n August 21, 2005, ABS-CBN launched a new reality show called Pinoy Big Brother. For a channel that was being clobbered in the network war by its closest rival, the show proved to be a big hit.

Or was the big hit all hype? Did the show really, phenomenally win the ratings game in its timeslot? Or did it win some, lose some?

At least one netizen, Arjay of Dumaguete, student, vehemently disputed published ratings in an Internet posting in November: “Pinoy big brother only having 25+ ratings? Is that for real? Didn't they realize that almost all Filipinos are hooked to this show… if you hate the show then we don't really have the right to force you… you just belong to the 27% of Filipinos who doesn't watch the show.”

Laurenti Dyogi, director of Pinoy Big Brother as well as its co-producer (along with Ms. Linggit Tan), thinks that the show was a threat to the competition during its August-to-December run: “Numbers are just numbers. What I am saying is, a lot of people are talking about it.”

Whatever the actual figures, the fact is that Pinoy Big Brother did become the talk of the town during its season on the air. On certain days, it caused traffic to be closed on the street where the program was being taped. It catapulted its theme song, “Pinoy Ako,” and the song's creators, Orange and Lemons, to the top of the music charts. And it is turning a bunch of nonentities into celebrities.

KUYA & THE HOUSEMATES

Pinoy Big Brother is the local version of a program that originated in the Netherlands in 1999 and is now aired all over the world. Produced by Endemol Netherland, the original Big Brother got its name from George Orwell's 1949 novel about totalitarianism, 1984, which invented and popularized the ominous line “Big Brother is watching you.”

The Philippines was the 31st country to get the Big Brother franchise, coming after Thailand in Asia . The Philippine edition, renamed Pinoy Big Brother, a.k.a. PBB, was aired daily on Channel 2 in a primetime slot (10-11pm) but also had updates on Studio 23 and could be viewed 24 hours a day without any cuts via live streams on http:now.abs-cbn.com and on the 24-hour cable Channel 53.

A set of emcees took turns anchoring the show. Willie Revillame oversaw the Saturday evictions. Toni Gonzaga hosted the primetime telecast. Asia Agcaoili hosted the Studio 23 updates. And Mariel Rodriguez delivered the daily updates and hosted the late-night airing, in addition to hosting the spin-off What's The Word? That's The Word?, a game show about the reality show.

PBB modified certain elements of the controversial Dutch program to fit the Philippine setting. The PBB house, for instance, had an altar, and every Sunday the housemates got to hear Mass through a television feed. The intervention of government censors also compelled the franchise holder to tone down the show's risqué features.

On the whole, however, PBB stuck the Big Brother concept. It brought together 13 ordinary Filipinos, complete strangers to each other, and then cooped them up in a house equipped with 30 surveillance cameras—26 visible ones mounted on the ceiling and four secret cameras mounted on hidden tripods—which operated nonstop and monitored every movement of the house occupants.

For 100 days, the occupants of the house were almost completely cut off from the outside world, with no access to cellphones, landlines, radio or newspapers. Their only contact wit the outside world consisted of 100 seconds with their loved ones. At the end of each week, one of them got evicted. As in many other reality shows, voting by televiewers counted in the process of eviction and elimination.

As long as they remained inside the house, these strangers—now called housemates—had to follow the orders of Big Brother. Known in the local version as Kuya, he was the master of the house whom they never saw, a disembodied voice who drew out their innermost thoughts and made them perform tasks that were supposed to test their teamwork and community spirit.

The 13 original housemates couldn't have been more diverse.

Rico Barrera, 23, from Olongapo City , formerly worked in Japan as a hosto (the male equivalent of a nightclub hostess or bargirl).

Cassandra Ponti, 22, a Davaoeña, was once one of FHM magazine's 100 Sexiest Women.

Bob dela Cruz, 28, is an aspiring politician from Bulacan.

Uma Khouny, 24, is a half-Pinoy, half-Israeli model who lives in San Juan .

Say Alonzo, 26, of Parañaque, is a self-confessed kikay who used to be a cheerleader in college.

Jayson Gainza, 25, from Batangas, was once an OFW (overseas Filipino worker) based in the Middle East .

