The ninth season of the reality game show Pinoy Big Brother, subtitled Connect, aired on Kapamilya Channel and A2Z for 99 days from December 6, 2020 to March 14, 2021.
This was the fifth consecutive season that both civilian adults and teenagers participated in a season, and the first time since All In season to house them together as just one batch. Among all regular and special seasons, this season was the season with the shortest number of days (99; ties with Gen 11) of which a group of housemates representing an entire season have stayed in the house.[1]
Liofer Pinatacan was declared the winner of the season against then runner-up Andrea Abaya.[2][3] Kobie Brown and Jie-Ann Armero finished as finalists.
With the scrapping of the television broadcast operations of ABS-CBN by the NTC on May 5, 2020,[4] the continuity of the local Big Brother franchise was left uncertain. This is because of the House of Representatives denied ABS-CBN's franchise. No news or information were provided by the network nor by the production team behind the show of the fate of the said franchise. However, on October 16, 2020, Pinoy Big Brother hinted an announcement for a possible return of the show.[5] On the 18th of October in 2020, on ASAP Natin 'To!, it was officially announced that a new season would air as Pinoy Big Brother: Connect. No physical auditions will be held; instead all auditions will be done online.[6]
ABS-CBN's Television Production Head Unit and the Head Director of the Pinoy Big Brother franchise, Direk Lauren Dyogi, revealed in an interview of an episode of TV Patrol that Pinoy Big Brother: Connect would push through in November 2020, although the exact date was not mentioned.[7] However, it was later confirmed that Pinoy Big Brother: Connect began on December 6, 2020.[8] Dyogi also revealed that the ninth season to take place at the current situation of the network and of the country was unplanned, and that it had only prospered after the show had partnered with Kumu.[9]
The number of housemates who took part in this season was initially lowered to 12,[7] making this season with the fewest housemates in Pinoy Big Brother history, surpassing the first regular season of Pinoy Big Brother, the season that had only 13 housemates. However, it was later confirmed via online PBB: KUMUlitan show with Robi Domingo and Lie Reposposa that 18 aspiring housemates will be taking part this season.[10]
Pinoy Big Brother: Connect was first revealed during the October 18, 2020, episode of ASAP Natin 'To!, along with new audition mechanics for this newest season.[6] As the season was held during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, the auditions and its program were held using Kumu, a Filipino online streaming platform.[11] Auditions were opened for ages 16 to 35 years-old.[12][13] The auditions were opened on October 19, 2020;[6] it ended on November 11, 2020.[14]
For an aspiring housemate to join Pinoy Big Brother: Connect, they must create a Kumu account and recorded a one-minute video wherein they introduce themselves and why they want to join Pinoy Big Brother. Afterwards, they were required to upload their audition video on Kumu and use the hashtag #PBBkumuaudition; a maximum of one entry per account will be accepted. If an auditionee was accepted as one of the shortlisted hopefuls, they will receive a message from a PBB executive via Kumu's texting service.[12][15][16] At the end of the online auditions via Kumu, a total of 177,524 audition entries were submitted for this season—the highest in the entire history of the franchise.[17][18]
Pinoy Big Brother: Connect had some notable changes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, which forced the country's government to impose restrictions to mitigate the spread of the said virus. Prior to the premiere of Pinoy Big Brother: Connect on December 6, 2020, the Pinoy Big Brother house was thoroughly disinfected, the hosts, crew, and the housemates of the show also went onto a PCR testing, and social distancing was also being observed inside the house as a preventive measure during the COVID-19 pandemic.[19][20] There is also no audience present on the premiere night of the show on December 6, 2020.[21]
The show aired daily on Mondays to Fridays at 10:00 p.m. after Walang Hanggang Paalam, on Saturdays at 10:00 p.m. after Maalaala Mo Kaya, and on Sundays at 8:30 p.m. after Your Face Sounds Familiar. The show's companion show, Pinoy Big Brother: Kumunect Tayo, aired daily via Kumu, Facebook, and YouTube at 5:00 p.m. for its afternoon show, while it follows the main show's schedule for its evening show.
