 days a week, with highlight episodes airing from Mondays to Fridays. On Weekends, Nomination Nights are held on Sundays while Eviction Nights are held on Saturdays.
In Pinoy Big Brother: Kumunity Season 10, the season was moved to an earlier weekday air schedule, at 5:45 PM, instead of its usual late-night timeslot due to schedule conflicts with its free-to-air broadcaster, A2Z.
Companion Shows[]
Since 2014, the series currently airs an afternoon recap show entitled Pinoy Big Brother Gold aired every Monday to Friday at 5:00 PM PHT on ABS-CBN's Kapamilya Gold block featuring extra weekly highlights. It's predecessor, Pinoy Big Brother: Uber used to air around 4:30 PM on ABS-CBN's afternoon block from 2007 to 2010. In 2011, Pinoy Big Brother: Unlimited's Unliday aired on the same timeslot, focusing on the Industrial House highlights. A midnight companion show entitled Pinoy Big Brother: Uplate used to air every midnight of the week until the show ended in 2010. Every season, Pinoy Big Brother also airs various digital companion shows with talk show format which were livestreamed via Youtube, Facebook, and its official website. Pinoy Big Brother Online aired from 2015 to 2017 until it was renamed Bring 8 On for Pinoy Big Brother: Otso. Since 2020, Pinoy Big Brother's main show has been accompanied by its companion show PBB Kumulitan on Kumu.
The live feeds are shown every day and can be seen on iWant. The livesteam is usually aired for free. However in Pinoy Big Brother: 737 it was temporarily shut down and re-aired with subscription fees due to malicious and indecent posts online made by some viewers regarding the housemates.[2] Since 2020, the 24/7 live feeds of the Big Brother house are now accessible to the public for free via Kumu.
The Big Brother House[]
For more information about the house interiors, check out the page Big Brother House/Philippines.
Facade of the Pinoy Big Brother House in front of ABS-CBN studios in South Triangle, Quezon City.
The Big Brother house, commonly called in Filipino as "Bahay ni Kuya" (lit. Big Brother's House), plays a huge part in the show. The reality series' house is famous for its yellow and blue facade designed to look like a typical two-story bungalow house. Due to its popularity, it has become part of the franchise's branding aside from its logo. Since its creation in 2005, the house has become one of the most famous houses in the Philippines and has been one of the popular attractions in Quezon City among casual viewers and super fans alike.
Despite being regarded as a livable house, in reality, the Pinoy Big Brother house is a purpose-built, multi-room studio compound with a lot size of approximately 4000 sq. m., standing on three former residential lots. Furthermore, the house can be seen as a two-story structure when passing by the facade, but the main house is just a one-story structure when shown on television. That is due to the main house being located further inside the studio. The two-story facade structure houses the show's production staff areas, dressing rooms for hosts and guests, and smaller studio areas for its companion shows.
Seasons and Editions[]
Since the show began airing in 2005, Pinoy Big Brother has successfully produced 8 regular seasons (4 civilian; 4 special), 4 teen seasons, and 2 celebrity seasons.
Civilian Edition[]
Civilian editions are the series' regular seasons whose housemates consist of civilian adults with ages ranging from 19 to 35 years old and have diverse backgrounds. It is considered as the "original" Pinoy Big Brother by the viewers as Pinoy Big Brother 1 was composed of civilian housemates.
Currently, the series has aired 4 civilian seasons; Pinoy Big Brother 1, Pinoy Big Brother 2, Double Up, and Pinoy Big Brother: Unlimited.
Celebrity Edition[]
Celebrity Editions consist of famous housemates from different fields such as entertainment, politics, and sports. Celebrity editions usually consist of commercial models, actors and actresses, radio and TV show hosts, musicians, sports and fashion personalities, and even politicians. Celebrity housemates, like many counterparts abroad, play for charity, aside from themselves. Prizes given away from edition to edition can vary, but basically, the cash prize an edition's winner can receive is the same as the prize for that winner's chosen charity organization, i.e. the winner and his/her charity each win the same amount.
Currently, the series has aired only two celebrity seasons; Celebrity Edition 1, and Celebrity Edition 2
Teen Edition[]
Teen Editions are seasons with teenagers ranging from 13 to 18 (sometimes with 12 & 19 years old) housemates with diverse backgrounds. The series' teen edition is the Philippine version of Big Brother UK spin-off Teen Big Brother: The Experiment, albeit in a more wholesome and stricter manner and follows more the premise of a regular Pinoy Big Brother season.