JB Magsaysay, 25, is a free-spirited rich boy from La Union.

Nene Tamayo, 24, is a former University of the East corps commander from Romblon.

Racquel Reyes, 31, also from Batangas, is an elementary schoolteacher.

Jenny Suico, 29, from Cavite , used to be an entertainer in Japan .

Franzen Fajardo, 23, is a self-proclaimed jologs from Valenzuela.

Chx Alcala, 24, is a liberated girl from Bicol.

Sam Milby, 21, is a Filipino-American toothpaste model whose mom comes from Surigao del Norte.

DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

“Ang teleserye ng totoong buhay” was the PB catchphrase. It was an apt description for the generally non-scripted day-to-day drama inside Kuya's house.

Just how real could the real-life teleserye get?

In the very first week of PBB, Rico, the first-ever evictee, couldn't help but mope, shedding tears for his ex-girlfriend, unable to get over their breakup. On national television he also disclosed a longtime family secret—that his own mother, who already had a family of her own, introduced him to her other kids as her nephew. Thus, his supposed cousins had to discover the sensitive family from the show.

In one episode, Franzen, who would become the eighth evictee, narrated to his housemates how he and his wife used ingenious schemes to avoid the water and electricity collector whenever they couldn't pay their bills on time. In another episode, he revealed shocking tales of his troubled childhood. During one of this parents' fights, he related, “sinaksak ng nanay ko ang tatay ko.”

The drama was not limited to personal issues.

Jenny, the 29-year-old mother, made a voluntary exit from Big Brother's house to care for her ailing father. She was replaced by Sam, the Ohio-bred, figure-skating hunk. But Jenny, whose father died in September a few weeks after she came out, got a second chance and re-entered the house in October, after Bob fell mysteriously ill and had to be rushed to a hospital.

One of the four finalists, Uma, was often described as prangka, and he achieved some notoriety with his derisive comments about such celebrities as Kris Aquino, Madame Auring, and Joe D' Mango. On November 29, he and the remaining housemates were assigned to take care five elderly people from Golden Acres. Deeply saddened by the situation of the abandoned lolo in his care, Uma told Big Brother: “Kung makita ko ang anak niya, sorry, ha, duduraan ko ang mukha niya.”

Friendships and love also blossomed in Kuya's house.

JB, who would become the second evictee, fell in love with Say in the very first month of the show, and publicly declared his love on the air. Franzen and Jayson became such close friends that, when Franzen got evicted in early November, Jayson cried as if he had lost a family member.

WHAT THE SHRINKS SAW

The bizarre experience of living a fishbowl existence in a house full of strangers, cameras, and microphones was unavoidably stressful, causing personality changes and what psychologists call “behavior shifts.”

It was, for instance, JB's free-spirited nature that persuaded the show's producers to take him in as a housemate. Inside the house, however, he was seen as tactless, opinionated, and irritating. Said Dr. Randy Dellosa, PBB's resident psychiatrist (whose job was to monitor housemates' psychological state and provide counseling): “JB is a very congenial person, but his personality came across differently on the screen.”

Franzen's transformation was even more marked. At the start, he was queit and usually kept to himself. Midway through the show, however, he became one of the more playful and funny housemates, endearing himself to millions of viewers who saw him as the underdog.

But his being naturally pasaway—his anti-social profile, as Dr. Dellosa put it—caused him to break rule after rule. He wrote a secret letter to Jason, and he mouthed worlds to Cass instead of letting his lapel mike pick up his voice. Though his housemates twice nominated him for eviction, he was saved by getting the highest share of viewers' votes. Then he went on to break the big no-no: he divulged to Jayson the details of his conversation with Big Brother in the so-called confession room. This final violation got him booted out of the Big Brother house on November 19. He would later explain ina newspaper interview that loneliness got to him and caused him to break the house rules.

One of the unforgettable events inside the house was when Bob passed out while working on a task in one of the October episodes. He was said to have suffered from some sort of anxiety disorder, which in turn affected his heart.

What really happened to Bob? According to Dr. Dellosa, Bob had “psychosomatic tendencies when stressed”—meaning, his physical health could be easily affected when he got stressed out. Portia Lynn Quetulio, an associate professor in the psychology department of the University of Santo Tomas , hazards the guess that what Bob suffered was “more of an adjustment disorder with anxiety, rather than anxiety disorder per se.”

