Racquel Reyes

Pinoy Big Brother, retroactively known as Pinoy Big Brother: Season 1 is the first season of the Philippine reality show, Pinoy Big Brother.

The season ran for 112 days with Willie Revilliame, Toni Gonzaga and Mariel Rodriguez hosting the show.

At the time of the launch of the franchise, the local version was the 31st version being broadcast among all the Big Brother franchises in the world.

It was the second in Asia after Thailand.

The show's producers stated that the housemates were chosen from 25,000 people who auditioned in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao.

However, there were allegations that some of them did not audition at all and were chosen by network management.

The winner of this season took home the grand prize worth PHP6 million (approx. $111,000) all-in-all, including the one-million peso cash prize (about $18,000), a house and lot, a Nissan Frontier, an entertainment component system, a Yamaha motorcycle, and a livelihood showcase.

The house is located in front of the ABS-CBN studios in Quezon City.

A car is used to transfer the evicted housemate from the Big Brother house to the ABS-CBN main building.

The Big Brother House is a multi-room studio designed with walls painted with pastel colors.

For the housemates security and the essence of being locked away from the outside world, the garden area is covered with a camouflage-type of fabric.

It also boasts of a multi-faith altar in one wall of the house (one which has a Bible, a Koran, and twelve rosaries), making the house the only Big Brother house that has a room set aside for religious purposes (although it is said that the Arab Big Brother house had prayer rooms).

And 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 two purposes:

To complete the set up, 26 surveillance cameras are positioned all over the house to watch the housemates' every move, including the bathroom.

For modesty's sake, however, images from the bathroom will be shown if the bathroom is used for any purpose other than bathing (such as gossiping).

It premiered on August 21, 2005, on ABS-CBN.

The finale aired on December 10, 2005, with Nene Tamayo being named the show's first ever Big Winner over Jayson Gainza and two other finalists.

The show's 12 housemates all entered during a live premiere on August 21, 2005.

They were introduced in a special segment during which hosts Toni Gonzaga and Mariel Rodriguez visited their houses and asked the housemates (whose faces were pixelized) to pack up their gear, giving them a special key to signify their entry in the House.

The ages stated below are their ages at time of entry inside the Big Brother House.

Origin indicates where the housemates were born or based before joining the program.

Thus, August 21, 2005, is stated as Day 1.

After spending 112 days* inside the house, Nene Tamayo was proclaimed the first Pinoy Big Brother winner in a grand finale on December 10, 2005.

The show, dubbed "The Big Night", was held at Clark Expo Amphitheater in Mabalacat, and was broadcast live.

The four remaining housemates (Cass, Nene, Jason, and Uma), wearing blindfolds and headphones, were taken to Clark Expo Amphitheater from the Big Brother house in Quezon City by a private plane.

They were then sequestered in a secret location before the actual live final.

What was played on their headphones is the song Pinoy Ako by Orange and Lemons.

It was played repeatedly until they went out in the secret location.

Despite the rains that plagued the day of the final, 30,000 people watched "The Big Night," hosted by Willie Revillame, Toni Gonzaga and Mariel Rodriguez.

According to TV ratings agency AGB Philippines, the show averaged a 39% rating and peaked at a 46% rating.

After spending 112 days inside the house, Uma was declared as the Fourth Big Placer in the Big Night finale, garnering just 52,833 votes or 4.7% of the total votes.

Soon after, Cass having garnered 214,188 votes, 18.9% of total votes, was awarded the Third Big Placer status in the Big Night finale.

The Second Big Placer was then named to be Jason.

He garnered 312,258 votes, equal to 27.5% of the total votes.

The finale show lasted almost three hours and ended with fireworks as the Pinoy Big Brother house replica disintegrated to reveal Nene Tamayo as the "Big Winner." She garnered 554,906 votes, or 48.9% of total votes, in the Big Night finale.

This table shows the summary of votes as obtained by each of the Big 4 in the Big Night.

* The hosts always stressed on air that the show lasted only 111 days.

That is because their day count started on the day of the first episode's airing and not on the day the housemates entered the Big Brother House and an episode aired every night shows what happened the day before, even if there is a live broadcast.

In the first two volumes of its DVD set, the day number is correctly tagged with its corresponding calendar date, but the beginning of the third volume pegs Day 92 on November 21, 2005, skipping November 20 from the day count probably to put the Big Night on "Day 111."

September 25, 2005, the only day the program was not aired in the entire duration of the season, is also counted.