Originally, the teen editions are the "summer" seasons of the show, as teen editions are usually aired throughout the Philippine "summer" months from late March to early June. During this time, most teenagers are out of school as the typical school year in the Philippines runs from June of one year to March of the next. Since the show is composed of teenagers, teen seasons implement special restrictions and have more rules than regular seasons. In addition, the series' teen edition is usually programmed to understand the lives of teenagers, aiming to show prove that teenagers can do more than what others perceive them to be. Considerably, teen seasons attract a huge following of teenaged audience, making it the most popular edition in the series.
Currently, the series has aired 4 teen seasons; Teen Edition 1, Teen Edition Plus, Teen Clash 2010, and Teen Edition 4.
Special/Combined Seasons[]
Special Editions are seasons with a different format to an ordinary season. Depending on the season's theme, special editions include either all types of housemates in one season, or a season is divided into two or more editions. Despite being a special season, it still chronologically belongs to the series' regular seasons. Currently, the series has aired 4 combined seasons.
All In is a special combined season where Civilian, Celebrity, and Teen housemates live together and compete against each other in one season. Currently, the series only aired one season in this format; Pinoy Big Brother: All In. However, this format also appeared in multi-part seasons just like the other three editions. A variant of this format was used in Pinoy Big Brother: Connect and Pinoy Big Brother: Gen11, where Teens and Adult housemates lived in one house within a single edition.
Multi-Part Seasons[]
Multi-Part seasons are combined seasons that air two or more editions continuously throughout its entire season run. Due to its format, most of the series' longest seasons were multi-part seasons.
Pinoy Big Brother has aired 4 multi-part seasons; the two-part 737, four-part Lucky 7 and Kumunity Season 10, and five-part Otso.
List of Seasons[]
Big Brother's Big Winners[]
Main Article: Big Winner
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Presenters[]
Bianca, Kim, Melai, Robi & Enchong introduce as "Pamilya ni Kuya" in PBB Kumunity eviction night
Bianca Gonzalez, Kim Chiu, Melisa Cantiveros, Robi Domingo, and Enchong Dee, re-introduced as Big Brother's Family in Pinoy Big Brother: Kumunity Season 10, after Toni Gonzaga's controversial departure from the show, leaving her 16-year hosting duty and passing it on to Bianca Gonzalez.
Currently, Pinoy Big Brother is spearheaded by main presenter, Bianca Gonzalez, along with co-hosts Robi Domingo, Melisa Cantiveros, Kim Chiu, Enchong Dee, and Alexa Ilacad.
From its inaugural season in 2005 until 2022, actress, singer, and TV host Toni Gonzaga served as the show's main presenter, and was an integral part of the show. However, in 2022, Toni made a controversial departure from her 16-year role in Pinoy Big Brother and passed her role to co-host, Bianca Gonzalez.
During the first season, variety show host Willie Revillame, Mariel Rodriguez and Toni Gonzaga were the original hosts of Pinoy Big Brother. When a controversy occurred on Willie's now-defunct variety show Wowowee, he chose not to return, leaving Toni Gonzaga as the main presenter while Mariel Rodriguez became the host of the show's midnight companion show, Pinoy Big Brother: Uplate. In 2006, Pinoy Big Brother: Celebrity Edition 1 3rd Big Placer, Bianca Gonzalez joined Toni and Mariel as the show's hosts. Throughout the years until Mariel's departure from the show in 2010, the trio became household names, with Big Brother eventually dubbing them as "Big Brother's Angels".
Male co-hosts recurringly appeared in succeeding seasons. Initially, TV Host and Actor Luis Manzano recurringly appeared as Toni, Bianca, and Mariel's male co-host. However, in 2011, Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition Plus runner up Robi Domingo replaced Luis as the male co-host and became the mainstay male co-host of the show since.
In succeeding years, various hosts, mostly former housemates, joined as the show's co-hosts for its companion shows and live shows.
| Status: | Appeared in the Season | Appeared only on Big Night Finale | Left during the Season |
| Presenters: | Currently Hosting |
Theme Songs[]
| Civilian Editions (Main OST) Pinoy Ako "I'm a Filipino" |
Celebrity Editions Sikat ang Pinoy "Filipinos are Famous" |
Teen Editions Kabataang Pinoy "Filipino Youth" |
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The series has produced three different theme songs specifically used on every type of edition aired.
Civilian Seasons[]
The show has its own theme song called "Pinoy Ako" (English: I'm a Filipino) by Orange and Lemons. This song is also the basis for much of the music scoring used in the show.
In 2007, a rehashed version was used in Season 2 sung by the rock band Cebalo. In 2010, another version was used in Season 4, sung by the main host herself, Toni Gonzaga. It had some remixed elements.
The new version of "Pinoy Ako" by Reo Brothers was released for Pinoy Big Brother: All In. However, in 737, which coincides the 10th Anniversary of the show, they reverted to the original song sung by Orange and Lemons.