Also, in this season, evictions regularly occurred on Sundays, while the lists of nominees were usually revealed on Mondays or Tuesdays.
The show pre-empted on December 20, 2020 to give way for ABS-CBN's Christmas Special.
Toni Gonzaga, Bianca Gonzalez, and Robi Domingo reprised their roles as hosts.[8] Meanwhile, new digital hosts joined the show: Richard Juan was the host for the show's online updates; while Enchong Dee and Melai Cantiveros were the hosts for the show's online companion programs across various online platforms.[22] Kim Chiu, Edward Barber, and Maymay Entrata were earlier reported to host online contents for the program (with Chiu and Entrata having joined the official launch and the Big Night respectively, while Barber only appeared on the Big Night, acting for the Comedy sketch as one of the housemates),[22] but were never seen doing their hosting stints in the succeeding events of the show; Dee and Cantiveros, on the other hand, were occasionally seen to host the afternoon online companion show.
The winner of this season won a unit from PHirst Park Homes and a cash prize of ₱1,000,000 from Brilliant Skin Essentials.[2][23] Meanwhile, the second, third and fourth big placers received five hundred thousand pesos, three hundred thousand pesos and two hundred thousand pesos, respectively.[2]
This was the first season where the show was not aired on ABS-CBN after the network was ordered by the National Telecommunications Commission to cease and desist its free-to-air television and radio broadcast operations on May 5, 2020, following the lapse of its congressional franchise.[4] The network also failed to secure a renewal of its congressional franchise after its renewal bid was rejected by the House of Representatives on July 10, 2020.[24]
The show also aired on TV5 from March 8 until the show's finale on March 14, 2021, as part of the partnership arrangement (later as blocktime/content agreement) between ABS-CBN and TV5.[25][26] The Gen 11 season would become the first full season to air on the network, and the second overall to air on TV5 following this season.
The show was also simulcast and digitally streamed via ABS-CBN's entertainment website, iWantTFC (on-demand streaming service) and Kapamilya Online Live in Facebook and YouTube;[8] live feeds of the House were also shown on Kumu, an online streaming platform.
Each week, each participating housemate had to nominate two people for eviction with the first receiving two points and the second with one point. The housemates with the most votes (usually three) will then face the public vote with the nominee receiving the fewest votes (through a save to evict voting system) being evicted from the house. The format however may be altered as seen in Day 49 where the Co-HoHs directly nominated two nominees each and in Day 81 where the housemates ranked their housemates rather than the usual nomination process.
As a punishment or as a consequence, Big Brother can automatically nominate additional housemates if they had incurred violations or have failed a specific task. Big Brother can also give immunity to those who have succeeded in winning a challenge or a task. Sometimes, Big Brother can suspend the nomination process or moved the nominations to a later date in lieu of the result of a pending challenge or task.
The logo for Pinoy Big Brother: Connect still used its graphical eye, (first introduced in the previous season) in which the eye features motifs inspired by and colors taken from the Philippine flag. The outline of the house which was used before in the logo of Pinoy Big Brother: Otso was later removed. The colors of the text were also changed from the previous navy blue color now with a slightly lighter blue. The color of the season text in the logo was emphasized with a bright yellow and an orange gradient.
The Pinoy Big Brother house was refurnished with new furniture in the living room, the bedroom, and the dining area. There were no major changes in the house interior, which still follows the original layout used in Pinoy Big Brother: Otso. The house façade was decorated with Christmas decorations due to Christmas already drawing near at the start of the season.
