After 84 days, Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition 2 concluded last Saturday, January 5, at the Araneta Coliseum. Davao comedian Ruben Gonzaga was hailed as the first male winner of the PBB franchise in the Philippines. The Big Night also served as a reunion for the former tenants of the Big Brother house.
Uploaded: January 09, 2008
For the '20s-inspired opening number, (L-R) Toni Gonzaga, Vina Morales, Mcoy Fundales, and Nikki Gil performed a jazz number that delighted the crowd at the Araneta Coliseum.
At the start of the program, housemate A was leading in the tally of votes but by the end of the show, it was housemate B who won Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition 2. It turned out that Ruben Gonzaga was housemate B while Gaby dela Merced was housemate A. The Racing Goddess ended up being Third Big Placer.
The first batch of evictees were (L-R) Marylaine Viernes, Jen Da Silva, and Zara Aldana. Marylaine and Jen are considered 2-in-1 housemates in this edition, meaning what happens to one housemate also affects the second housemate. This is the first time that PBB introduced this innovation.
The second batch of PBB housemates is composed of (L-R, clockwise) Donnie Geisler, Mcoy Fundales, Victor Basa, Ethel Booba and Megan Young.
It will be recalled that Mcoy and Ethel decided to leave the house voluntarily after a heated argument with Big Brother. All the rest were voted out by the viewing public through text votes.
(L-R) Jon Avila, Yayo Aguila, and Baron Geisler were among the last housemates to stay in the PBB house. The Mom in Distress left the house when her mother died while both Jon and Baron were meted with forced eviction for different reasons.
The housemates all decided to give 10 percent of their cash prizes to Mommy Yayo, which is why she got P400,000 even though she was not part of the Big Four.
Former celebrity housemates dance and groove onstage during the Big Night, which doubled as their reunion night. They are (L-R) Marylaine Viernes, Baron Geisler, Jen Da Silva, Jon Avila, Zara Aldana, Donnie Geisler, Yayo Aguila, Victor Basa, and Megan Young.
The Big Four—composed of Gaby dela Merced, Ruben Gonzaga, Will Devaughn, and Riza Santos—wait patiently for Kuya to tell them when they can leave the PBB house to go to the Araneta Coliseum where their fans and family members are waiting for them.
Before they left their temporary home for the past 84 days, they spent 100 seconds with special persons in their life. Gaby talked with her brother Jan, Ruben with his uncle Locloc, Will had a phone call with his mother Doris Dorman who was in Kentucky, while Riza was visited by her father Ruel Santos.
Ethel Booba uses her favorite mode of transportation—sitting on a hammock carried by two hunks. She was carried this way by Will Devaughn and Jon Avila when she was named Head of Household inside the PBB house.
Ethel was part of the sketches done by four comedians who impersonated the Big Four.
Tuesday Vargas entered the stage riding a small go-kart, similar to the one used by Gaby dela Merced to enter the PBB house. Tuesday mimicked Gaby's deep voice and had the audience in stitches when she poked fun at Gaby's tendency to voluntarily exit whenever she wants to.
In fact, Ethel (who was playing Big Brother) told her: "Ginawa mo nang 3 o'clock habit ang paglabas ng bahay ko."
Members of the crowd were given professionally printed posters featuring the Racing Goddess. Gaby dela Merced is a known Asian Formula 3 race car driver and even won the Subic International Raceway competition while she was still a tenant of Big Brother.
A "bald" and "muscular" RS Francisco imitated Will Devaughn's crooked Tagalog that was a big hit among the audience. He also imitated the Fil-German's penchant for exercising by going down on the floor suddenly to perform ab crunches.
Giselle Sanchez brought the house down when she impersonated the beauty queen-cum-military soldier Riza Santos. Giselle emphasized Riza's habit of always retouching her makeup and her loud screams whenever something happens to her.
Her spiel goes: "I want to be a perfect role model in this imperfect world."
