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Watching Pinoy Big Brother is not really my thing. I am not really a fan nor its viewer, period. It’s actually a waste of time on my part. But I admit, the recent controversy prompted me to search for the videos in YouTube to witness the fuzz and buzz around the reality game show. Though I rarely write about celebrities and entertainment shows here in OTWOMD, but this one is different. I am blogging about it precisely because it creates a question mark on the values and moral standing of the Filipinos, which this show irresponsibly triggered. As all blogs are opinionated, I, in my own capabilities would attempt to deconstruct the psychology behind the infamous show according to my own opinion. I would also invoke the combined powers of Miss Cleo and Madame Auring spirits to summon the distorted souls of Big Brother, Laurente Dyogi and that of the ABS-CBN brat packs so that they would spill out the beans on how the plain and boring show became so controversial.

Scripted

There were talks about the show being scripted and all. Though there were no substantial evidence by these claims, but guess what? It does not take an investigator to prove that the show is really scripted. Common sense says it is. Putting different people inside a house for four months takes a lot of effort in controlling their actions and behaviors and in order to do this, you have to instigate a certain situation to get what the viewers want: ACTION. It is true that most of the reactions of the housemates are either spontaneously genuine or just strategically acting, but the mere fact that an outside force is creating chaos for them, categorically and technically substantiates it as scripted. It’s like Force Majeure or Deus Ex Machina done in a very cheap and disgusting way. Just for example when the show’s “wise guys� played the confidential conversation of Big Brother and some of housemates regarding their confessions about their fellow housemates, some conversations there were edited and they only played what could earn the ire of the people involved. Of course who would not react if you hear someone who showed you kindness and then all of a sudden, talks about your flaws and everything at your back without the benefit of the full context of the supposed confidential conversation? It is like “okay, tell me what you hate about her/him and I will tell everyone on national TV what you said�. Isn’t that very low? If that is not scripted, well help, me because I cannot find any word that fits better with the description.

Wild card

A certain contestant named Gee-ann said that it was unfair for someone to get back on the house and vie for the million pesos because they already went out of the house and they have already been fed what’s really happening on the real world. She’s right and it is utterly unfair for those who stayed inside the house for four months to be competed against an evicted candidate and start all over again. What the viewers cannot understand is why the contestant named Wendy was allowed to return to the house? Well simple: The show needs a nuisance inside the house. To leave the show on the hands of other housemates who manifested breeding, kindness and sanity will be a rating suicide. The people would no longer have any interest on the show because most of the contestants are either goody-two-shoes, safe players or just passively boring. This is a business remember and any business that do not get people’s attention is as good as bankrupt. So in order to stir the calm and clear waters on the glass, they placed a dry ice (solidified carbon dioxide) to agitate it, thus creating bubbles that would violently resurface for everyone to see. And the personality that fits the exact description of a dry ice is the candidate known as Wendy: hot, superficially white and smooth, hard as a rock, but just waiting for anyone to get her wet in order for her hidden frustrations and repressed angers to burst out violently. An orchestrated plan to lure viewers who are losing interest on the show.

Strategy

It is wrong for people to judge the housemates because like us viewers (well I’m not a viewer of this show), they are also manipulated by the show’s top execs. I’d like to think that Lauren Dyogi has nothing to do with it. But as the PBB’s top business brass and its director, most of the things happening in the show are his handiwork. The wild card hullabaloo has been used many times since time immemorial by Dyogi in his various reality based talent shows that are already oblivion to the viewers. Dyogi used this strategy to stir the people’s interest by subliminally injecting to the viewers angst, ire and wonderment. With this in mind, the viewers would devoutly watch in total anger and vent their revenge by casting more votes through their own “paid� cell phone loads. Now who says that the Filipinos are getting poorer each day? The more they cast their votes, the higher ABS-CBN’s profit. Come to think of it, a show without any controversy is not worth the watch at all, at least for those who are scandalmongers. Somehow this strategy of his worked like a charm. The 1 million pesos grand prize plus a new car and a house and lot is nothing compared to the 5 million text votes sent by viewers excluding the commercial slots that the show garnered during the four months of airing. The prizes were not even from ABS CBN, for product endorsers and sponsors of the show gave it to the winners. The mere fact that viewers are salivating for new twists just gives these sycophants a hay day. But one thing that Lauren Dyogi and the rest of his cohorts forgot is that not all viewers are shallow thinkers like him. Majority of the people who believed that the show is undeniably manipulated, wants a different twist, that is to inject true Filipino values and not just a stereotyped sponsor driven show that showcases the bitter sweet reality of rants and shouting matches. Good strategy but not ethically and morally commendable for Filipinos.

