Format It follows the same premise as its many foreign counterparts around the world wherein a number of Filipinos volunteered to live inside a house for a certain number of days. The elimination process in the show is the reverse of the original Dutch format. At the start of the elimination process, the "housemates" (as the contestants are referred to) vote for which two (sometimes more if there are ties or if Big Brother hands out an automatic nomination) fellow housemates they should eliminate. Once these nominations are chosen, the viewer votes come into play. For a week, viewers are asked to vote, via
SMS or voice messaging through
PLDT's hotline (later abolished in favor of vote cards), or online, for whoever they wanted to stay longer in the house (using the vote-to-save format). In some cases, the Vote-to-Evict format is used, with the housemate garnering the most percentage of evict votes from the public is evicted from the house, or a combination of the two (Save-Evict) may be implemented. The housemate with the fewest viewer votes (or highest for vote-to-evict) is eliminated. At the final week, the one with the most viewer votes (using the vote-to-win voting format) will win the grand prize package. It usually includes house and lot, a car, a
business franchise, home appliances, and a holiday, and is given the title of
Big Winner. Aside from the regular seasons involving civilian adults, the show has also aired three other special versions: •
Celebrity editions: Commercial models, actors and actresses, radio and TV show hosts, musicians, sports and fashion personalities, and even politicians volunteer to reside in the house for a certain number of days, and the duration of this particular version of the show is lesser compared to the regular seasons. Celebrity housemates, like many counterparts abroad, play for charity, aside from themselves. Prizes given away from edition to edition can vary, but basically, the cash prize an edition's winner can receive is the same as the prize for that winner's chosen charity organization, i.e. the winner and his/her charity each win the same amount. •
Teen editions: Adolescents aged 13 to 19 years old from different cities in the Philippines and sometimes even from certain overseas countries with sizable Filipino communities reside in the house. Other factors are disregarded; in-school and out-of-school youths, natural-born Filipinos and adolescents with a mixture of Filipino and foreign blood, those with intact and broken families, and even teenage single parents may be eligible as long one passes the age requirement and has a background worth exploring during the edition's run. This edition is usually done in the Philippine "summer" months of late March to early June. During this time, temperatures in the country are at their highest and most students are out of school; a regular school year in the Philippines runs from June of one year to March of the next. •
Special/merged editions: More known as the "
All In" twist, special editions feature a group of civilian adults, celebrities, and civilian teenagers enter the House to compete. These seasons are referred to as "special" editions because this edition was a Big Brother first worldwide. This edition was introduced in 2014 with
Pinoy Big Brother: All In. Currently, these special editions are divided into the following variants: •
Celebrities, Adults, and Teens: All three versions of the series are merged into one house. Civilian adult, celebrity, and civilian teen housemates would compete altogether for the prize. This was introduced on
All In, and was then used on
Lucky 7 and
Kumunity Season 10. •
Adults and Teens: Only a combination of civilian adults and teen housemates would be merged into one house to compete. This format was first used on
737 and was later used on
Otso,
Connect and
Gen 11. •
Multi-part editions: These are combined editions that appear throughout a single edition's run, with each season having a distinct format from the others. Some of these feature celebrities, while others do not. The only difference is that all winners and finalists from each batch return to compete for a set number of spots in the finale (with the exception of
737 which had separate finalists and two winners). This edition was first introduced in 2015 with
737 (two parts), and was also used by
Lucky 7 (four parts),
Otso (five parts), and
Kumunity Season 10 (four parts). Some editions feature formats inspired by other international versions of Big Brother, including the following: •
Duos: In the
third celebrity season, housemates are divided into two groups, with each housemate from one group paired with a housemate from the other. Similar to 2-in-1 housemates, these pairs (known as
duos in the show) will compete, nominate, strategize, and face eviction together until the finale. However, pairings were shuffled periodically through tasks and challenges throughout the season. This format was previously used in the joint
Nigerian and South African season,
All Star season of the
Spanish version, and in the joint
Dutch and Belgian season. •
Groups: For the
fourth celebrity season, the housemates were divided into groups of equal quantities, each led by an assigned leader. The leaders selected their members, and the groups competed in tasks, challenges, and nominations collectively—meaning the fate of one member depended on that of the entire group. Before each nomination ceremony, a
Ligtask Challenge was held, granting immunity to the winning group for that round. The remaining groups then nominated other groups, and the one with the highest number of nomination points faced public voting. From the nominated group, the housemate from each agency with the lowest percentage of votes was evicted. This twist is similar to the Clique twist from
Big Brother U.S. (
season 11).