This season's theme song is "Connected Na Tayo" performed and written by Otso ex-housemates Jem Macatuno, Shawntel Cruz, Lie Reposposa and Kiara Takahashi where, just like the preceding season's theme song "Otso Na!", most elements (including the chorus) from Orange and Lemons' "Pinoy Ako," the franchise's theme song, were included in the song.[31]
The season's eviction theme song was performed, written, and produced by Jem Macatuno entitled "Bagong Simula." Both songs are included in the album "Connected Na Tayo (Ang Soundtrack Ng Bahay Mo Vol. 2)".
A week prior to the entry of the first 12 housemates, the identities of two housemates were revealed daily via It's Showtime! and TV Patrol. Officially, the first 12 housemates entered during the premiere night of the show on December 6, 2020. Among them, 6 were adults, while the remaining 6 were teenagers.
It was later announced that six more housemates will soon be introduced in the upcoming episodes after accomplishing their mandatory 14-day quarantine. Three of the additional housemates were already pre-selected and were completing their own isolation periods before their entry, including one from France whose travel to the Philippines in order to compete was facilitated by the production staff. The other three were selected via Kumu; they vied among 117 hopefuls in various series of livestream challenges in three different stages.[19] The selection process began on December 6 and ended on December 26. As of January 24, 2021, the three new housemates have already entered the House, after completing the required health clearances, including mandatory quarantine, psychological test, and COVID-19 test.[32][33]
The final three housemates were selected via Kumu. 117 hopefuls competed in various series of livestream challenges in three different stages. The 9 remaining hopefuls were then divided in groups based on their traits, namely Matatag (Steadfast), Madiskarte (Resourceful), and Malakas ang Loob (Courageous). Each group competed in different weeks. The Top diamond earners in each group will become the last three housemates to enter the house for the season.
Amanda Zamora, Gail Banawis and Glenda Victorio were initially reported to be the winners of the campaign. However, due to Victorio withdrawing in her sequester, she was replaced by Quincy Villanueva, the runner-up in her team.
Unlike those in previous seasons where houseguests normally visit the House, most of the houseguests for this season participated via video conferencing only. Sometimes, they were ordered by Big Brother to do some tasks, such as: to help, to coach, or to judge various tasks or challenges of the housemates.
As part of every season, weekly tasks are given in order for the housemates to earn their weekly groceries. However, as part of this season's twist, the housemates are allowed to do Kumu livestreams so that viewers can help with their weekly tasks. The diamonds (in-app gifting currency) they will earn from livestreaming can be used to purchase supplies for their tasks or to pay for minutes to practice their routines, to name a few.
For them to succeed in their first weekly task, one after another, selected eight housemates must be able to cross the bridge from one end of the pool to the other. Once all of the eight housemates were able to cross, they must cross the bridge at the same time and go back to the starting point. If anyone falls while crossing the floating bridge at any given point, they will have to go back at the start and have all the eight housemates cross the bridge again. They were given only five tries to cross the bridge.[60][61]
In addition to the weekly budget, the group with the most successful performance will be immune from the nominations for the following week, while only the members of the other group will be allowed to be nominated.
In Day 27, additional rewards will be given to either of the teams that will win: that Ella's siblings or Haira's siblings will be given gadgets for their online schooling.
Note that all the housemates are required to wear a vest with a battery-like strap placed onto it. If Big Brother instructs any of them to remove the "battery" due to any reason (e.g., failure in a task or challenge), that housemate will have to act slowly as a consequence of being "low in battery." They will also have to include a mannequin that represents Gail (Gail's live video feed can be seen in a tablet strapped in the mannequin's head) in the said task.
After a presentation of the three companies to mentors Nene Tamayo and Slater Young, Jie-ann's company was dissolved because her company was not selected by either mentor. As a result, she was automatically given 2 points for the next nomination, and she and her employees were selected by the remaining bosses through arm wrestling (bunong braso) matches between members of the remaining companies.
Each company was given fifteen thousand pesos (P15,000) as capital and each must earn a net profit of at least fifteen thousand pesos (P15,000) for them to win their task.
In addition to the weekly budget, the group with the highest income will be immune from the nominations for the following week, while only the members of the other group will be allowed to be nominated.
