Pinoy Big Brother: Double Up

Pinoy Big Brother: Double Up was the third regular season and the seventh series overall of Pinoy Big Brother, which began on October 4, 2009 on ABS-CBN. Toni Gonzaga, Mariel Rodriguez, and Bianca Gonzalez reprised their hosting duties this season. It ran for 133 days until February 13, 2010, which broke Season 2's record for the longest stay of housemates inside the house by only one week.

There were two sets of auditions for this season. The first set was held in late 2007 at several cities in the Philippines, as well as the cities of Madrid, Milan, and Dubai. Those auditions also produced the housemates for Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition Plus. A second series of auditions, which included selections for the third Teen Edition, were held in several key cities in the Philippines and the cities of Tokyo and San Francisco. An estimated 57,824 people attended the auditions. From those two auditions, only 50 people were reportedly chosen for the shortlist. A total of 26 housemates entered the House, with 14 on Day 1 and ten on Day 7. The last two housemates entered on Day 43.

The winner of the new season received an LCD TV set, an Asian tour package, a business package, a house and lot, and PHP 1 million in cash. The winner also donated another PHP 1 million to a charity of their choice, making Double Up the first non-celebrity season to do so.

This season also marked the return of Pinoy Big Brother UpLate, after being replaced by Pinoy Big Brother Über in the second Celebrity Edition and Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition Plus. Mariel continued hosting Über while Bianca took the helm for UpLate. Episodes from the previous week were also recapped through a weekend program on Studio 23 entitled Pinoy Big Brother: Primetime Weekends on 23 and delayed, but unedited late morning/early afternoon feed through Pinoy Big Brother: Raw on Studio 23.

Melisa Cantiveros emerged as the winner of this season.

With the Double-up twist of having two houses, the houses have a European motif for interiors with bright colors as inspired by architectural designs of Antoni Gaudí for House A and Vincent Van Gogh's paintings for House B. The houses appear to be smaller than before, with each house having the same set of amenities with different wall paintings. House A has predominantly blue and green wall paintings. House B has predominantly red and yellow wall paintings. Furthermore, House A's garden inherits the infinity pool previously seen in Teen Edition: Plus and the second season of Pinoy Dream Academy; House B only has a simple terrace area with a jacuzzi at one side.

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Wikipedia