The House '', on the upper left is the Pinoy Big Brother activity area, while on the upper right of the picture are the swimming pool area and the Pinoy Big Brother multi-purpose hall. The location of the
Pinoy Big Brother House used to occupy an old house; it was demolished in order to give way for the show. The house was built within 79 days in 2005 and was built by 50 men round-the-clock. is actually a large, fully air-conditioned studio with a facade made to look like an ideal middle-class house. It is located just in front of the
ELJ Communications Center in Eugenio Lopez Jr. Drive, Diliman,
Quezon City. The leftmost part of the facade was designed for another reality show franchise called
Pinoy Dream Academy until 2011 when it was entirely removed in favor of
Big Brother. The interior of the studio is designed to look like a real house with themes and interior design changing for every season of the show. The studio is also designed to capture every "housemate's" activities with state-of-the-art surveillance cameras and microphones. The house is surrounded by walls with
two-way mirrors to allow cameramen to directly shoot from behind of the mirrors. The studio has
backlots that are utilized for several purposes depending on the season's theme. Currently, the backlots are utilized as an activity area, swimming pool area, and multi-purpose hall. Previously, it was also used for a garden, a resort, a concert hall for
Pinoy Dream Academy, an eviction hall, and even a slum. The multi-purpose hall, in particular, is used by the ABS-CBN Foundation as a relief goods storage facility during calamities. The house's set-up is that of a bungalow, even though the facade is obviously designed as a two-storey house. The second floor houses a state-of-the-art master control room and several amenities designed for the program's crew. 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 2 purposes: • To show any video Big Brother wanted to show to any or all housemates, especially that of the TV
Mass every Sunday (contrary to reports early in the first season that a priest would visit them; later on, a priest unseen by viewers would visit them), and • To announce the names of nominees for eviction directly to the housemates and the person evicted from the house. The housemates saw hosts talk to them during the nomination and eviction nights. To complete the setup, 26 surveillance cameras are positioned all over the house to watch the housemates' every move, including the bathroom. For modesty's sake, images from the bathroom will be shown if the bathroom is used for any purpose other than bathing and using the toilet. The set up of the house, especially when shown on television, makes the illusion that it is a one-storey house. But anyone who passes by the house can easily notice that its facade is that of a two-storey house. That is because the second storey houses parts of the control room. The actual front doors to the house area are actually further inside. The house interior was rebuilt for the
second season, the changes are the following: • The number of cameras has been increased to 42. • There was a secret room built behind the confession room and a large activity area leading from the garden. • The house has a prayer room rather than just an altar. • The flat screen monitor found in the living area is now used to call any housemate. • The front door now leads to the Eviction Hall next door. • Instead of watching a TV mass, the housemates have a spiritual session with
Coney Reyes, the show's spiritual adviser. This has been done since the first Celebrity Edition. For
Double Up, the house was divided into two different, yet equally furnished "houses." The changes are the following: • The house was completely rebuilt from the ground up, new set up, and larger space. • The guardians' area from the second teen edition was renovated to accommodate the season's twist. • The housemates that are evicted every week exit the house through the confession room. • Eviction takes place right outside of the Big Brother House. For
Unlimited, the facade of the house was fully renovated, and the gates were removed. The outside of the Big Brother house still served as the venue for evictions. The Big Brother house was still divided into two different themed houses yet both equally furnished. Both houses have separate confession rooms. The garden was removed, and the pool was retained and was considered a separate area and was called the
Resort. The area was used for some time for Big Brother's rewards and tasks to the housemates, and was a venue for some
House Battles. The activity area was retained and was renovated several times in order to accommodate the season's twists. Initially, it was used as a temporary shelter for the initial group of housemates and was themed after a typical urban
slum house. For
737, the former Pinoy Dream Academy facade became part of the Big Brother House as an extended facade. Also, the eviction now took place inside the ABS-CBN studios rather than outside the facade. The evicted housemate will be transferred by a car leading to the Eviction Studio. For '
Otso
', for the first time in the franchise's history, the entire one-way mirror system used for filming were removed and replaced by real walls. The number of cameras were increased to 50 and were upgraded to robotic cameras. The other facade of the House (also known as "House B") was demolished in May 2023 because the lease agreement for the said space had expired that year and it was impractical for the management to renew it. The said House was formerly used also as the academy of the now-defunct reality singing-competition show,
Pinoy Dream Academy. In both
Connect and
Kumunity Season 10 seasons, the "House B" also served as living quarters for the show's production staff, the show's office, brainstorm space, mini studio, and pantry as both seasons occurred during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. In March 2026, the Pinoy Big Brother house were set to move to a new location for the twelfth main season after 20 years in Quezon City.
