The third season of the reality game show Pinoy Big Brother, subtitled "Double Up" aired on ABS-CBN for 133 days from October 4, 2009 to February 13, 2010.
This is the third civilian season and the seventh season overall to air on the network. This season broke the previous civilian season's record for the longest stay of housemates inside the house by only one week.
After 133 days, Melisa Cantiveros emerged as the winner of this season. Paul Jake Castillo was the runner-up, while Jason Francisco, Johan Santos, and Steve "Tibo" Jumalon were the finalists.
Overview Auditions 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 Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition Plus. 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.
Hosts Toni Gonzaga, Mariel Rodriguez, and Bianca Gonzalez reprised their hosting duties this season.
Companion shows This season also marked the return of Pinoy Big Brother UpLate, after being replaced by Pinoy Big Brother Über in the second Celebrity Edition and Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition Plus. 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.
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.
Prizes The winner of the new season received an LCD TV set, an Asian tour package, a business package, a house and lot, and . The winner also donated another to a charity of their choice, making Double Up the first non-celebrity season to do so.
Twists Double Up twists Aside from having two Houses, the season was dubbed "Double-Up" for several reasons: Double-Up Housemates - Two sets of identical twins were included in the roster of housemates - with each member of the twins living in both parts of the house, switching between the two areas when instructed. However, the rest of the housemates do not know about the twins, or the fact that there are two houses. The twins will also receive immunity from nomination for eviction during the first nomination night if they succeed in keeping this a secret, but if they do reveal it they will be forcibly evicted. House Swaps - Housemates are made to swap houses and group members as instructed by Big Brother. Bagyong Walay (Typhoon Apart) - Big Brother instructed female housemates from Houses A and B to swap houses. Bagyong Isa (Typhoon Unite) - Housemates from both houses will be staying in one house. Fourteen housemates should survive Vote To Evict in order for them to stay in one house.
Other twists Vote To Evict - The public is given the power to vote to evict a housemate. The housemate with the highest percentage of votes to evict will be evicted at the end of the week. This was only implemented on the fifth eviction night. Save-Evict Voting System - The public saves a housemate, and at the same time, evict a housemate. The housemate with the combined percentage of both save and evict votes combined is evicted. Big Brother Swap - Carrying on from the second regular season, a Filipino housemate would temporarily trade places with a housemate from another active Big Brother season abroad (see below). Head of Household and Hand Grenade - The Head of Household twist is once again used with the Hand Grenade as the new addition. Both were implemented after the housemates began living in one house. The Hand Grenade goes to the ultimate loser in the HOH competition. See Head of Household and Hand Grenade sections for further details. Char-Char Change - Big Brother made a fake announcement that public voting is discontinued and the housemates themselves will vote among the nominees for who should be evicted, but the ultimate fate will still be decided by the public. Big Brother used this system to show each housemate's true feelings toward their fellow housemates. The name of the twist is a play on Charter change and "Char-Char," which is Filipino slang for "false." House Players - Evicted or former housemate/s will return to the house to test the remaining official housemates through tasks set by Big Brother and the audience. The Big Jump to the Big Night - The seven remaining housemates will undergo a series of challenges. The overall winner will be granted permanent immunity from nominations and automatic inclusion into the Big Night. The White Room - Two of the six remaining housemates would undergo an endurance challenge in a purely white room for a chance to win a brand-new house and lot. A housemate would lose the challenge if he or she pressed a red button somewhere in the room.
Finale twists Big Five - Big Brother decided to put five housemates in contention for the Big Winner title instead of the standard four; the "Fifth Big Placer" would get PHP100,000 as his prize and the same amount for his chosen charity. Big Reveal - For the first time in the franchise's history, the actual ranking of the finalists were revealed to the public before the Big Night. This happened on Day 129.
Housemates 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 (October 4, 2009), while a second set of 10 were introduced on Day 7 (October 10, 2009). A third batch of two housemates entered the house on Day 43 (November 15, 2009). 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. 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 (October 4, 2009) 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 Teen Edition 1, and Wendy Valdez and Gee-Ann Abrahan from Season 2.
The second batch of Housemates entered the Big Brother House on Day 7 (October 10, 2009), 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 Celebrity Edition 1, Beatriz Saw and Mickey Perz from Season 2, Robi Domingo from Teen Edition Plus, and the recently evicted Double-up housemates Kenny and Toffi Santos and JM Lagumbay.
On Day 41 (November 13, 2009), right after Big Brother announced Tom's forced eviction to the housemates, primetime edition host Toni Gonzaga revealed that new housemate(s) - confirmed during the following night's broadcast as a guy and a girl - would enter the house. The new housemates entered on Day 43 (November 15, 2009).
Name Age on entry Hometown Entered Exited Result 21 General Santos Day 1 Day 133 — 24 Metro Cebu Day 1 Day 133 — 21 Oriental Mindoro Day 1 Day 133 — 22 Quezon City Day 7 Day 133 — 33 Cagayan de Oro Day 7 Day 133 — 21 Davao City Day 1 Day 126 — 24 Spain Day 7 Day 119 23 Pampanga Day 7 Day 112 — 22 Bohol Day 7 Day 105 — 19 Parañaque Day 43 Day 98 — 26 Iloilo Day 7 Day 91 — 32 Baguio Day 7 Day 84 22 Tondo, Manila Day 1 Day 77 29 Cavite Day 43 Day 67 25 Tokyo, Japan Day 1 Day 64 24 Austria Day 7 Day 56 23 Siquijor Day 7 Day 49 22 Samar / Arizona, U.S. Day 1 Day 42 26 Batangas Day 1 Day 35 26 Pampanga Day 1 Day 26 — 22 Metro Cebu / Fukuoka, Japan Day 1 Day 22 25 Spain Day 7 Day 21 29 Quezon City Day 1 Day 5 — 20 Rizal Day 1 Day 5 — 20 Rizal Day 1 Day 5 — 29 Quezon City Day 1 Day 3
House stay history HousematesNameInitial HouseWeek 4 HouseWeek 6 HouseWeek 8 House Day 63/64 HouseDay 105/107 HouseDay 112/119 HouseFinal Week Melisa Paul Jake Jason Johan Tibo MarielOut KathOut HermesOut CathyOut SamNot in HouseOut RicaOut PatrickOut CarolOut Rocky Not in House Out YuriOutOut RobOutOut PatriaOut TomOutOut DelioOutOut YhelOut PrincessOutOut JimsonOut ToffiOut KennyOutOut JMOut JPOut
Big Brother Swap
It was announced by the program on Day 21 (October 24, 2009) 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 October 29, 2009, ABS-CBN Entertainment'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 (video), 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 (Day 66 of the Finnish version) and enter either Philippine House on Day 29 (Day 69 of the Finnish version). 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 (Day 68 of the Finnish version) 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.