Pinoy Big Brother: December 2009

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There were two sets of auditions that were held for the third season (see Future auditions section): first was being held in key cities in the Philippines as well as in Dubai, Milan, and Madrid. The second set was held in the Philippines, Tokyo, Japan, and San Francisco, US. There were a total of 57,824 people who auditioned. In fact, because of the multitude of people who tried to audition in Manila, a second set of audition dates were set, but only for those who registered through SMS.

Of all of the people who auditioned, fifty were included in a shortlist as potential housemates. Fourteen entered the House the third regular season, dubbed Pinoy Big Brother: Double Up, which began in October 4, 2009. The "Double Up" moniker stems from the House being split into two near identical House areas, as well as the use of two sets of male identical twins, each twin of each set would live in each House area.

Pinoy Big Brother (also known as PBB) is the Phillipine version of the Reality television show Big Brother (the word Pinoy is a colloquial term for Filipino). It follows the same premise as its many foreign counterparts around the world: twelve Philippine residents are forced to live with each other inside a house for about 3 months or at least 100 days.

It is shown on ABS-CBN Channel 2 and its international Affiliate, The Filipino Channel, with snippets shown on local affiliate Studio 23. The uncut 24/7 version of the series can also be seen on the internet through streaming video and a special cable channel provided by ABS-CBN-owned cable TV provider, SkyCable.

The elimination process in the show is the reverse of the original Dutch format. At the start of the elimination process, the "housemates" (as the contestants are referred to) vote for which two (sometimes more if there are ties or Big Brother gives automatic nomination) fellow housemates they should eliminate. Once these nominations are chosen, the viewer votes come into play. For a week viewers are asked to vote, via SMS or voice messaging through PLDT's hotline (later abolished in favor of vote cards), for whoever they wanted to stay longer in the house. The housemate with the least viewer votes is eliminated. In the final week, the one with the most viewer votes will win the grand prize package, usually includes house and lot, a car, a business franchise, home appliances, and a holiday, and is given the title Big Winner. Pinoy Big Brother uses the tagline "Teleserye ng totoong buhay." or "Soap of real life."

Other essential elements of the Big Brother franchise are present, such as weekly and daily challenges, the confessional room, and the voice known only as "Big Brother," sometimes referred to as "Kuya" (the program uses the literal English translation of "big brother" for the Tagalog word "kuya," referring to the eldest son in the family).