Primers To prepare the viewers for the program's run, two primers were aired. The first was
Eto na si Kuya! (Here Comes Big Brother), which talked about the essentials of the franchise and its success around the world. In the second primer, entitled
Ang Bahay ni Kuya (Big Brother's House),
Mariel and
Toni indirectly gave the viewers a tour of the Big Brother house and its rooms, along with the control center and the confession booth. It also featured highlights a dry run where 12 of the network's talents stayed in the house for 24 hours and experienced the challenges and tests the housemates would experience at the start of the actual run.
Theme songs ;Pinoy Ako The show had its theme song called "Pinoy Ako" () composed by Jonathan Manalo and Clem Castro, and performed by
Orange and Lemons, in the album
Strike Whilst The Iron Is Hot, which became the basis for much of the background music used in the show. Numerous versions of the theme song were used, including those of rock band Cebalo for
Season 2, Toni Gonzaga for
Unlimited, rock band
Reo Brothers for
All In, a rendition from OPM veteran
Rico Blanco now entitled "Pinoy Tayo" () for
Kumunity Season 10's adult and
Biga-10 batches, and a remixed version of the Orange and Lemons original for
Gen 11. ;Sikat ang Pinoy "Sikat ang Pinoy" (), composed by Jonathan Manalo, and performed by Toni Gonzaga and
Season 1 ex-housemate
Sam Milby, was mainly used for its celebrity editions. Another rendition of the song was sung by
Pinoy Dream Academy winner
Yeng Constantino and finalist Emman Abatayo, which was used during the run of the
Celebrity Edition 2. A third rendition of the song by OPM band Agsunta with rap lyrics provided by Pinoy rapper Kritiko was introduced for
Kumunity Season 10. The latest rendition was performed by
Darren Espanto and
Julie Anne San Jose for the
Celebrity Collab Edition. ;Kabataang Pinoy "Kabataang Pinoy" (), composed by Jonathan Manalo and Jazz Nicolas, and performed by the
Itchyworms, was mainly used for teen editions since 2006. Another rendition was performed by Pinoy collective Nameless Kids, introduced in November 2021 for
Kumunity Season 10, followed by a third version by a collaboration of P-pop groups
Bini and
SB19 in March 2022 and eventually became the season's teen edition theme song. The latest rendition was performed by P-pop groups
BGYO and
Cloud 7 that became the theme song of
Celebrity Collab Edition 2.0, which featured teen celebrity housemates—the first and only standalone celebrity edition to do so. ;Other theme songs A new theme song was introduced in
Otso entitled "Otso Na" (), performed by Toni Gonzaga and Alex Gonzaga; worth noting is that the song includes a medley and the chorus of "Pinoy Ako". Composed in the same manner as "Otso Na", a new theme song written and performed by
Otso ex-housemates Jem Macatuno, Shawntel Cruz, Lie Resposposa and Kiara Takahashi called "Connected Na Tayo" () was used for
Connect. ==Hosts==