Pinoy Big Brother: Otso
Season 8
Pinoy Big Brother: Otso logo
Presented by	Toni Gonzaga Robi Domingo Alex Gonzaga Kim Chiu Melai Cantiveros Bianca Gonzalez
No. of days	268
No. of housemates	58
Winner	Yamyam Gucong
Runner-up	Kiara Takahashi
Companion shows	Pinoy Big Brother: Otso Gold PBB Bring 8 On! (online)
No. of episodes	265
Release
Original network	ABS-CBN
Original release	November 10, 2018 (2018-11-10) – August 4, 2019 (2019-08-04)
Season chronology
← Previous Lucky Season 7 Next → Connect

The eighth season of Pinoy Big Brother, subtitled Otso (Spanish for eight), premiered on the ABS-CBN network on November 10, 2018 and ran for 268 days, ending on August 4, 2019, replacing Star Hunt: The Grand Audition Show and The Kids Choice and was replaced by Gangnam Beauty, Encounter, the second season of I Can See Your Voice and iWant Originals.

Four batches of housemates, two civilian adults and two teenager groups, compete to be the winner of their respective batches. By the fifth batch, all finalists from each batch return to compete for eight slots in the finale. The show concluded with Yamyam Gucong being declared as the winner of the whole season.^[1][2][3]

This was the longest season of Pinoy Big Brother yet, having reached 268 days—surpassing Lucky 7 by 32. This season is the third longest season of Big Brother worldwide and also had the second highest number of housemates in a season (58), trailing Big Brother Germany’s fifth and sixth seasons, which lasted for 365 and 363 days respectively, and had 59 housemates each.

Development

Auditions

Auditions for this season has been part of Star Hunt: The Grand Kapamilya Auditions, ABS-CBN's auditions caravan, which started on April 20, 2018.^[4] 55,373 auditionees took part,^[5] auditioning for other upcoming reality shows like The Voice of the Philippines, Pilipinas Got Talent, and World of Dance Philippines. Several potential housemates have been featured in Star Hunt's companion show.

Other content

Pinoy Big Brother: Otso Gold returned as a companion show on November 12, 2018, as part of the Kapamilya Gold block. A house livestream also aired on iWant and TFC Online. An additional online companion show called PBB Bring 8 On!, which streamed simultaneously with the primetime TV program, also aired live via show's various social media accounts; it was hosted by Dawn Chang of Pinoy Big Brother: 737, Fifth Solomon of Pinoy Big Brother: All In, and Pamu Pamorada of Pinoy Big Brother: Unlimited.^[5]

An online show, YouthTube, which was hosted by Robi Domingo and Bianca Gonzales commenced on November 22, 2018. It talked about the different issues that arose in the house, particularly in the first batch of teen housemates.

Overview

Logo change and subtitle

The Otso in the season title is a Filipino language rendering of the Spanish word ocho ("eight"), indicating the season number. This season saw another logo change from the previous season: an eye logo using motifs from the Philippine flag (from which producers customized the new generic eye logo of Big Brother), atop the show's title and enclosed by an outline of a house. The adaption of the new generic franchise logo is the first among all the franchises worldwide.^[6]

Timeslot

The weekday primetime program of the show aired at 10:15 p.m. on weekdays after the last primetime teleserye in the primetime program block of the network. An afternoon edition titled Pinoy Big Brother: Otso Gold aired at 5:15 p.m. after Los Bastardos.

The weekend primetime program was originally aired at 7:30 p.m. during the batch 1 teens; however, after the first season of I Can See Your Voice ended, Pinoy Big Brother: Otso moved its timeslot to 10:00 p.m. on Saturdays and 9:30 p.m. on Sundays in order to give the timeslot to World of Dance Philippines since the batch 2 adults.

House changes

This season showed a major revamp in the house layout. On September 7, 2018, Director Laurenti Dyogi made a vlog about the reconstruction of the house.^[7] The new house design was finally unveiled on November 7, 2018 during its house blessing.^[8] Several housemates from previous seasons have visited the house and have taken pictures for their social media accounts. Official house photos were released on their Facebook page on November 10, 2018.^[9] The management opened its doors to 888 visitors to tour the House for 8 minutes on November 10, 2018.

From his livestream, Dyogi has stated that the show has upgraded to using HD PTZ cameras,^[5] making Otso the first season to fully broadcast in high definition and in 16:9 aspect ratio (Lucky 7's Vietnam leg was shown in 16:9, but the show reverted to 4:3 upon the housemates' return to the Philippines). It was worth noting that the one-way mirror system, used in earlier seasons for cameramen to capture events in the house, was no longer present.^[10]

Hosts

Toni Gonzaga and Robi Domingo reprised their roles as hosts.^[11] Alex Gonzaga, who hosted All In, returned to the show together with former winners Kim Chiu and Melai Cantiveros as new hosts. Bianca Gonzalez reprised her role as host upon the entry of Batch 2 Star Dreamers.^[12]

