Pinoy Big Brother


Pinoy Big Brother is a Philippine television reality competition show produced by ABS-CBN Studios and based on the Dutch reality television franchise Big Brother. The series is owned and produced by ABS-CBN, which holds the exclusive Philippine franchise rights to the format.
The program originally aired on ABS-CBN from August 21, 2005, to August 4, 2019, with Willie Revillame, Toni Gonzaga, and Mariel Rodriguez as its first hosts. Following ABS-CBN’s broadcast shutdown in 2020, the show returned via Kapamilya Channel and Kapamilya Online Live on December 6, 2020, as part of its Primetime Bida and Yes Weekend lineup. It later expanded its reach through blocktime and content distribution arrangements, airing on TV5 and, beginning March 9, 2025, on GMA Network under ABS-CBN’s programming partnership.
The series is currently broadcast on GMA Network for free television viewers in the Philippines and is simultaneously streamed on Kapamilya Online Live and Kapuso Stream for online audiences. Internationally, it airs via The Filipino Channel and GMA Pinoy TV.
Despite being shown across multiple networks, Pinoy Big Brother remains an ABS-CBN intellectual property and continues to be produced by ABS-CBN Studios. Its upcoming season is co-produced with GMA Network, marking the first joint reality show collaboration between the two networks. The show stands as the longest-running reality television series in the Philippines, having aired 11 main seasons, 4 celebrity editions, and 4 teen editions over the past two decades.
The current season is hosted by Bianca Gonzalez, Luis Manzano, Robi Domingo, Kim Chiu, Melai Cantiveros, Enchong Dee, Alexa Ilacad, Gabbi Garcia, and Mavy Legaspi.

Overview

Format

It follows the same premise as its many foreign counterparts around the world wherein a number of Filipinos volunteered to live inside a house for a certain number of days.
The elimination process in the show is the reverse of the original Dutch format. At the start of the elimination process, the "housemates" vote for which two fellow housemates they should eliminate. Once these nominations are chosen, the viewer votes come into play. For a week, viewers are asked to vote, via SMS or voice messaging through PLDT's hotline, or online, for whoever they wanted to stay longer in the house. In some cases, the Vote-to-Evict format is used, with the housemate garnering the most percentage of evict votes from the public is evicted from the house, or a combination of the two may be implemented. The housemate with the fewest viewer votes is eliminated. At the final week, the one with the most viewer votes will win the grand prize package. It usually includes house and lot, a car, a business franchise, home appliances, and a holiday, and is given the title of Big Winner.
Aside from the regular seasons involving civilian adults, the show has also aired three other special versions:
  • Celebrity editions: Commercial models, actors and actresses, radio and TV show hosts, musicians, sports and fashion personalities, and even politicians volunteer to reside in the house for a certain number of days, and the duration of this particular version of the show is lesser compared to the regular seasons. 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.
  • Teen editions: Adolescents aged 13 to 19 years old from different cities in the Philippines and sometimes even from certain overseas countries with sizable Filipino communities reside in the house. Other factors are disregarded; in-school and out-of-school youths, natural-born Filipinos and adolescents with a mixture of Filipino and foreign blood, those with intact and broken families, and even teenage single parents may be eligible as long one passes the age requirement and has a background worth exploring during the edition's run. This edition is usually done in the Philippine "summer" months of late March to early June. During this time, temperatures in the country are at their highest and most students are out of school; a regular school year in the Philippines runs from June of one year to March of the next.
  • Special/merged editions: More known as the "All In" twist, special editions feature a group of civilian adults, celebrities, and civilian teenagers enter the House to compete. These seasons are referred to as "special" editions because this edition was a Big Brother first worldwide. This edition was introduced in 2014 with Pinoy Big Brother: All In. Currently, these special editions are divided into the following variants:
  • * Celebrities, Adults, and Teens: All three versions of the series are merged into one house. Civilian adult, celebrity, and civilian teen housemates would compete altogether for the prize. This was introduced on All In, and was then used on Lucky 7 and Kumunity Season 10.
  • * Adults and Teens: Only a combination of civilian adults and teen housemates would be merged into one house to compete. This format was first used on 737 and was later used on Otso, Connect and Gen 11.
  • * Multi-part editions: These are combined editions that appear throughout a single edition's run, with each season having a distinct format from the others. Some of these feature celebrities, while others do not. The only difference is that all winners and finalists from each batch return to compete for a set number of spots in the finale. This edition was first introduced in 2015 with 737, and was also used by Lucky 7, Otso, and Kumunity Season 10.
Some editions feature formats inspired by other international versions of Big Brother, including the following:
  • Duos: In the third celebrity season, housemates are divided into two groups, with each housemate from one group paired with a housemate from the other. Similar to 2-in-1 housemates, these pairs will compete, nominate, strategize, and face eviction together until the finale. However, pairings were shuffled periodically through tasks and challenges throughout the season. This format was previously used in the joint Nigerian and South African season, All Star season of the Spanish version, and in the joint Dutch and Belgian season.
  • Groups: For the fourth celebrity season, the housemates were divided into groups of equal quantities, each led by an assigned leader. The leaders selected their members, and the groups competed in tasks, challenges, and nominations collectively—meaning the fate of one member depended on that of the entire group. Before each nomination ceremony, a Ligtask Challenge was held, granting immunity to the winning group for that round. The remaining groups then nominated other groups, and the one with the highest number of nomination points faced public voting. From the nominated group, the housemate from each agency with the lowest percentage of votes was evicted. This twist is similar to the Clique twist from Big Brother U.S. season 11.