Direk Laurenti explains that steps were taken beforehand to make sure that the housemates would be able to cope with the stress: “Before you become a final candidate housemate, you go through a battery of tests—physical, emotional, psychological. And then they have regular sessions with the psychologist, pero di nila nakikita, naririnig lang sila.”

Still, the tests and the sessions with the resident shrink could not provide 100-percent assurance that the housemates would be able to cope, given the unusual artificial conditions into which they had been placed.

As Dennis Erasga, sociology professor at De La Salle University, puts it: “Kunyari ikaw, you live in a place na parang may nakaganyan sayo na sword, na every now and then puwedeng buamgsak, tapos ang premyo one million pesos—nakakapraning yun.”

“Isolation has a great effect on people,” says Dr. Ephraim Gochangco, a clinical psychologist.

In the words of Professor Quetulio: “They may amplify their anxiety and experience restlessness, irritability, agitation, palpitations, stomach discomfort, and other physical symptoms.”

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

Though Pinoy Big Brother drew millions of viewers and fans, it had its share of critics.

At one point, rumors circulated via email claiming that Uma, Cass and Sam did not audition for their slots at all. The email, purportedly coming from a group called the Youth Alliance of the Philippines, said Sam was the pamangkin of Direk Laurenti, and that Uma was “a model and talent of ABS-CBN' and Ms. Charo Santos-Concio's personal favorite.”

In response, PBB aired audition footage of the three housemates in question. Ed Sharples, managing director of Endemol Southeast Asia, denied the allegations, saying that he was involved in the entire casting process and that Sam, Uma and Cass went through every stage of that process.

The bulk of the attacks on PBB, however, involved its sexual content.

The government's censorship arm took the lead in these attacks. On September 25, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) suspended Pinoy Big Brother for a day on the ground that one of its episodes had gone beyond the limits allowed by the show's “parental guidance” classification.

The episode in question, MTRCB chair Maria Conso liza Laguardia said in an official letter to ABS-CBN, contained “scenes such as, but not limited, to kissing scene between housemates Chx and Sam, gyrating dances in skimpy bikini, double entendre dialogue, and use of skimpy bikini.”

These scenes, Laguardia pointed out, were aired “despite verbal warnings and instructions to tone down sexually suggestive language, actuations and skimpy clothing.”

Pro-Life Philippines , an anti-abortion organization, also raised complaints against PBB. In a letter to the MTRCB, the group raised the following objections: the show “infringes [on] the right to intrinsic privacy of persons”; it “taunts the intimate relations between man and woman in a marriage”; it “exposes our children to wrong values on sexuality”; it “defeats its claimed ‘reality' value that supposedly justifies its lewd presentations”; and “there's nothing ‘pro-Pinoy' in Pinoy Big Brother.”

Newspaper columnist Emil Jurado (Manila Standard Today, August 30) joined the censorship brigade, saying that PBB “should be cancelled outright and its producers and the station penalized.” Jurado said he had received complaints that ranged “from indecency to obscenity, and foul and vulgar language to crass immorality and values about the relationships of the young.” Acting on the complaints, he watched a PBB episode.

“Sure enough,” he reported, “I was scandalized at the show, especially at primetime when all members of the family sit before the idiot box before bedtime. Imagine me being scandalized, a journalist for more than half a century!”

The episode that scandalized Jurado showed one of the first assignments given to the housemates. He said he saw “girls in a body-painting session painting the crotch area of the boys. Yes, they wore briefs, but that's outright obscene, indecent and scandalous.”

WHY IT WAS A HIT

Despite—or perhaps because of—the criticism and the calls for censorship, PBB became one of the most talked—about and widely publicized programs on Philippine television.

The show's unusual concept or premise could be part of the reason for its success. “The idea is crazy, pero bakit nag-bloom?” Professor Erasga asks. His own answer is PBB is “cross-cultural,” a quality that makes Filipinos relate to a show of foreign origin. He explains: “Lahat ng culture may concept ng punishment and reward. Lahat ng culture may concept ng love. Iba-iba lang ang porma, pero lahat ng culture meron niya.”

