Origin and concept After the success in 2004 of reality talent search program
Star Circle Quest where he had been a juror,
Qpids creator Laurenti Dyogi conceptualized a similar reality talent search program, this time with the intent to find the best acting loveteam.
Star Circle Quest, which by then was popularly known by its acronym SCQ, became the inspiration for
SCQpids, the name being a play on "SCQ" and the word "cupid". The first two letters were eventually dropped and the show later came to be known simply as
Qpids. In the first three weeks of the series, 9 'princesses' and 18 'princes' were introduced, then sent on a variety of adventures to get to know one another. Each princess was then asked to pick her prince, while the show's creator, Laurenti Dyogi, played the role of
Mr. Qpido by picking a prince for each princess. The resulting pairings created interlocking love triangles, where each princess was paired with two princes, and where some of the princes were also linked to two princesses. By the end of the third week,
Mr. Qpido announced his final choice for each princess. The princes who were not chosen were eliminated from the show, leaving only 9 love pairs. The next 10 weeks of the show saw the 9 love pairs competing in acting challenges. A panel of judges, dubbed
The Love Council, was assembled after each challenge to judge their performances. Through a combination of judges' scores and viewer votes through SMS text messages and phone calls, the weakest pair was identified and eliminated, until only four pairs remained. These four pairs were considered
Qpids Finalists. The four Qpids Finalists then performed together in a four-week drama mini-series. As in previous weeks, the
Ultimate Loveteam was determined through a combination of judges' scores and viewer votes. Two awards were given on the Grand Finals night—a ''Voters' Choice
Award (for the pair with the most viewer votes) and the Qpids Ultimate Loveteam'' title.
Writing Writing was led by Headwriter
Theodore Boborol, with writing team members Adolfo Alix, Jr., Mariami Tanangco and Marcus Vinuya. Since the show was a reality-program, the writing team was initially focused more on writing dialogue for the hosts, and conceptualizing the challenges that the cast would face. Later in the series, however, short acting skits and full-length drama challenges were written for the Qpids Finalists.
Casting Casting was done through auditions, and screen tests were performed individually and in pairs. Selected audition and screen test video clips were later aired in a spin-off program called
Qpids Sunday Loventures. Unlike earlier reality talent searches, which auditioned unknown individuals, all nine 'princesses' selected were already talents of
Star Magic, the talent management agency of the
ABS-CBN Corporation. The 'princes' were also primarily from Star Magic, although a handful were either independent artists or artists managed by other talent agencies.
Broadcasting Qpids was originally scheduled to begin airing on May 2, 2005 but initial broadcast was moved to May 9 and later moved again to May 23. It was later explained that three days worth of edited material had been lost or accidentally deleted, resulting in a need to push back the show's start date.
Music The show's theme song was performed by
Nikki Gil and
Josh Santana and is entitled
Dito Sa Puso Ko (roughly translates to "Here in my heart"). The accompanying music video, created under the direction of
Qpids director [on Ilagan, featured members of cast dancing with the singers.
Opening sequence Three opening sequences were used during the course of the show. The first opening sequence featured the chorus of the theme song and overlaid still photos of all 9 princesses over scenes from the music video as their names appeared on screen. The second opening sequence featured only the final five loveteams after 9 princes and 4 other loveteam pairs had already been eliminated. The third opening sequence featured only the final four loveteams after the 5th loveteam pair had been eliminated. It was essentially the same video as the second version, but with all scenes with the 5th eliminated pair removed.
Settings Qpids was shot primarily in the
Philippines, with a handful of episodes filmed in
Hong Kong as part of a "loventure". The early weeks of the show, which featured beach and safari scenes, were filmed in Subic Bay in the province of Zambales. The Union of Hearts episodes were filmed at Fernwood Gardens in
Quezon City.
Heartbreak (elimination) episodes were filmed in front of a live studio audience in Studio 1 of the ABS-CBN network's compound in
Quezon City. The music video was filmed at
Intramuros. ==Show formats and timeslots==