    The House

The location of the Pinoy Big Brother House used to occupy an old house; it was demolished in order to give way for the show. The house was built within 79 days in 2005 and was built by 50 men round-the-clock. The house is actually a large, fully air-conditioned studio with a facade made to look like an ideal middle-class house. It is located just in front of the ELJ Communications Center in Eugenio Lopez Jr. Drive, Diliman, Quezon City. The leftmost part of the facade was designed for another reality show franchise called Pinoy Dream Academy until 2011 when it was entirely removed in favor of Big Brother. The interior of the studio is designed to look like a real house with themes and interior design changing for every season of the show. The studio is also designed to capture every "housemate's" activities with state-of-the-art surveillance cameras and microphones. The house is surrounded by walls with two-way mirrors to allow cameramen to directly shoot from behind of the mirrors. The studio has backlots that are utilized for several purposes depending on the season's theme. Currently, the backlots are utilized as an activity area, swimming pool area, and multi-purpose hall. Previously, it was also used for a garden, a resort, a concert hall for Pinoy Dream Academy, an eviction hall, and even a slum. The multi-purpose hall, in particular, is used by the ABS-CBN Foundation as a relief goods storage facility during calamities. The house's set-up is that of a bungalow, even though the facade is obviously designed as a two-storey house. The second floor houses a state-of-the-art master control room and several amenities designed for the program's crew. Although any form of communication from the outside world is banned inside the house, there is a large flat-screen television set in the living room, used for only 2 purposes:
  • To show any video Big Brother wanted to show to any or all housemates, especially that of the TV Mass every Sunday, and
  • To announce the names of nominees for eviction directly to the housemates and the person evicted from the house. The housemates saw hosts talk to them during the nomination and eviction nights.
To complete the setup, 26 surveillance cameras are positioned all over the house to watch the housemates' every move, including the bathroom. For modesty's sake, images from the bathroom will be shown if the bathroom is used for any purpose other than bathing and using the toilet.
The set up of the house, especially when shown on television, makes the illusion that it is a one-storey house. But anyone who passes by the house can easily notice that its facade is that of a two-storey house. That is because the second storey houses parts of the control room. The actual front doors to the house area are actually further inside.
The house interior was rebuilt for the second season, the changes are the following:
  • The number of cameras has been increased to 42.
  • There was a secret room built behind the confession room and a large activity area leading from the garden.
  • The house has a prayer room rather than just an altar.
  • The flat screen monitor found in the living area is now used to call any housemate.
  • The front door now leads to the Eviction Hall next door.
  • Instead of watching a TV mass, the housemates have a spiritual session with Coney Reyes, the show's spiritual adviser. This has been done since the first Celebrity Edition.
For Double Up, the house was divided into two different, yet equally furnished "houses." The changes are the following:
  • The house was completely rebuilt from the ground up, new set up, and larger space.
  • The guardians' area from the second teen edition was renovated to accommodate the season's twist.
  • The housemates that are evicted every week exit the house through the confession room.
  • Eviction takes place right outside of the Big Brother House.
For Unlimited, the facade of the house was fully renovated, and the gates were removed. The outside of the Big Brother house still served as the venue for evictions. The Big Brother house was still divided into two different themed houses yet both equally furnished. Both houses have separate confession rooms. The garden was removed, and the pool was retained and was considered a separate area and was called the Resort. The area was used for some time for Big Brother's rewards and tasks to the housemates, and was a venue for some House Battles. The activity area was retained and was renovated several times in order to accommodate the season's twists. Initially, it was used as a temporary shelter for the initial group of housemates and was themed after a typical urban slum house.
For 737, the former Pinoy Dream Academy facade became part of the Big Brother House as an extended facade. Also, the eviction now took place inside the ABS-CBN studios rather than outside the facade. The evicted housemate will be transferred by a car leading to the Eviction Studio.
For Otso, for the first time in the franchise's history, the entire one-way mirror system used for filming were removed and replaced by real walls. The number of cameras were increased to 50 and were upgraded to robotic cameras.
The other facade of the House was demolished in May 2023 because the lease agreement for the said space had expired that year and it was impractical for the management to renew it. The said House was formerly used also as the academy of the now-defunct reality singing-competition show, Pinoy Dream Academy. In both Connect and Kumunity Season 10 seasons, the "House B" also served as living quarters for the show's production staff, the show's office, brainstorm space, mini studio, and pantry as both seasons occurred during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines.