Pinoy Big Brother: Double Up


Pinoy Big Brother: Double Up is the third main season of the Philippine ABS-CBN reality television series Pinoy Big Brother and the seventh season overall, which began on October 4, 2009 on ABS-CBN. Toni Gonzaga, Mariel Rodriguez, and Bianca Gonzalez reprised their hosting duties this season. It ran for 133 days until February 13, 2010, which broke Season 2's record for the longest stay of housemates inside the house by only one week.
There were two sets of auditions for this season. The first set was held in late 2007 at several cities in the Philippines, as well as the cities of Madrid, Milan, and Dubai. Those auditions also produced the housemates for '. A second series of auditions, which included selections for the third Teen Edition, were held in several key cities in the Philippines and the cities of Tokyo and San Francisco. An estimated 57,824 people attended the auditions. From those two auditions, only 50 people were reportedly chosen for the shortlist. A total of 26 housemates entered the House, with 14 on Day 1 and ten on Day 7. The last two housemates entered on Day 43.
The winner of the new season received an LCD TV set, an Asian tour package, a business package, a house and lot, and PHP 1 million in cash. The winner also donated another PHP 1 million to a charity of their choice, making Double Up the first non-celebrity season to do so.
This season also marked the return of Pinoy Big Brother UpLate, after being replaced by Pinoy Big Brother Über in the and '. Mariel continued hosting Über while Bianca took the helm for UpLate. Episodes from the previous week were also recapped through a weekend program on Studio 23 entitled Pinoy Big Brother: Primetime Weekends on 23 and delayed, but unedited late morning/early afternoon feed through Pinoy Big Brother: Raw on Studio 23.
Melisa Cantiveros emerged as the winner of this season.

Overview

House theme

With the Double-up twist of having two houses, the houses have a European motif for interiors with bright colors as inspired by architectural designs of Antoni Gaudí for House A and Vincent Van Gogh's paintings for House B. The houses appear to be smaller than before, with each house having the same set of amenities with different wall paintings. House A has predominantly blue and green wall paintings. House B has predominantly red and yellow wall paintings. Furthermore, House A's garden inherits the infinity pool previously seen in Teen Edition: Plus and the second season of Pinoy Dream Academy; House B only has a simple terrace area with a jacuzzi at one side.

Double Up Twists

Aside from having two Houses, the season was dubbed Double-Up for several reasons.
There were a total of twenty-six housemates - twenty official housemates, four sub-official housemates, and two replacement housemates, who entered the Houses: the first set of 14 housemates entered on Day 1, while a second set of 10 were introduced on Day 7. A third batch of two housemates entered the house on Day 43. They are divided below by the batch from which they were introduced and House in which they live. The ages indicated were the housemates' ages upon their entrance to the house. The twins are marked with different colors. A table is included to show the housemates shifted houses in the duration of the show.
The first batch of housemates entered the Houses on Day 1 in the order shown. They appeared and disappeared from stage with the use of several magic tricks, with a Magic-themed kick-off. Filipino-American artist Amber Davis sang the theme song, with ex-housemates Jason Gainza, Cassandra Ponti and Franzen Fajardo from Season 1, Niña Jose from, and Wendy Valdez and Gee-Ann Abrahan from Season 2.
The second batch of Housemates entered the Big Brother House on Day 7, during another special show called "The Spooktacular Reveal," utilizing a haunted house theme. Housemates were escorted by hosts Bianca and Mariel to the front door of the house. While the 10 housemates in the two houses danced to the tune of Thriller, outside the house, present were Big Winners and ex-housemates Nene Tamayo from Season 1, John Prats from, Beatriz Saw and Mickey Perz from Season 2, Robi Domingo from, and the recently evicted Double-up housemates Kenny and Toffi Santos and JM Lagumbay.
On Day 41, right after Big Brother announced Tom's forced eviction to the housemates, primetime edition host Toni Gonzaga revealed that new housemate - confirmed during the following night's broadcast as a guy and a girl - would enter the house. The new housemates entered on Day 43.
NameAge on entryHometownEnteredExitedResult
21General Santos CityDay 1Day 133
24Metro CebuDay 1Day 133
21Oriental MindoroDay 1Day 133
22Quezon CityDay 7Day 133
33Cagayan de OroDay 7Day 133
21Davao CityDay 1Day 126
24SpainDay 7Day 119
23PampangaDay 7Day 112
22BoholDay 7Day 112
19ParañaqueDay 43Day 98
26IloiloDay 7Day 91
32BaguioDay 7Day 84
22Tondo, ManilaDay 1Day 77
29CaviteDay 43Day 67
25Tokyo, JapanDay 1Day 64
24AustriaDay 7Day 56
23SiquijorDay 7Day 49
22Samar / Arizona, United StatesDay 1Day 42
26BatangasDay 1Day 35
26PampangaDay 1Day 26
22Metro Cebu / Fukuoka, JapanDay 1Day 22
25SpainDay 7Day 21
29Quezon CityDay 1Day 5
20RizalDay 1Day 5
20RizalDay 1Day 5
29Quezon CityDay 1Day 3

House stay history

Big Brother Swap

It was announced by the program on Day 21 that another Big Brother Swap would take place. This time, one from either House would trade places with another housemate from another foreign edition of Big Brother. This would also be the second time that Pinoy Big Brother linked up with other foreign versions of the show, Season 2 being the first, when housemate Bruce Quebral traded places with Tina Semolič from the first season of Big Brother Slovenia.
On Day 26, it was announced by the host that the show would be swapping housemates with Big Brother Finland's fifth season. On Oct. 29, 2009, ABS-CBN's YouTube channel, iABS-CBN, uploaded a video confirming that the housemate from Big Brother Finland who will swap places in the Philippines is Kätlin Laas, a 22-year-old food processing plant worker originally from Rakvere, Estonia but migrated to Finland at the age of 16, and is currently living in Seinäjoki, Finland. On Day 27, it was announced that Cathy from Group A, then currently living in House B, would be swapping with Kätlin and would be going to Finland to live in their Big Brother House for a week. Cathy's selection was made through a series of tasks on which the housemates underwent on the watchful eyes of the Finnish producers.
Kätlin left the Big Brother Finland House on Day 26 and enter either Philippine House on Day 29. She was supposed to arrive in the Philippines and enter either House the day before, but her flight was delayed due to weather disturbances caused by Typhoon Santi. Hours before her entrance, she had a brief appearance on the show The Buzz. On the other hand, Cathy was supposed to leave in the morning of Day 28 but their flight was postponed to a later hour of the day.
Much like the first Big Swap, events from both Houses are chronicled. Also, all conversations in English are subtitled in Filipino and all Finnish conversations and confessions are dubbed over by Filipino voice actors. For the Finnish version, clips from the Philippine house are shown in the Big Brother Extra show, while conversations in English are subtitled in Suomi.
The Big Swap started on the evening of Day 29. Kätlin initially stayed in House A upon her arrival on Day 29. She transferred to House B on Day 31. On Day 32, Cathy and Kätlin were finally able to meet through a video call through Skype. Later that day, Kätlin returned to House A. She left the Philippine House on the morning of Day 34. She was briefly interviewed for the morning show Umagang Kay Ganda just after stepping outside the front door. Meanwhile, Cathy entered on the evening of Day 69 of the Finnish version. She left six days later on the evening of Day 74 of the Finnish version, signaling the end of the Big Swap.
Kätlin left the Philippines the same day she left the Pinoy Big Brother house and re-entered their house in the early morning of Day 75 of the Finnish version. Cathy left Finland the morning after she left the Finnish Big Brother house and re-entered the Pinoy Big Brother house on the evening of Day 36.
Below is a list of activities each swapped housemate did in their respective host country's Houses, aside from introductions and trading of basic phrases:
KätlinIn House A:
  • Had a tropical-themed welcoming party.
  • Learned and sang the song Maalaala Mo Kaya, together with Tom.
  • Participated in a water soccer game in which her team won and ate Filipino exotic foods as a reward. Patria acted as referee.
In House B:
  • Brought plov, an Estonian dish, which is like a casserole with rice, beef or lamb, onions, carrots and ketchup.
  • Learned the dance Pandanggo sa Ilaw with the housemates.
  • Participated in a parlor game involving inline skates and her country's flag, where her team, an all-female team, lost. Tibo acted as referee.
  • Acted as referee in several spider fighting matches.
  • Had a jacuzzi party with Filipino street food foods, vodka and palm wine.
  • As instructed by Big Brother's Finnish counterpart, Kätlin taught a Finnish song Ihmisten Edessä, and had to choreograph a corresponding dance with the housemates.
Cathy
  • Played a game called pököpallo, invented by the Finnish housemates, a game similar to the French game pétanque.
  • Had a sauna and jacuzzi welcoming party.
  • Learned and sang the song ‘’Sininen Ja Valkoinen’’, together with all the Finnish housemates.
  • Learned different winter sports and activities, including cross-country skiing, ice fishing, ice hockey, floorball and pesäpallo or Finnish baseball, Finland’s national sport, demonstrated by Antti, Aso and Sampo.
  • Had an Asian dinner with the housemates.
  • Experienced her first snow fall. Her housemates made a snowman for her, which she named Chuva Choo Choo.
  • Taught the housemates the Wowowee game Hep Hep, Hooray.
  • Cooked Adobo for the Finnish housemates.
  • Served as the judge in the Head of Household competition, which involved the housemates singing Sininen Ja Valkoinen.
  • Had a Christmas dinner with the housemates.
    • Also, both Philippine and Finnish houses had weekly tasks involving housemates doing a 30-minute cultural variety show portraying their countries' cultures to their visitors. The Filipino housemates should include Kätlin in their presentation while the Finnish housemates should work four at a time in the upstairs room while Cathy is not around. However, it was later revealed that the real weekly task of the Filipino housemates is to make Kätlin feel the Filipino hospitality, to which she felt that both houses were friendly, yet she felt more warmth with House A.
    More than three weeks after the Swap ended, on Day 97 of the fifth Finnish season, Kätlin was proclaimed as second placer, behind Aso.

    The Three Kings

    On Day 71, Big Brother designated Hermes, Johan, and Patrick as the three kings, which were tasked to designate the ten stars containing gifts to the ten other housemates in the house.

    German ex-housemate visit

    On Day 76, the program announced that an ex-housemate from a European Big Brother franchise will visit the Pinoy Big Brother house for the holidays, which they dubbed as Super G. On Day 78, it was revealed that Annina Ucatis from the ninth season of Big Brother Germany will be the visitor, which aims to spice up the housemates' Christmas. Due to weather problems, Annina's scheduled entry on Day 79 was postponed. She left Germany in the evening of Day 79. Annina entered the house in the evening of Day 80, in a giant gift box, during Paul Jake's birthday.
    On Day 84, before the eviction, Sascha, an ex-housemate from the same season as Annina's and also Annina's current boyfriend, entered the house to fetch Annina.
    While she was in the Pinoy Big Brother House, Annina did the following tasks:
    Annina
    • Task 1: With Tibo as mentor, Annina had to learn target shooting and pass Big Brother's test
    • Task 2: Learn how to make puto-bumbong with Patrick
    • Task 3: Learn a Spanish dance from Kath. She was partnered with Hermes while Kath was partnered with Johan
    • Task 4: Make a skirt with Sam as mentor
    The housemates must compete in a limbo competition in the swimming pool where Annina was partnered with Hermes. She also acted as chaperone to the parent housemates' children in preparation for their 100-second encounters.
    HousematesIn 1 hour, the housemates had to learn a German Christmas Carol. From Jason, the Christmas Carol was passed one-by-one to each housemate where Annina was the judge. In exchange, the kids of the parent housemates will get a gift from Big Brother.

    ''Resbak'' Attack twist

    On Day 105, after Cathy's eviction, the show announced a new twist involving ex-housemates re-entering House B to compete with the remaining housemates. Cathy, the latest evictee, was instructed by Big Brother to move to House B instead of formally exiting the Pinoy Big Brother House. Princess, Delio, Tom, Rob, Yuri, Patrick and Rica joined Cathy at House B. Tom later voluntary exited and was replaced by Kenny. These eight ex-housemates competed with the remaining eight housemates with the pot money of the Big Four at stake. From the name itself, the ex-housemates had the task of seeking revenge on the remaining eight housemates.

    ''Kuya's Darlings''

    As an added twist, on Day 112, when Cathy, Delio, Kenny, Patrick and Rob were given their honorable dismissal from their Resbak Attack duties, Princess, Rica and Yuri were recommissioned by Big Brother to take part in another twist. The three housemates will serve as House Players. For each task they accomplished, each one will be getting PHP 5,000, plus a laptop computer for the final task. The tasks will either be voted upon by the public or ordered by Big Brother. The three ex-housemates were to act returning housemates in exchange for the three eggs broken the week before. Below are the tasks decided upon by viewers:

    Weekly tasks

    Both houses do the same weekly task. By the end of the week, Big Brother assesses each house. Assessment would depend whether the task is a competition between two houses or each house would be assessed on its own. If the task is a competition, the winning house gets their allowance for the upcoming week while the losing house gets no money.
    Group A housemates are housemates initially from House A while Group B housemates are housemates initially from House B, with the exception of Tom, originally part of House A, and Melisa, originally part of House B, who were swapped by Big Brother before the end of the first weekly task. For the fourth weekly task, the housemates swapped houses, and Rob and Carol swapped groups.
    For the sixth weekly task, aside from the weekly budget, the winning house only had the housemate/s with the highest point as its nominee/s for the following week while the losing house had the housemates with the top three different points as its nominees. As a reward in the fourth and last challenge, the Group A got their clothes and the house of their choice.
    For the seventh weekly task, aside from the weekly budget, the winning house will only have the housemate/s with the highest point as its nominee/s and also be able to give one housemate from the losing house an automatic nomination. As winners, Group B got their clothes.
    Before the eighth weekly task started, the females of each group swap houses. Males from Group A and females from Group B were to be known as "Neo-Group A" while females from Group A and males from Group B were to be known as "Neo-Group B".
    As the two houses became one, on Day 68, Big Brother revealed to the housemates two new twists this season, the Head of Household and Hand Grenade twists. The Head of Household twist is similar to the twist of the of. Each week, the housemates will undergo HOH competitions. The HOH for the week will get the following privileges for winning:
    A housemate will be chosen each week to become a hand grenade user, where they will be forced to give the full three points for nominations face-to-face to another housemate, as a consequence of losing in the HOH competition. Beginning the third HOH game, the hand grenade holder is given the alternative to automatically nominate themselves for eviction instead of giving all three points to another housemate.
    For their final HOH competition in Day 111, Big Brother revealed that the final Head of Household will also be the Hand Grenade user, where the HOH will give an automatic nomination to one housemate.
    Task No.Date givenDescriptionHead of HouseholdHand Grenade UserHand Grenade Recipient
    1December 10, 2009
    		Wire Maze
    A wire maze must be traversed using a metallic ring. Each housemate will only be given one try. Whenever the ring touches any part of the wire maze, the remaining housemates in the house will get electrocuted.    		Paul JakeCarolHermes
    2December 19, 2009
    		Cup Stacking
    The housemates will compete over a cup stacking game. The person who gets the fastest time to finish the routine will win the competition.    		RicaCathyPatrick
    3December 26, 2009
    		Memory Game
    The housemates will undergo two stages wherein they will have to memorize words or pictures flashed on the Confession Room monitor. The final stage involves writing words and the pictures in the correct order.    		CathyJohanRica
    4January 2, 2010
    		Tower of Dominoes
    The housemates were to build a tower of dominoes. In round one, the housemates were divided into two teams, with each housemate's hands bound together. In round two, the housemates were blindfolded and had to build a tower of domines. The housemate with the highest tower from the winning group will be the HOH while the housemate with the shortest tower will be the Hand Grenade User.    		Paul JakeJasonSelf Automatic Nomination
    5January 10, 2010
    		Mechanical Bull Riding
    The housemates were to ride bulls in three different rounds. In round one, the housemates are to ride the bull with two hands. First four housemates with longest time will win. In round two, they are to ride the bull with two hands but the bull's speed gets faster to make it harder. First two housemates will then advance to round 3. In the final stage, the two remaining housemates cannot hold on to the bull.    		KathJasonTibo
    6January 17, 2010
    		Sliming The Truth
    Each housemate was tasked to douse a housemate with slime based on the result of the survey they did last week. The housemate who correctly poured the slime on who they think that got the most votes from the survey gets a point and whoever had the most number of correct answer is the winner.    		MarielHermesSelf Automatic Nomination
    7January 22, 2010
    		Selection
    Each housemate will openly cast his or her vote as Head of Household. The Resbak Attack team will also decide on their pick. Big Brother also declared it as the last Head of Household competition    		TiboTiboJason

    Nomination history

    The housemate first mentioned in each nomination gets two points, while the second gets one point. The percentage of votes shown is the percentage of votes to save unless other wise stated.
    At least two housemates from each house will be up for eviction. This means that there are at least four housemates nominated every nomination night. However, the housemate with lowest number of votes, no matter which house s/he is in, would be eliminated. Group A housemates are housemates initially from House A while Group B housemates are housemates initially from House B, with the exception of Tom, originally part of House A, and Melisa, originally part of House B, who were swapped by Big Brother before the first nomination. The color for the names of the votes and nominees indicate the group to which they each belong at the time of nomination and subsequent salvation from eviction.
    On Day 23, the housemates switched houses, with Group A living in House B and vice versa. On Day 24, Rob and Carol swapped Groups and Houses, and are now therefore part of Groups B and A respectively. The color for groups did not change however.
    On Day 39, as a result of the 4th game in the 6th weekly task, Group A and Group B housemates swapped houses once again. The color for groups did not change however.
    On Day 50, the females of each group switched Houses. Group A's males and Group B's females were to be called "Neo-Group A," while Group A's females and Group B's males were to be known as "Neo-Group B." Both of the new-groups were therefore given new colors below; the colors for the Houses stay the same.
    On Day 57, Big Brother announced that all housemates are up for eviction, with the viewers voting to evict.
    On Day 63, Big Brother announced that the remaining housemates would be living in House A. Carol, Hermes, Melisa, Rica and Yuri were told to stay in House B to await the announcement of the evictee the following day. On Day 64, the fourteen remaining housemates all stayed in House A.
    From the eighth nomination night onwards, a new voting scheme was used, wherein the viewers are given the choice of voting to save or voting to evict a housemate. The percentage of evict votes will be added from the percentage of save votes, the voting difference being used as basis. The housemate who gets the lowest difference is evicted from the house. Also, with the housemates already living in one house, the housemates with the three highest points will be nominated for eviction.
    On Day 68, Big Brother announced that there will be Head of Household competitions each week. The HOH gets immunity from nominations in their respective week. The hand grenade user gets to give the full three points to one housemate face to face. For the eighth and ninth nomination night, this is done before the other housemates nominated. From the tenth nomination night onwards, this is done after the other housemates nominated. Starting from the tenth nomination night onwards, the hand grenade user can also opt to give himself an Automatic Nomination instead of giving the three points to another housemate.
    On Day 105, eight ex-housemates returned to take part in a twist by Big Brother. These housemates remained as ex-housemates and were not re-instilled as regular housemates. Five of the eight ex-housemates were given their repeated eviction on Day 112. The remaining three ex-housemates stayed for one more week and were given their repeated eviction on Day 119. Their first eviction status was maintained, however.
    On Day 120, the six remaining housemates had a different manner of nominations, giving one point to two housemates they feel should leave face-to-face. However, Big Brother announced that all six housemates, including Melisa who has a sure spot in the Big 5, are up for eviction this week.
    Legend

    S–E voting system result

    Below is the eviction voting result from the eighth to fourteenth eviction round. This voting system was stopped after the fourteenth eviction round.

    Fake eviction voting history

    While the fate of housemates inside the House continues to rely on public votes, the voting history table below shows how the housemates voted against each other due to the Char-Char Change twist. On Day 120, Big Brother announced that the voting were all voided, and viewers still had power to vote ending the twist

    Big Date on the Big Night

    The finale of the season, dubbed Big Date on the Big Night, was held at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila. As the finale was held a day before Valentine's Day, the show was partly given a Valentine/prom night theme. References to the Chinese zodiac and anything Chinese also abounded as the show was also held on the eve of Chinese New Year.
    The opening song which references the Big 5 were sung by Bugoy Drilon, Jay-R Siaboc, Mark Bautista, Rocksteddy's Teddy Corpuz, Yeng Constantino and Charice Pempengco. The 21 ex-housemates also performed dances done throughout the season, namely Drinking Boys, 'Di Makatulog, the Indian tiger dance, and even Can't Take My Eyes Off You. Accompanying the housemates were Sheryn Regis, Harish Singh, and Charlie Green in each of the last three mentioned.
    To drum up support for each of the finalists, color-coded cheerleaders and live satellite feeds from Cebu, General Santos City, Cagayan de Oro, and Mindoro were also seen.
    The finale also announced the coming of the third Teen Edition, , as well as the appearances of the cast of Rubi, the Jabawockeez, and Kim Chiu.
    The season was won by Melisa, who amassed 1,226,675 votes or 32.08% of the entire vote since it began since Day 120. Leaving before her were Paul Jake, Jason, Johan, and Tibo, who left the House as the so-called 5th Big Placer.
    This table shows the summary of votes as obtained by each of the Big 5 in the Big Night.

    The Big Reunion

    On February 14, 2010, a day after the Big Night, the ex-housemates - minus Princess, Tom and Rocky - returned to the Big Brother House one more time to reflect on the season. The evictees were interviewed by Bianca in House B while Toni and the Big Five gathered in House A. Mariel handled things from the Confession Room. Cathy and Hermes received a call from Big Brother Finland winner Aso and second-placer Katlin. Toni admitted to the Big Five that the interviews for the Big Swap were fake. They were greeted by Big Utol and visited by Vilma Santos, who advised them about the challenges of a showbiz career. Big Brother delivered his farewell address to the Housemates.