They are allowed to make only one mistake.
To win this task, they need to earn 10 million Kumu diamonds from their music videos and performances until 8 pm of the day after the performances.
In order of performance:
If they will successfully transfer all the ping-pong balls within the period set by Big Brother, they will win their weekly budget.
Aside from the weekly tasks, the housemates were also given other significant tasks. These tasks usually involve rewards for someone special, some may include nomination or eviction twists as a consequence of failing such tasks, some were required to be done secretly, some may involve a combination of two or more types of tasks, or very difficult punishments.
Prior to the start of the challenge, Chico and Kobie were instructed separately that this task is a secret sacrifice task for the other. The rewards were: to let Chico's father see him perform their weekly task, and to let Kobie talk with his father.[64][65]
Later on, the number of rounds is decreased to 1545 laps after they have managed to win a task during their Kumu livestream. Also, the other housemates decided to secretly sacrifice their gifts in order to make the sleigh lighter. Acting on Alyssa's suggestion, they prioritized the gifts of Aizyl, Haira, Jie-Ann, and Liofer.
If successful, just like in other evictions, only one housemate will be evicted during the eviction night; if not, two housemates will be evicted.
They can only proceed to the activity area upon Big Brother's signal. Note that each of the housemates are also wearing orange vests with pockets, some of which contain weights. The number of weights each housemate is wearing depends on the number of violations each has committed.[67]
Every week, each of the Housemates will undergo challenges to become one of the two Heads of Household. Becoming a Head of Household will earn them immunity from being nominated in that particular week.
For the fourth Heads of Household challenge, the Padaluck twist was implemented. It gave an advantage to a housemate who had received the most Kumu gifts.
In the second part of the challenge, the pairs must transfer a bucket of water to an empty drum. Except for their hands, they must use their bodies to transfer the water to their respective buckets. The pair with the most water transferred within three minutes wins the Heads of Household titles.
Padaluck recipient: Andrea (will have to answer three questions only)
At the end of all the challenges, the last two standing housemates will become Heads of Household for two weeks.
Note that the names stricken out in the table were the ones who were able to get one of the flags, but were not chosen by the throne occupants to battle with.
Padaluck recipient: Amanda (will have to transfer 200 balls instead of 300)
The Ligtask challenge, carried over from previous seasons, were usually held in lieu of the Heads of Household challenge.
Before the Ligtask challenge, the public has a chance (via Kumu) to give an advantage to a housemate. The advantage will be given to the housemate who has received the most "padalucks" (done through Kumu's livestream gifting system). At the end of the challenge, the winner will be saved from becoming one of the nominees.
Padaluck recipient: Kobie (the distance he needed to make is reduced to 10 feet)[68]
Padaluck recipient: Gail (needs to flip three letters only and may use her legs to flip the coins)
Padaluck recipient: Amanda (the distance of the basket is reduced to 8 feet)
In the event that the ball drops outside any of the layers or that the ball does not shoot to the designated basket, they will have to go back to the starting point. The two housemates with the shortest time will win this challenge.
Padaluck recipients: Alyssa and Gail (the number of layers is reduced to five)
Prior to the challenge, Amanda, Chico, Jie-Ann, and Kobie were asked by Big Brother to choose a housemate whom they wish to help for the last challenge. Amanda chose to help Quincy; Chico chose Liofer; Jie-Ann chose Alyssa; and Kobie chose Andrea. With their choices already made known, the already safe housemates were given the privilege to help by picking up the volleyballs thrown by the housemate of their choice.
The four housemates with the shortest time will win this challenge, while the three remaining housemates will become the final nominees for week 10.
Padaluck recipients: Gail and Quincy (need to hit only 10 pictures and the distance of the line from the pictures is reduced to 19 feet)
Chico, Kobie
Andrea, Liofer,Quincy, Ralph
Each group will have one retriever and two builders. The retriever will have to collect 90 dominos in two separate rounds; while each of the two builders, in two separate rounds, will have to build the domino lines.