Professor Erasga also brings up the show's generous presentation of characters coming from the “whole spectrum of Philippine walks of life,” which makes it irresistible to viewers, composed mostly of “mga nanay, yaya, tsuper, etc.”

PBB's “adventure to fame” concept is particularly fascinating to young people, says Professor Quetulio.

PBB resident psychiatrist Randy Dellosa, in an interview with the Manila Times (October 4), says viewers of the show “actually get to quench their thirst for voyeurism.” Voyeurism is usually associated with paninilip or pamboboso, but Dr. Dellosa clarifies that voyeurism doesn't necessarily have to be sexual.

“In the case of Pinoy Big Brother,” he points out, “viewers get to peek into the private lives of complete strangers. It's right there on the TV screens. You get to see 12 people go through personal dramas and dilemmas. You get to watch them actually fall in love. Everything that's supposed to be personal or private is aired every night for our consumption.”

Avid viewers of the show have their own positive take on the subject. Priscilla Palad, 52, area manager for an insurance company and mother of three, says she enjoys watching the PBB housemates because their “different backgrounds and moods” generate a “real-life show with no pretension, no hypocrisy.” Diana Santos, 23, a category management assistant, agrees that viewers can relate to the housemates because they are “not the usual artista” but are “totoong mga Pinoy” who do not have to follow a script.

In fairness to the show, it made adjustments early on in response to the censorious observations. At Jenny's eviction presscon on November 14, Direk Laurenti told YES! that the makers of PBB had been getting feedback to “make it work in the Philippine market, so yun ang ginagawa namin ngayon.”

He added: “We realize ang laki ng following namin sa bata. Tinanggap na namin yun. Dati, ayaw naming tanggapin yun. May manonood talagang bata. We are just acknowledging that fact, and we are making the activities more suited for the young audience.”

Invasion of privacy, however, was a non-issue, as far as the director was concerned: “That's the premise of the show. It's a reality game show. The housemates join the contest precisely on the premise of that contest.”

As for the show's having nothing “pro-Pinoy” about it, Direk Laurenti said: “We, the makers, feel there's something, there's a lot of Filipino values we put into the program, though they may be too subtle for some of our conservative viewers… All of the housemates are Filipinos. Whatever they do is somehow Filipino.”

Viewers like Priscilla and Diana agree that the show is as Filipino as it can get. Says Priscilla: “Talagang atin ito. Makikita na lang sa mga task na ginagawa nila na laging for charity. They promote Filipino traits and values.” Diana thinks that “the tasks given to the housemates encourage discipline, teamwork, and pakikisama.”

WHERE THEY ARE NOW

All things considered, PBB has been good to the housemates. Their 15 minutes of fame have already been enjoying an extension. They have won legions of fans—including the Star for all Season! A self-confessed PBB fanatic, Vilma Santos paid a visit to the housemates as one of Big Brother's surprises, in an episode shown in October.

Jenny recalls how shocked she was when she saw the number of people who come out to welcome her the first time she left the house: “Ang dami-daming palang tao. Hindi ko ine-expect na ganoon pala kami kasikat noong time nay un.”

When the housemates held a concert in their backyard garden, fans flocked to the Big Brother House (located in front of ABS-CBN's ELJ Building in Quezon City) to watch the show on a giant projector.

The housemates danced, sang, and rapped. From that successful concert came a single—“Magmahal Muli,” composed by Sam, sung by Say—that since been enjoying extensive airtime.

And when the holiday season came around, fans went on a pilgrimage to the Big Brother House, whose front yard filled up with lighted trees and more bright signs of Christmas cheer.

Housemates who got evicted earlier—Rico, JB, Racquel, Bob, Jenny, Chx, Sam, and Franzen—were soon appearing on ABS-CBN shows such as HomeBoy, ASAP 05, and Mga Anghel na Walang Langit. Sam, touted as the “bagong crush ng bayan,” is being groomed for his first movie under Star Cinema. And the studio decided to put all the housemates in a TV spin-off, PBB Drama Special (aired December 26 to January 6).

Looks like Big Brother isn't just watching his wards. He's watching over them and even making them famous!

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