Are You the Next Big Star? is a 2009 Philippine television reality competition show broadcast by GMA Network. Hosted by Regine Velasquez and Keempee de Leon, it premiered on May 16, 2009 replacing Kakasa Ka Ba Sa Grade 5?. The show concluded on August 23, 2009 with a total of 16 episodes. The program seeks to discover the best singer in the country through a series of nationwide auditions. The public decides the outcomes of the later stages through text voting. The judges who give critiques of the contestants' performances have included Pops Fernandez, Randy Santiago, Danny Tan, Mon Faustino and Annie Quintos. The prizes at stake includes one million pesos (P 1,000,000), a condominium unit from Avida, a management contract from GMA Artist Center and a recording contract from GMA Records. There will be two winners in the show: one male and one female. On August 23, 2009, on the show's big finale, Frencheska Farr and Geoff Taylor were announced as the next female big star and next male big star respectively. Following the third and final round of the competition, Zyrene Parsad and Jay Perillo were eliminated. Camille Cortez and Alex Castro joined Frencheska Farr and Geoff Taylor in the final round of competition. Frencheska Farr sang the victory song entitled Show Must Go On while Geoff Taylor sang the victory song entitled Heto Na. Both songs were composed by the show's musical director Raul Mitra and his wife Cacai Velasquez.

Production

In 2008, GMA Network had broadcast the country's second version of the Idol franchise, Pinoy Idol, following ABC's Philippine Idol. Debuting to mixed reaction, GMA's senior Vice President for Entertainment Wilma Galvante had stated that GMA had been attempting to work with FremantleMedia to explore options on how the show could be improved to better cater to the Pinoy audience. However, Darling de Jesus, vice president for Music and Variety programs at GMA, later stated that they "wanted [the next season of Pinoy Idol] to be more Pinoy", but could not come to terms with Fremantle over their changes. It was decided that GMA would instead produce their own music competition, tailored to the Filipino audience. This show would be Are You The Next Big Star?

Semi-finals

The top 150 had been divided into two batches. The first batch performed one by one last May 16 while the second performed last May 23. The scores where divided into two parts 80% from the judges and 20% from the jury and the top 40 contenders with the highest scores moves to the second round.

Top 40

Circle of 16

The Circle of 16 was announced last June 13, 2008. This consists of 9 boys and 8 girls.

Song list

BOYS

1. Geoff Taylor
2. Alex Castro
3. Jay Perillo
4. Greggy Santos
5. Bobby Solomon
6. PJ Gonzales
7. Anton Cruz
8. Justin Francis GIRLS
9. Frencheska Farr
10. Camille Cortez
11. Zyrene Parsad
12. Alexa Ortega
13. Cara Quiapos
14. Christine Allado
15. Shane Tarun
16. Rachel Gabreza 1 Contenders did not perform because they were eliminated at the beginning of the show. Their elimination songs served as their final performances. 2 Contenders performed with notable Filipino artists.

Elimination chart

1 Best Performer and Worst Performer distinctions were only given on the July 4th episode where the girls sat as jury for the boys, while the boys sat as jury for the girls. The distinction has not been given since. 2 Christine Allado, Alexa Ortega, PJ Gonzalez and Greggy Santos are automatically part of next week's Bottom Group. Next week's eliminates will come from this group based from judge's vote (50%) and text votes (50%). 3 Geoff Taylor and Greggy Santos were tapped as the Boys' Bottom 2, but were saved by the judges.

Ratings

According to AGB Nielsen Philippines' Mega Manila household television ratings, the pilot episode of Are You the Next Big Star? earned a 19.3% rating. While the final episode scored a 13.3% rating.

Accolades