Slater is Big Winner of PBB Unlimited

MANILA, Philippines - Cebuano engineer Slater Young was proclaimed the Big Winner of Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) Unlimited at the PBB Unlimited: Big Night at the Grandstand last Saturday after garnering the highest percentage of votes in an overnight public poll against fellow Big Four contenders.

The 24-year-old got an astounding 40.02 percent of the total number of text votes, making him the first male Big Winner of the regular edition of the ABS-CBN reality show. He took home P2M, an appliance showcase, an Asian tour package, an Internet TV, a water-refilling store franchise and a special appearance in a Kapamilya program in the US.

Pamu Pamorada of Batangas, meanwhile, was named the Second Big Placer after gaining 21.49 percent of the votes and won P1M. Joseph Biggel was declared Third Big Placer after getting 21.39 percent of the votes, while former house player and wildcard housemate Paco Evangelista came as the Fourth Big Placer with 17.10 percent of the votes. Biggel and Paco got P500,000 and P300,000, respectively.

After staying inside the famous PBB house for 155 days, the Big 4 housemates successfully completed their final task to remain on a platform for 24 hours, which earned them P50,000 each to be donated to their chosen charities.

The Big Night at the Grandstand ruled the trending topics on Twitter, with the term “Congrats Slater” peaking at No. 1 worldwide. In the Philippines, the hashtag #PBBTheBigNight was the most discussed on the micro-blogging site during the show and hours after it ended. Other related terms that trended globally and locally on Twitter also included “Toni Gonzaga in PBBBigNight,” “Iza Calzado,” “El Gamma Penumbra,” “Biggel,” “Go Pamu,” “Quirino Grandstand,” “#PBBTeenEdition,” “Slater or Pamu,” “Hopeless Romantic” and “Name People,” a phrase famously exclaimed by Slater and Paco during the M6 week.

The Big Night at the Grandstand served as a grand celebration of Filipino talent and pride as it featured performances and appearances by the hosts, grand winners and finalists of ABS-CBN’s talent and reality shows, including  Iza Calzado, Luis Manzano, Billy Crawford, Melai Cantiveros, Jason Gainza, Matt Evans, Bugoy Cariño, Devon Seron, El Gamma Penumbra, XB Gensan and the ex-housemates of PBB Unlimited.

Hosts Toni Gonzaga, Bianca Gonzalez and Robi Domingo also introduced former PBB Celebrity Edition first runner-up John Prats as the additional host of the upcoming PBB Teen Edition 4, which will premiere on Easter Sunday, April 8. The new teen season’s kickoff will present at least 12 teen housemates drawn out from the 22,305 teen auditionees who will be spending eight weeks in the famous Pinoy Big Brother house.

PBB Unlimited, the fourth regular edition of the local version of the international TV franchise from Endemol, set out a fresh set of surprises and twists that gave both viewers and housemates the ultimate reality program experience, which began when the housemates occupied the “looban” reminiscent of slum settlements.

Slater with the PBB ex-housemates, staff and hosts

Two groups of housemates were made to live in two separate houses, with an afternoon show called PBB UnliDay that initially bared updates from the Industrial House and the primetime program PBB UnliNight that aired happenings in the mansion. The season also made use of reserved housemates, some of whom made it to the competition as official housemates after completing a set of tasks.

In the heat of the inter-house Kontra Battle games, the housemates were trimmed down to 14 who were compelled to live together and battle for the Big 4 slots.

Slater, a privileged civil engineer who works for his father’s business, joined PBB to become more mature and independent. Regarded as a leader, he exhibited cleverness in carrying out Big Brother’s challenges as well as compassion for his fellow housemates.