For the first round, with the activity area as the starting point, the retriever will have to collect all the 90 dominos scattered around the garden area and bring them to the activity area. After collecting all the dominos, the first builder will then line up all the dominos from the starting point to the gold bar placed at the end of the first platform. Once all the dominos are lined up, the builder will have to tumble down all the dominos one after another until the gold bar is toppled and fall to a container. In the event that any of or all the dominos will fall without completely finishing the domino line, the builder will have to line them up from the start or from the last domino standing.
If the first builder is successful in the first round, the retriever will then have to collect the second set of dominos: Ten bags (each bag has nine dominos) placed in the pool. He or she will then hand the second set of dominos to the second builder who will have to do same task the first builder did.
The group with the shortest time to finish the task will be saved from eviction, while the two other groups will be the only housemates who can be nominated for eviction.
To determine this season's Big 4, all housemates participated in a series of challenges that was quite different from the Big Jump of the other previous seasons. All Big 4 slots were determined by all of these challenges—a deviation from the other seasons' Big Jump twist where the public's vote also played as a determining factor in choosing the final four. The series of challenges were called Big 4 Karapatdapat Challenges (Big 4 Worthy Challenges) and tested the housemates qualities: their self-trust, sense of camaraderie, resourcefulness and being steadfast.
Also as part of the twist, winning any of the Big 4 slot did not automatically guarantee their place for the Big Night as the winning housemates had to defend their spots against the two challengers chosen by the public to challenge them and take their positions.
After the wake-up call on Day 86, the housemates were informed of their first challenge. They were required to throw their designated colored sandbags and make them land on a circular platform placed on top of a high pole from a designated area around the pole. They are allowed to do this challenge at any time they like within 10 hours; any sandbag that will fall during that time will not be counted. The housemate with the most sandbags remaining on top of the pole after 10 hours wins the challenge.
To compensate for their height disadvantage, Andrea and Jie-Ann were allowed to use small platforms to step on.
The challenge will be divided into two levels: in the first level, the two housemates with the fewest balls in 10 rounds will advance to the second level; and for the second level, within an hour, the two housemates who advanced will transfer their balls now at the same time without waiting for each other's turn. The housemate with the fewest balls within an hour wins the challenge.
Prior to the challenge, the housemates were first asked who they personally think had shown the most trait or sense of comradeship. If they think that that housemate has such trait, they must give that housemate a medal. Liofer received 2 medals from Jie-Ann and Kobie; Chico received 1 medal from Liofer; Jie-Ann received 2 medals from Andrea and Chico; Ralph received 1 medal from Amanda; and Kobie received 1 medal from Ralph. Because Liofer and Jie-Ann received the most medals, they were given an advantage. If used, they cannot be given any ball by any housemate in one round; this advantage can be used at any point of the challenge.
Moments before the challenge, Big Brother announced that those housemates who had received any number of medal in the advantage twist may also help those other housemates who gave them their medals; they were all asked by Big Brother if they will help, but only Chico decided to take one of Jie-Ann's balls and place it in his own container, leaving Jie-Ann with 19 balls at the start of the challenge.
Andrea did not participate in this challenge since she had already won the first Karapatdapat Challenge.
For this challenge, each housemate had to be resourceful in building a panungkit or a pole using only the items found in the House; they were given only 5 minutes to collect the items they think are needed to build a pole. Using their poles, they will have to pick four bags placed on a table across the center of the swimming pool; each bag contains a colored set of six tower puzzles. After all bags are collected, they will have to proceed to the build area in order to solve and build their tower puzzles (all towers need to have the same height but the pieces are of unequal lengths). Every time a correct set of 6-towers are built, a ring will be placed above it in order to become the platform for the next set of tower puzzles. If they feel that another housemate is inching closer to completely finishing their own set of towers, they may raise their red flag in order to throw a block and have the chance to destroy that housemate's tower puzzles; a flag may be used anytime in the challenge and if used, all housemates have to temporarily stop while the one who used the flag has enough time to attempt to destroy another's puzzles.