Prizes

As revealed during the announcement of the batch winners, each batch winner will receive ₱100,000.^[3] On the other hand, the ultimate winner would take home ₱2,000,000 (₱1,000,000 from Miniso and ₱1,000,000 from the show), a condominium unit Suntrust Asmara from Suntrust Properties, Inc.,^[13] a water refilling station business package worth ₱800,000, and a travel package worth ₱300,000 from Jag Jeans.^[1][14][15] The runner-up would receive ₱500,000 and a condominium unit from Suntrust Properties, Inc; the third and fourth placers would receive ₱300,000 and ₱200,000, respectively. ₱100,000 would be given to the fifth to eighth placers.^[14] Yen Quirante won a condominium unit from Suntrust Properties, Inc. during the third Pinoy Big Batch-Bakan.^[16]

Format

Since its official announcement on October 20, 2018, much information about this season has not been made public until November 9, 2018, where Dyogi published a livestream talking about it.^[5]

Four batches of housemates, civilians, and teenagers, came into the House in alternating order, starting with the teens. Each batch would comprise only eight official housemates. At the beginning of each batch's stay, 16 shortlisted contestants, known in the show as Star Dreamers, would take part in different tasks to determine who will be given housemate status, until eight are chosen. Star Dreamers who were unsuccessful in getting a spot in the House are sent to Camp Star Hunt, where they would be given tasks to determine among them the next person to be an official housemate. Every eviction, as one official housemate goes, a new one from the Camp takes their place. A new Star Dreamer will be introduced to the Camp, returning the number of housemates and Star Dreamers to eight. This is repeated for 6 weeks. By the seventh week, housemates would be participating in challenges or face the public vote, as part of the eviction process, until four are left. The public, then, decides, from the four, who they want to win for that batch. By the end of 8 weeks, the current batch leaves the House, and a batch winner is crowned, although the results were concealed until three more batches have gone through the same process.^[17][18] Once all batches are done, all batch winners would come back to the House, along with four more housemates from previous batches, chosen by the public, to form the final eight housemates who would battle to win the season.^[19]

This format was followed through on the batch 1. However, significant format changes were put in place as the show went on. By batch 2, Big Brother decided who would be an official housemate, and the housemates' stay was extended to 88 days—from the original 8 weeks or 56 days. By batch 3, all Star Dreamers eventually became housemates, entering the House by groups until Day 156. By batch 4, Camp Star Hunt was dropped, and the batch started with 12 official housemates, exiting the House via eviction without a replacement, and the housemates' stay was only 6 weeks—from the original 8 weeks or 56 days. By the Ultim8 Batch, all batch finalists returned, making the starting number of 16 housemates. The public did not decide who would return for this batch.

Twists

Aside from the twist to the show's format, the following are the highlighted twists that had occurred during the run of this season.

• Star Dreamers and Camp Star Hunt – On the launch night, 16 potential shortlisted contestants, called Star Dreamers, were introduced on the live launch wherein they must undergo through the housemate selection process twist in order to earn housemate status. Only eight of these Star Dreamers would become official housemates. Those who failed the cut, were housed in the Camp Star Hunt. These Star Dreamers would then battle between themselves by earning points in order to replace those housemates evicted weekly. The introduction of these Star Dreamers continued up to the third batch; upon the entry of the fourth batch, no more Star Dreamers were introduced.
• Housemates vs. Star Dreamers
• 2-in-1 Housemate – Two housemates who are related biologically are joined as one competing housemate, as assigned by Big Brother.

To disrupt normal selection processes in nominations, evictions, and even the finale to the determine the final four, Big Brother had given housemates several challenges of different formats for the five batches. For nominations and evictions, it had the Do-or-Die LigTask, The Duel, The Golden Circle and The Black Circle. For housemates to advance to the top group of any given batch, they had the Big Jump Challenge, Pinoy Big Batch-Bakan, and the Ultim8 Challenge.

Theme song

This season's theme song is "Otso Na" performed by co-hosts Toni and Alex Gonzaga where most elements (including the chorus) from Orange and Lemons's "Pinoy Ako," the franchise's theme song, were included in the song.^[20]

The season's eviction theme song was performed by Moira Dela Torre entitled "Before It Sinks In", written by herself and was part of her debut studio album "Malaya".

Housemates

On launch night on Days 1 and 2, official housemates were determined, from the chosen Star Dreamers from Star Hunt, through a series of challenges, by the council, and by the public. The council consists of past winners: season 1's Nene Tamayo, Celebrity 1's Keanna Reeves, Celebrity 2's Ruben Gonzaga, Teen Edition Plus's Ejay Falcon, Teen Edition 4's Myrtle Sarrosa, All In's Daniel Matsunaga, 737's Jimboy Martin, and Lucky 7's Maymay Entrata. On Day 2, three winners from the council were replaced by three ex-housemates: All In's Loisa Andalio, 737's Barbie Imperial, and Lucky 7's Edward Barber. The public chose a housemate through voting; the one with the most votes will become a housemate.

Below is a table of official housemates, and a collapsed table for shortlisted Star Dreamers staying at Camp Star Hunt.