The ninth season of the reality game show Pinoy Big Brother, subtitled Connect, aired on Kapamilya Channel and A2Z for 99 days from December 6, 2020, to March 14, 2021.
This was the fifth consecutive season that both civilian adults and teenagers participated in a season, and the first time since ' season to house them together as just one batch. Among all regular and special seasons, this season was the season with the shortest number of days (99; ties with ') of which a group of housemates representing an entire season have stayed in the house. The first season to feature three out of four finalists were never face the public for eviction.
Liofer Pinatacan was declared the winner of the season against then runner-up Andrea Abaya. Kobie Brown and Jie-Ann Armero finished as finalists.
With the scrapping of the television broadcast operations of ABS-CBN by the NTC on May 5, 2020, the continuity of the local Big Brother franchise was left uncertain. This is because of the House of Representatives denied ABS-CBN's franchise. No news or information were provided by the network nor by the production team behind the show of the fate of the said franchise. However, on October 16, 2020, Pinoy Big Brother hinted an announcement for a possible return of the show. On the 18th of October in 2020, on ASAP Natin 'To!, it was officially announced that a new season would air as Pinoy Big Brother: Connect. No physical auditions will be held; instead all auditions will be done online.
ABS-CBN's Television Production Head Unit and the Head Director of the Pinoy Big Brother franchise, Direk Lauren Dyogi, revealed in an interview of an episode of TV Patrol that Pinoy Big Brother: Connect would push through in November 2020, although the exact date was not mentioned. However, it was later confirmed that Pinoy Big Brother: Connect began on December 6, 2020. Dyogi also revealed that the ninth season to take place at the current situation of the network and of the country was unplanned, and that it had only prospered after the show had partnered with Kumu.
The number of housemates who took part in this season was initially lowered to 12, making this season with the fewest housemates in Pinoy Big Brother history, surpassing the of Pinoy Big Brother, the season that had only 13 housemates. However, it was later confirmed via online PBB: KUMUlitan show with Robi Domingo and Lie Reposposa that 18 aspiring housemates will be taking part this season.
Pinoy Big Brother: Connect was first revealed during the October 18, 2020, episode of ASAP Natin 'To!, along with new audition mechanics for this newest season. As the season was held during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, the auditions and its program were held using Kumu, a Filipino online streaming platform. Auditions were opened for ages 16 to 35 years-old. The auditions were opened on October 19, 2020; it ended on November 11, 2020.
For an aspiring housemate to join Pinoy Big Brother: Connect, they must create a Kumu account and recorded a one-minute video wherein they introduce themselves and why they want to join Pinoy Big Brother. Afterwards, they were required to upload their audition video on Kumu and use the hashtag #PBBkumuaudition; a maximum of one entry per account will be accepted. If an auditionee was accepted as one of the shortlisted hopefuls, they will receive a message from a PBB executive via Kumu's texting service. At the end of the online auditions via Kumu, a total of 177,524 audition entries were submitted for this seasonâÂÂthe highest in the entire history of the franchise.
Pinoy Big Brother: Connect had some notable changes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, which forced the country's government to impose restrictions to mitigate the spread of the said virus. Prior to the premiere of Pinoy Big Brother: Connect on December 6, 2020, the Pinoy Big Brother house was thoroughly disinfected, the hosts, crew, and the housemates of the show also went onto a PCR testing, and social distancing was also being observed inside the house as a preventive measure during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also no audience present on the premiere night of the show on December 6, 2020.
The show aired daily on Mondays to Fridays at 10:00 p.m. after Walang Hanggang Paalam, on Saturdays at 10:00 p.m. after Maalaala Mo Kaya, and on Sundays at 8:30 p.m. after Your Face Sounds Familiar. The show's companion show, Pinoy Big Brother: Kumunect Tayo, aired daily via Kumu, Facebook, and YouTube at 5:00 p.m. for its afternoon show, while it follows the main show's schedule for its evening show.
Also, in this season, evictions regularly occurred on Sundays, while the lists of nominees were usually revealed on Mondays or Tuesdays.