Professionally printed posters of Riza Santos were in abundance that night. Her supporters also carried letters spelling out her name while others wore a tiara to show their support for the 2006 Ms. Earth-Canada title holder.
RS Francisco and Giselle Sanchez play the "couple" Will Devaughn and Riza Santos. The True Lover is smitten by the Fil-Canadian beauty queen but he says that she is too perfect for him.
Ricci Chan portrays Ruben Gonzaga, who popularized this clothing style and the dance step "Budots"—the slang term
for "bum" in Davao. The comedian also made light of Ruben's failed marriage proposal to his longtime partner Jeselle. Ruben eventually convinced the mother of his two kids to marry him in a simple church wedding.
Yeng Constantino performed that night with Maestro Ryan Cayabyab, who was introduced as the new headmaster of the upcoming second season of Pinoy Dream Academy. Yeng is the first Grand Star Dreamer of PDA.
The alumni of Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition made an appearance that night to promote the second season of the reality show. It will air on ABS-CBN this summer.
The RCS—composed of (top row) Irra Cenina, (second row) Jaime Barcelona, Vincent Evangelista, (third row) Katherine Tiuseco, Kyla Rivera, Poppert Bernadas,
and Anezka Alvarez—also sang for the PBB audience.
PBB hosts Mariel Rodriguez, Toni Gonzaga, and Bianca Gonzales all had the chance to be houseguests this season since they were all locked up inside the PBB house. Mariel spent 10 weeks as a houseguest while Toni and Bianca only spent a few days inside the closely monitored house.
The Big Four were all excited to know who would be the Big Winner of this edition. They arrived at the Araneta Coliseum at around 10:50 pm onboard a white stretch limousine.
They were wearing clothes from top designers Danny Espinosa (Riza), Danny Ortiz (Will), JC Buendia (Ruben), and Veejay Floresca (Gaby).
As the Fourth Big Placer, Will Devaughn took home less than P400,000
since they all donated 10 percent of their winnings to Yayo Aguila who recently lost her mother.
The True Lover Will Devaughn was shocked to learn that he was the newest celebrity endorser of Jag Jeans. He manages to tell the crowd, "I'm speechless. Mahal na mahal ko kayo!"
The crowd goes wild when Gaby dela Merced appears onstage at the Araneta Coliseum. The Racing Goddess is met by Donnie Geisler, who helps award her prizes that night.
Gaby's chosen charity received P300,000 but the Third Big Placer herself only gets P150,000 instead of P600,000. This is because she was gone for two weeks from the Big Brother house to attend a car racing seminar in the United States.
"This has been a life-changing experience," says Gaby when asked to give a message to her fans.
Riza and Jon make beso-beso as she receives her check for P400,000. Also present to award the prizes was ABS-CBN's channel managing director Charo Santos-Concio (not in photo).
Stage fireworks are set off onstage at the Araneta Coliseum when Ruben Gonzaga is announced as the Big Winner. He has a lot of reasons to be ecstatic since he won a cash prize of P2 million, a Sony Bravia, a Goodah business
franchise worth P2 million, and a condominium unit from Chateau Valenzuela. His
chosen charity also received a million pesos.
When he is greeted enthusiastically by his fellow celebrity housemates, Ruben tells them to quiet down by saying: "Manahimik muna kayo,magsasalita pa ako, patapos na ang show!" The teary-eyed Ruben is also met by his equally emotional wife Jeselle.
Ruben Gonzaga throws his hand triumphantly in the air after being announced as the Big Winner of this edition. To show his gratitude to the viewing public, the Komedyanteng Promdi even knelt down and bowed low on the floor. He received a total of 506,402 votes or 32.17 percent of the votes.
Former celebrity housemates have a reunion during the Big Night of Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition 2. (L-R) Megan Young, Yayo Aguila, Ethel Booba, Zara Aldana, Donnie Geisler, Marylaine Viernes, Victor Basa, and Jon Avila can look forward to brighter things this 2008 after their stint inside the PBB house.
