The first season of the reality game show Pinoy Big Brother premiered on the ABS-CBN network on August 21, 2005 and ran for 112 days until December 10, 2005. Nene Tamayo was named the show's first ever Big Winner over Jayson Gainza and two other finalists, Cass Ponti and Uma Khouny.

Development

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.

Auditions

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.

Prizes

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.

Overview

The House

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).

Housemates

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.

Nomination history

Big Brother Final: The Big Night

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.

Post-season specials

After the first season's run ended, a series of specials were aired relating to the program. Pinoy Big Brother Revealed was a special documentary series hosted by Boy Abunda. Rather than just a behind-the-scenes look at the show, the series explores the concept, its popularity, the housemates themselves, the program's initially criticized morality, and its impact on Filipino pop culture, especially the rampant use of the show's logo, footage, and music by pirates. The first episode was shown live to accommodate the "Big Four," who were obviously inside the house during the taped interviews for the documentary. Pamasko ni Kuya was a series where the housemates' Christmas wishes are granted by the producers of the show, especially ones that involve charity work. Pinoy Big Brother Drama Specials was a two-part mini-series showcasing the housemates' acting skills. It aired on December 26, 2005, and January 6, 2006.

Official soundtrack

Due to the popularity of the housemates, Star Music together with ABS-CBN created an album for Pinoy Big Brother entitled Pinoy Big Brother (Ang Soundtrack Ng Teleserye Ng Totoong Buhay) and was released on November 7, 2005. The album also includes music videos of the included soundtracks.