March 10, 2006
abs-cbn
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Thousands of teenagers lined up outside the ABS-CBN compound in Quezon City Friday to audition for "Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) Teen Edition", which will air in April and May.
PBB director Lauren Dyogi told DZMM in an interview that he expects the number of hopefuls nationwide to double to 20,000 during the four-day Metro Manila auditions. Dyogi said 10,000 people, aged 16 to 18 years old, turned up at the Cebu and Davao auditions last month.
The queue outside the station formed as early as 3 a.m. although screening opened 9 a.m. at Dish, a restaurant bar at The Loop in ELJCC building.
The network accommodated everyone who brought the required school ID, bio-data, birth certificate and full body and close up pictures. Those who did not make the 3 p.m. cut off were asked to come back next Friday and Saturday.
Dyogi said only the immediate relatives of employees of ABS-CBN and its subsidiaries are not allowed to join the reality show.
"Ang Pinoy Big Brother bukas kahit kanino. Hindi kailangang saksakan ng ganda at gwapo. Personalidad po ang importante at ang dating ng tao ang importante sa amin (PBB is open to everyone. One does not have to be very beautiful or handsome. Personality and sex appeal are more important to us)," Dyogi said.
The PBB director said the applicants will be trimmed down to 100 after the initial screening. The next steps in the selection process will further reduce the number of hopefuls to 50 then 30, down to the final 12.
Dyogi said he hopes the teen edition would follow the success of PBB's first two seasons.
In August 2005 PBB introduced its first set of housemates as ordinary people with interesting personalities who are in their 20s and early 30s.
Nene Tamayo of Romblon emerged as the first ever Big Winner after more than 100 days of living in the house and by the rules of an "invisible" Big Brother. She won P1 million, a house and lot, and a brand new Nissan Frontier Titanium 3.
The ongoing PBB Celebrity Edition, which picked housemates from the world of music, sports, fashion and entertainment, will end its 57-day run this month.
PBB is the local version of the internationally hit reality television show "Big Brother".
Housemates who enter the PBB house will have no contact whatsoever with the outside world as TV, telephone, cell phone, radio, newspaper, computer, watches, among other things, are banned in the place.
The participants are given weekly and daily challenges that could earn them prizes and privileges.
Their every move will be monitored by 27 cameras in every nook and cranny of the PBB house, which has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room-kitchen, a spacious living room, a swimming pool and a "confession room" where a housemate can communicate with "Big Brother."
The elimination process requires housemates voting for which two fellow housemates they want to eliminate. Once these nominations are chosen, the viewer votes come into play. For a week viewers are asked to vote via SMS for whoever they wanted to stay longer in the house. The housemate with the least viewer votes is evicted.
PBB is shown on ABS-CBN and its international affiliate, The Filipino Channel, with snippets shown on local affiliate Studio 23.
The uncut 24/7 version of the series can also be seen in the Internet through streaming video and a special cable channel provided by cable TV provider, SkyCable.
The Philippines is the 31st country to have its own edition of the "Big Brother" show, but is only the second country to buy a franchise of the show after Thailand.