The show pre-empted on December 20, 2020, to give way for ABS-CBN's Christmas Special.
Toni Gonzaga, Bianca Gonzalez, and Robi Domingo reprised their roles as hosts. Meanwhile, new digital hosts joined the show: Richard Juan was the host for the show's online updates; while Enchong Dee and Melai Cantiveros were the hosts for the show's online companion programs across various online platforms. Kim Chiu, Edward Barber, and Maymay Entrata were earlier reported to host online contents for the program (with Chiu and Entrata having joined the official launch and the Big Night respectively, while Barber only appeared on the Big Night, acting for the Comedy sketch as one of the housemates), but were never seen doing their hosting stints in the succeeding events of the show; Dee and Cantiveros, on the other hand, were occasionally seen to host the afternoon online companion show.
The winner of this season won a unit from PHirst Park Homes and a cash prize of from Brilliant Skin Essentials. Meanwhile, the second, third and fourth big placers received â±500,000, â±300,000 and â±200,000, respectively.
This was the first season where the show was not aired on ABS-CBN after the network was ordered by the National Telecommunications Commission to cease and desist its free-to-air television and radio broadcast operations on May 5, 2020, following the lapse of its congressional franchise. The network also failed to secure a renewal of its congressional franchise after its renewal bid was rejected by the House of Representatives on July 10, 2020.
The show also aired on TV5 from March 8 until the show's finale on March 14, 2021, as part of the partnership arrangement (later as blocktime/content agreement) between ABS-CBN and TV5. The ' season would become the first full season to air on the network, and the second overall to air on TV5 following this season.
The show was also simulcast and digitally streamed via ABS-CBN's entertainment website, iWantTFC (on-demand streaming service) and Kapamilya Online Live in Facebook and YouTube; live feeds of the House were also shown on Kumu, an online streaming platform.
Each week, each participating housemate had to nominate two people for eviction with the first receiving two points and the second with one point. The housemates with the most votes (usually three) will then face the public vote with the nominee receiving the fewest votes (through a save to evict voting system) being evicted from the house. The format however may be altered as seen in Day 49 where the Co-HoHs directly nominated two nominees each and in Day 81 where the housemates ranked their housemates rather than the usual nomination process.
As a punishment or as a consequence, Big Brother can automatically nominate additional housemates if they had incurred violations or have failed a specific task. Big Brother can also give immunity to those who have succeeded in winning a challenge or a task. Sometimes, Big Brother can suspend the nomination process or moved the nominations to a later date in lieu of the result of a pending challenge or task.
The logo for Pinoy Big Brother: Connect still used its graphical eye, (first introduced in the ) in which the eye features motifs inspired by and colors taken from the Philippine flag. The outline of the house which was used before in the logo of Pinoy Big Brother: Otso was later removed. The colors of the text were also changed from the previous navy blue color now with a slightly lighter blue. The color of the season text in the logo was emphasized with a bright yellow and an orange gradient.
The Pinoy Big Brother house was refurnished with new furniture in the living room, the bedroom, and the dining area. There were no major changes in the house interior, which still follows the original layout used in '. The house façade was decorated with Christmas decorations due to Christmas already drawing near at the start of the season.
This season's theme song is "Connected Na Tayo" performed and written by ' ex-housemates Jem Macatuno, Shawntel Cruz, Lie Reposposa and Kiara Takahashi where, just like the preceding season's theme song "Otso Na!", most elements (including the chorus) from Orange and Lemons' "Pinoy Ako," the franchise's theme song, were included in the song.
The season's eviction theme song was performed, written, and produced by Jem Macatuno entitled "Bagong Simula." Both songs are included in the album "Connected Na Tayo (Ang Soundtrack Ng Bahay Mo Vol. 2)".
A week prior to the entry of the first 12 housemates, the identities of two housemates were revealed daily via It's Showtime! and TV Patrol. Officially, the first 12 housemates entered during the premiere night of the show on December 6, 2020. Among them, 6 were adults, while the remaining 6 were teenagers.