As an advantage for being voted as the most resourceful housemate, Liofer is given a two-minute headstart.
A housemate who completes all the four levels of the 6-tower puzzles wins the challenge.
Only Chico used his red flag, but he is not able to destroy Liofer's tower. Kobie attempted to use his red flag, however he wasn't given the chance to destroy a tower of his choice as Liofer simultaneously finished his tower.
In this challenge, the housemates' endurance and balance will be tested. Each will have to step on four circular, elevated platforms: the first platform having the widest diameter and the last having the smallest diameter. The size of their respective platforms were customized according to the size of their feet.
They will have to stand for 1 hour for the first platform, 2 hours and 30 minutes for the second platform, 3 hours for the third platform, and indefinitely for the last platform; also later in the last platform, they were required to balance using only one of their feet. But prior from moving to one platform to another, they are given 30 seconds to prepare; within the 30 seconds window, they are also allowed to step on the floor.
The last housemate to stay on top of the platform wins the challenge.
There were four Big 4 Karapatdapat Challenges that were played by the seven remaining housemates, each of which determined a holder for a certain Big 4 spot. Unknown to all of them, with four housemates taking the Big 4 spots, the three others who failed to take any of those spots were automatically nominated and had to face the public vote. The two housemates with the highest number of public votes were given a chance to stay and challenge the Big 4 while the housemate with the least vote was evicted.
As challengers, with their identity being hidden to the Big 4, they were required to challenge two housemates. In order for them to win and take any of the Big 4 slots, they must choose and defeat two of the current Big 4 occupants. Failure would mean automatic eviction.
The challenger challenges given by Big Brother were a combination of previous challenges the housemates had participated throughout this season and were exclusively chosen by the public via Kumu.
Amanda and Ralph drew of lots to determine the order of who will they pick to challenge: Amanda got the 2nd and 4th picks while Ralph got the 1st and 3rd picks. Ralph chose Andrea first for the first pick and Kobie for the third pick; Amanda chose Jie-Ann for the second pick and Liofer for the fourth pick. Their identities were revealed prior to the challenge. Before they made themselves known to the housemates, Amanda is known as the white challenger, while Ralph is known as the black challenger.
For the first part, they must add three four-digit numbers found at the back of three lettered circles; the sum of these numbers will be used to unlock a black box that contains several red small cups. During this part, audio clips of ex-housemate Justin were played to distract the housemates while they attempted to get the sum of the numbers.
After unlocking the black box, each of them will have to get 105 small cups from the box and place them at the blue table. Afterwards, each of them will have to transfer the cups at the yellow table top and stack them all in order to form a 14-layer cup tower by using only their elbows. After successfully stacking up the cups, he or she will have to transfer the yellow table top to another table found 20 feet across. In case the cups tumble down while transferring the yellow table top, he or she needs to return to the initial position of the table, and he or she will be allowed to use his or her hands to stack up all the cups again. Once the table top is transferred while keeping the 14 cup tower intact, he or she will need to push the buzzer in order to end the challenge.
For this challenge, they will have to build a domino line composed of 80 dominoes that will follow a zigzag pattern outlined on top of a black bench; the last piece for this domino line should be a gold bar. After building the domino line, they will have to build a pipeline from a ring to the domino line. Each of them may choose to build the domino line first or to connect the pipes first.
To tumble the domino line at the black platform, they will have to place a ball into a pipe in order for it to fall into a seesaw, and use the seesaw as a catapult to shoot the ball into the said ring. When the ball is shot into the ring, the ball will have to fall into the series of pipes that each of them have connected. The ball should be able to reach the black platform and tumble down all the 80 dominoes one after another until the gold bar is toppled and will fall into a container. In the event that any of or all the dominos will fall without completely finishing the domino line, he or she will have to line them up from the start or from the last domino standing.