The song was rehashed again in 2021 for Pinoy Big Brother Kumunity Season 10, changed title to "Pinoy Tayo" which is sung by Rico Blanco and was released simultaneously as its first live performance at ASAP featuring former Housemates. The song is currently playing as the theme of the Adult Regular Edition of Kumunity 10.
Celebrity Seasons[]
Celebrity Editions also had it's own theme song entitled Sikat ang Pinoy (lit. Filipinos are Famous) by Season 1 contestant Sam Milby and Toni Gonzaga which was used for its Celebrity Edition 1. However in 2007, just like the regular series, a rehashed version of Sikat ang Pinoy was also used for Celebrity Edition 2 sung by Pinoy Dream Academy contestants, Yeng Constantino and Emman Abatayo.
Teen Seasons[]
A different theme song was also used for its Teen seasons; Kabataang Pinoy (The Filipino Youth) of the Itchyworms.
Fifteen years later, two new versions of the song were made for the Teen Edition of Kumunity 10: a rendition made by the OPM band Nameless Kids that was introduced in November 2021, and a collaborative version by P-pop groups BINI and SB19. The former was only used for promotional purposes during the edition's run, while the latter was used as the edition's theme.
Social Media[]
Trivia[]
- Pinoy Big Brother is the longest-running Big Brother series in Asia, followed by India's Bigg Boss.
- Pinoy Big Brother is the second Asian country to have a Big Brother franchise after Big Brother Thailand that aired its debut season four months earlier than Pinoy Big Brother 1 in 2005.
- With more than 11 editions, The Philippines is the only country in Southeast Asia to successfully produce more than two seasons of Big Brother. Big Brother Thailand lasted for two seasons while Big Brother Vietnam and Big Brother Indonesia only lasted for one season each.
- Pinoy Big Brother is the only Big Brother franchise in the world to adopt a Teen Edition for Big Brother after Teen Big Brother: The Experiment was aired in the United Kingdom in 2003.
- Since its launch in 2005, Pinoy Big Brother already had over 300 housemates living inside the house.
- The majority of the series' Big Winners are of Visayan descent.
- All of the show's current presenters, as well as some former presenters, experienced living inside the house.
- Bianca Gonzalez, Robi Domingo, Kim Chiu, Melisa Cantiveros, and Alexa Ilacad were former housemates in Celebrity Edition 1, Teen Edition Plus, Teen Edition 1, Double Up, and Kumunity 10 respectively, while Enchong Dee was a special guest during 737.
- Former main hosts Toni Gonzaga and Mariel Rodriguez became surprise guests during Celebrity Edition 2. Bianca followed suit during the penultimate episode of companion show Über, albeit staying only overnight.
- Former co-hosts John Prats and Richard Juan were former housemates in Celebrity Edition 1 and 737 respectively.
- Pinoy Big Brother had some of the longest season durations worldwide. The longest season in its own version, Pinoy Big Brother: Otso, which lasted for 268 days, became the third-longest season in the whole Big Brother history.
- Pinoy Big Brother had the second-highest number of ejections in the history of Big Brother worldwide next to Germany.
- Pinoy Big Brother has the youngest Big Brother housemate to enter the house in Big Brother history, when Bailey May entered in Pinoy Big Brother: 737's Teen Edition at age 12.
- Pinoy Big Brother was one of the attractions of the indoor theme park, ABS-CBN Studio Experience, where visitors could experience becoming a housemate and participate in various tasks to be given by Big Brother. However, the indoor theme park was permanently closed due to the COVID pandemic in 2020.
- Since the show's inception, 2013 and 2023 were the only years without any Pinoy Big Brother seasons to be aired.
References[]
| Big Brother Franchises | ||
|---|---|---|
| Africa | Africa (Secret) · Angola · Cameroon · Liberia · Nigeria · South Africa | |
| Americas | Argentina · Brazil · Canada (Quebec) · Chile · Colombia · Ecuador · Mexico · Pacific · Panama · Peru · United States (Spanish) | |
| Asia-Pacific | Arab States · Australia · China · India · Indonesia · Israel · Mongolia · Pakistan · Philippines · Thailand · Vietnam · Turkey | |
| Europe | Albania · Balkans · Belgium · Bulgaria · Croatia · Czechia · Denmark · Finland · France (Loft) · Germany · Greece · Hungary (Való Világ) · Italy · Kosovo · Lithuania · Malta · Netherlands · Norway · Poland · Portugal (Secret) · Romania · Russia · Scandinavia · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain (Secret)· Sweden · Switzerland · Ukraine · United Kingdom | |
| Virtual | Second Life | |