It was later announced that six more housemates will soon be introduced in the upcoming episodes after accomplishing their mandatory 14-day quarantine. Three of the additional housemates were already pre-selected and were completing their own isolation periods before their entry, including one from France whose travel to the Philippines in order to compete was facilitated by the production staff. The other three were selected via Kumu; they vied among 117 hopefuls in various series of livestream challenges in three different stages. The selection process began on December 6 and ended on December 26. As of January 24, 2021, the three new housemates have already entered the House, after completing the required health clearances, including mandatory quarantine, psychological test, and COVID-19 test.
The final three housemates were selected via Kumu. 117 hopefuls competed in various series of livestream challenges in three different stages. The 9 remaining hopefuls were then divided in groups based on their traits, namely Matatag (Steadfast), Madiskarte (Resourceful), and Malakas ang Loob (Courageous). Each group competed in different weeks. The Top diamond earners in each group will become the last three housemates to enter the house for the season.
Amanda Zamora, Gail Banawis and Glenda Victorio were initially reported to be the winners of the campaign. However, due to Victorio withdrawing in her sequester, she was replaced by Quincy Villanueva, the runner-up in her team.
Unlike those in previous seasons where houseguests normally visit the House, most of the houseguests for this season participated via video conferencing only. Sometimes, they were ordered by Big Brother to do some tasks, such as: to help, to coach, or to judge various tasks or challenges of the housemates.
As part of every season, weekly tasks are given in order for the housemates to earn their weekly groceries. However, as part of this season's twist, the housemates are allowed to do Kumu livestreams so that viewers can help with their weekly tasks. The diamonds (in-app gifting currency) they will earn from livestreaming can be used to purchase supplies for their tasks or to pay for minutes to practice their routines, to name a few.
Aside from the weekly tasks, the housemates were also given other significant tasks. These tasks usually involve rewards for someone special, some may include nomination or eviction twists as a consequence of failing such tasks, some were required to be done secretly, some may involve a combination of two or more types of tasks, or very difficult punishments.
Every week, each of the Housemates will undergo challenges to become one of the two Heads of Household. Becoming a Head of Household will earn them immunity from being nominated in that particular week.
For the fourth Heads of Household challenge, the Padaluck twist was implemented. It gave an advantage to a housemate who had received the most Kumu gifts.
The Ligtask challenge, carried over from previous seasons, were usually held in lieu of the Heads of Household challenge.
Before the Ligtask challenge, the public has a chance (via Kumu) to give an advantage to a housemate. The advantage will be given to the housemate who has received the most "padalucks" (done through Kumu's livestream gifting system). At the end of the challenge, the winner will be saved from becoming one of the nominees.
To determine this season's Big 4, all housemates participated in a series of challenges that was quite different from the Big Jump of the other previous seasons. All Big 4 slots were determined by all of these challengesâÂÂa deviation from the other seasons' Big Jump twist where the public's vote also played as a determining factor in choosing the final four. The series of challenges were called Big 4 Karapatdapat Challenges (Big 4 Worthy Challenges) and tested the housemates qualities: their self-trust, sense of camaraderie, resourcefulness and being steadfast.
Also as part of the twist, winning any of the Big 4 slot did not automatically guarantee their place for the Big Night as the winning housemates had to defend their spots against the two challengers chosen by the public to challenge them and take their positions.
There were four Big 4 Karapatdapat Challenges that were played by the seven remaining housemates, each of which determined a holder for a certain Big 4 spot. Unknown to all of them, with four housemates taking the Big 4 spots, the three others who failed to take any of those spots were automatically nominated and had to face the public vote. The two housemates with the highest number of public votes were given a chance to stay and challenge the Big 4 while the housemate with the least vote was evicted.
As challengers, with their identity being hidden to the Big 4, they were required to challenge two housemates. In order for them to win and take any of the Big 4 slots, they must choose and defeat two of the current Big 4 occupants. Failure would mean automatic eviction.