During the final days of the season, Big Brother gave the finalists a task. Each task can grant either extra votes to save or the deduction and transfer of vote to evict.
Only one finalist at a time can travel along the path.
The task is later modified so that housemates can finish transferring balls first before handling pencils.
Note that the production team of show does not tally the launch night as Day 1. For the purposes of uniformity with the other previous season articles, the launch night is marked as Day 1, not the day after it. The days reflected in this article were always numbered a day ahead compared to that as shown in the program.
AmandaJie-AnnLiofer
Liofer57 minJie-ann4 hrs, 51 min
Amanda2 hrs, 51 min
Kobie3.36%
Jie-Ann2.66%
The Power of Veto was a power given to the winner of certain tasks. The holder of the power is given the chance to automatically save a nominee of their choice from the list of nominees. If the power was given to a group, the group will decide which nominee gets vetoed via a collective vote.
Unlike its American counterpart, no replacement nominee was required to be named making the power controversial among viewers.[93]
For the 10th nomination week, the list of nominees was based on the housemates' rankings. Each housemate will rank all remaining housemates, including themselves. Each rank will receive a specific number of points: the first will receive 1 point; the second with 2 points; and so on until the eighth with 8 points. The total points received by each housemate will determine the final ranking; the housemates in the first six ranks will be saved from becoming part of the final list of nominees, while the housemates who receive the most points will be in the last two ranks and will become the official nominees for the week.
The housemates did not know that their rankings were the basis of this week's nomination until Big Brother mentioned this to them before the announcement of the rankings.
Note that the underlined names in the table below were the rank of the housemates they gave to themselves.
The following is a summary of the results of the evictions nights that had used the S-E voting system. In this system, a voter may vote to evict or to save a nominee from eviction. The votes to save are then subtracted by the votes to evict which may result in a nominee receiving a negative number of votes as seen in the first, eighth, tenth and eleventh evictions, this also results in the percentages not adding up to one hundred.
The votes were taken from the combined SMS and Kumu votes.
In the second and the succeeding eviction nights, the detailed summary was replaced by a combined net results of both votes from Kumu and SMS without further detailing the results of each medium. The percentage of Kumu's votes being 70% and that of SMS votes comprising 30% of the total votes remained the same.
For the first time in Pinoy Big Brother history, the finale of the season, dubbed as Pinoy Big Brother: Connect @ The Big Night, was held in front of the Pinoy Big Brother House with a virtual audience. The finale also featured several guests, including past Pinoy Big Brother winners such as Nene Tamayo of Season 1, Bea Saw of Season 2, Ruben Gonzaga of Celebrity Edition 2, Ejay Falcon of Teen Edition Plus, Slater Young of Unlimited, Daniel Matsunaga of All In, Jimboy Martin of 737 Teens and Yamyam Gucong of Otso and other former housemates.[2][99]
At the end of the night, Liofer Pinatacan was declared as the winner of the season. Andrea Abaya was declared as second big placer, Kobie Brown as the third big placer, and Jie-Ann Armero as the fourth big placer.[100][101]
Star Music together with ABS-CBN created an album for this season entitled Connected Na Tayo (Ang Soundtrack Ng Bahay Mo Vol. 2) and was released on January 29, 2021. Tracks in this album are mostly composed by Otso ex-housemates Lie Reposposa, Shawntel Cruz, Jem Macatuno, and Kiara Takahashi, which includes this season's theme song and carrier track "Connected Na Tayo" and eviction theme song "Bagong Simula".[102]
Just like in all other seasons, this season was not spared from controversies and criticism. One issue involves the rude behavior of one housemate towards another;[103][104] another was the inclusion of two housemates who favored the shutdown of ABS-CBN;[105][106] and a mechanic that was tagged as "unfair" by viewers.[93]
This season panned by viewers as "the worst edition" in the history of PBB.