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A few more weeks and the first season of �Pinoy Big Brother� (PBB) will come to an end. In case you've been sleeping, ABS-CBN's hit show has got Filipinos glued to their TV sets seven nights a week for the last three months. Why, it's even being blamed for the Pinoys' indifference to the scandals rocking the Arroyo administration.

The reality show is a smart mix of everything that appeals to the Filipino viewer: it peddles hopes, nurses big dreams, fuels gossip and controversy, and empowers texters, who are the ultimate judges.

The contestant who leaves the PBB house last will win P5 million worth of prizes�P1 million in cash, a house and lot, and a car, among others�and join the roster of �Big Brother� winners worldwide.

When the episode started airing in August, it rated 42 percent of the audience share, according to AC Nielsen data. Its rating has averaged 30 percent since. The windfall of ads ranged from condiments to catering services and computer inks. The PBB house, located across the ABS-CBN compound in Quezon City, has turned into a tourist destination, too. Tarpaulin ads gawk at the fans who wish to be around the neighborhood of the contestants turned celebrities.

PBB is the 31st sibling of the six-year-old �Big Brother� copyright�a reality television format introduced in 1999 by the Netherland's Endemol production company. The title and setting are a takeoff from George Orwell's 1984, a novel that describes a restricted society under the close watch of the all-knowing Big Brother. In the book, all who opposed Big Brother lost their lives or their minds. In �Big Brother,� the show, the contestants are evicted from the house one by one. �Big Brother� has since become such a global hit that in the US, UK, and Spain, it is now on its seventh season.

PBB business unit head Linggit Tan has said in published reports that PBB is the most expensive project the network has ventured into. Buying the franchise from Endemol got the biggest chunk of the cost. ABS-CBN did not disclose how much.

With an invaluable copyright to the show, Endemol has been strictly monitoring copycat shows worldwide. It sued at least two shows that resembled its format�one in Croatia and another in Brazil. Endemol won in both cases.

�Big Brother� and �Survivor� resemble each other in the way both formats confine a number of contestants in a limited environment and evict them in a knockdown system until only one contestant remains and wins. PBB shut in 13 relatively unknown contestants, or �housemates,� in a house rigged with 26 cameras and microphones strategically placed all over the house to monitor all their activities�and for all the viewers to watch on TV or cable channel. �Housemates� are not to have contact with the outside world�no TV, radio, telephone, or Internet. A man's voice, known only to the �housemates� and the viewers as Big Brother, plays god in the house. He gives out the chores and weekly tasks to the �housemates,� reprimands or punishes them for violations of the established house rules, and rewards good deeds they have done.

�Survivor� is usually set on an island or a desert, subjecting the contestants to difficult survival situations. But eviction rules are different. The viewers choose the winning �housemate� by texting in their votes��American Idol� style�and not by the contestants voting themselves as in �Survivor.� �Housemates� cannot form alliances typical in �Survivor� to evict a competitor.

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A few more weeks and the first season of �Pinoy Big Brother� (PBB) will come to an end. In case y... �Big Brother� Survives...