The challenger challenges given by Big Brother were a combination of previous challenges the housemates had participated throughout this season and were exclusively chosen by the public via Kumu.
Amanda and Ralph drew of lots to determine the order of who will they pick to challenge: Amanda got the 2nd and 4th picks while Ralph got the 1st and 3rd picks. Ralph chose Andrea first for the first pick and Kobie for the third pick; Amanda chose Jie-Ann for the second pick and Liofer for the fourth pick. Their identities were revealed prior to the challenge. Before they made themselves known to the housemates, Amanda is known as the white challenger, while Ralph is known as the black challenger.
During the final days of the season, Big Brother gave the finalists a task. Each task can grant either extra votes to save or the deduction and transfer of vote to evict.
Note that the production team of show does not tally the launch night as Day 1. For the purposes of uniformity with the other previous season articles, the launch night is marked as Day 1, not the day after it. The days reflected in this article were always numbered a day ahead compared to that as shown in the program.
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The Power of Veto was a power given to the winner of certain tasks. The holder of the power is given the chance to automatically save a nominee of their choice from the list of nominees. If the power was given to a group, the group will decide which nominee gets vetoed via a collective vote.
Unlike its American counterpart, no replacement nominee was required to be named making the power controversial among viewers.
For the 10th nomination week, the list of nominees was based on the housemates' rankings. Each housemate will rank all remaining housemates, including themselves. Each rank will receive a specific number of points: the first will receive 1 point; the second with 2 points; and so on until the eighth with 8 points. The total points received by each housemate will determine the final ranking; the housemates in the first six ranks will be saved from becoming part of the final list of nominees, while the housemates who receive the most points will be in the last two ranks and will become the official nominees for the week.
The housemates did not know that their rankings were the basis of this week's nomination until Big Brother mentioned this to them before the announcement of the rankings.
Note that the underlined names in the table below were the rank of the housemates they gave to themselves.
The following is a summary of the results of the evictions nights that had used the S-E voting system. In this system, a voter may vote to evict or to save a nominee from eviction. The votes to save are then subtracted by the votes to evict which may result in a nominee receiving a negative number of votes as seen in the first, eighth, tenth and eleventh evictions, this also results in the percentages not adding up to one hundred.
The votes were taken from the combined SMS and Kumu votes.
In the second and the succeeding eviction nights, the detailed summary was replaced by a combined net results of both votes from Kumu and SMS without further detailing the results of each medium. The percentage of Kumu's votes being 70% and that of SMS votes comprising 30% of the total votes remained the same.
For the first time in Pinoy Big Brother history, the finale of the season, dubbed as Pinoy Big Brother: Connect @ The Big Night, was held in front of the Pinoy Big Brother House with a virtual audience. The finale also featured several guests, including past Pinoy Big Brother winners such as Nene Tamayo of ', Bea Saw of ', Ruben Gonzaga of ', Ejay Falcon of ', Slater Young of ', Daniel Matsunaga of ', Jimboy Martin of ' and Yamyam Gucong of ' and other former housemates.
At the end of the night, Liofer Pinatacan was declared as the winner of the season. Andrea Abaya was declared as second big placer, Kobie Brown as the third big placer, and Jie-Ann Armero as the fourth big placer.
Star Music together with ABS-CBN created an album for this season entitled Connected Na Tayo (Ang Soundtrack Ng Bahay Mo Vol. 2) and was released on January 29, 2021. Tracks in this album are mostly composed by Otso ex-housemates Lie Reposposa, Shawntel Cruz, Jem Macatuno, and Kiara Takahashi, which includes this season's theme song and carrier track "Connected Na Tayo" and eviction theme song "Bagong Simula".
Just like in all other seasons, this season was not spared from controversies and criticism. One issue involves the rude behavior of one housemate towards another; another was the inclusion of two housemates who favored the shutdown of ABS-CBN; and a mechanic that was tagged as "unfair" by viewers.
This season panned by viewers as "the worst edition" in the history of PBB.