The voting scandal

Two contestants were put in the spotlight during the 10th eviction night particularly Nel Rapiz and Wendy Valdez. It doesn’t take an intelligent person to know who to vote out for in that particular episode, for majority of the viewers are already dismayed by Wendy’s show of arrogance and hate towards the two underdogs, Gee-ann and Beatriz. But surprisingly enough, the crowd favorite Rapiz was evicted by an overwhelming vote for Wendy which is possible but not that realistic. This somehow created a furor and uproar among the viewers. The show also failed to show the exact votes which created more speculation that the votes are rigged and the show is manipulated. In the first place, what is the logic of hiding the true numbers of the votes? It is not a national election to start of with? To say that it will create a trend in the show does not really follow. Voters have their own pets and showing the votes would generate transparency and credibility. But the show failed to be honest. The viewers are not that stupid to know what is going on in the show. In the mind of the top brass kapamilya execs, evicting Nel Rapiz would be more beneficial for the show since Wendy is a constant eye candy for the moralists and angry public, and this spells ratings and more text votes. The explanation that Dyogi mentioned about the distribution of votes is illogical. To say that votes where divided among Gee-ann, Beatriz and Mickey, and that votes for Wendy were solid is laughable since they have their own solid voters. And the mere fact that the votes coming from the evicted housemates would probably go to the three in anticipation of their disgust towards Wendy. Hence the votes would increased for the three housemates, eclipsing that of Wendy aside from their turf votes. What the show did not realized is that the effect and stigma that they caused has overshadowed the benefits of the stint and PBB would definitely suffer long-term consequences in their future editions. The show just showed the public that even in trivial elections like these, anomalies are still alive and kicking.

The truth about being truthful

The candidate known as Wendy has owned only part of the fault. That is, she became so feisty that the viewers hated her big time. But she has a reason. She said she is not pretentious and that she does not play the sympathy game just to gain the 1 million prize. True enough that she showed the world what she truly is, frank, Bit**y and arrogant. True also that everybody has mistakes and are entitled to have second chances. But being truthful and being transparent does not give anyone the right to do what ones’ feelings dictates. You can be transparent and truthful at the same time without showing any monstrosity on national TV. Showing ones true color is good, but oftentimes it should have civility, manners and breeding. This is what Wendy never thought of. The term “nagpapakatotoo� (being truthful) is so abused that even its definition is distorted. Remember that the show’s audiences are not all adults. We have actually kids who are watching the show. And being on a show, no matter how emotional you are, still dictates responsibility on your part, that is, becoming a model to those who are suffering the same dilemma. She definitely has a wrong understanding of being truthful, and the viewers know this. Being truthful is admitting ones mistakes and resorting to other productive behaviors instead of tension generating acts. Sometimes showing your monstrosity is not being truthful at all. It is just a lame excuse to legitimize your vented anger and frustration. And this is very alarming especially for those who have no understanding of the word. If Wendy’s idea of truthfulness will be accepted by those who vote for her as something natural, then there’s no need to be civil and ethical in every thing we do, in every where we go, because her definition actually distorts civility and etiquette as plasticity and pretensions. There are actually people living here on earth that doesn’t share her definition of “pagiging totoo� (being truthful), and I think they have spoken well in all of Wendy’s public appearance on TV.

Sentiments of the people

For the first time in ABS CBN history, the majority of the audience has booed their talent not only once or twice but thrice. In Araneta Coliseum, a thundering uproar of the people was heard when the housemate Wendy stepped out into the arena. True that she should be given a chance and true also that she should not be booed because she is just a human being who commits mistakes. I totally agree and if I were in her shoes, I would definitely sink into the floor out of humiliation. But to control the emotions of the people who are present in most of the shows’ presentation would be futile, precisely because they were provoked and agitated. They were frustrated, annoyed and angered. They were expecting that the good and deserving housemates would remain in the final four but to the magic hat’s surprise, a nuisance candidate appeared in the presence of the public who were crying for fair game, just because the show wanted to retain the controversy until the very end of the episode. It is not Wendy’s fault. It is actually the fault of the ABS CBN because of the:

1. failure to give credibility on the show
2. provoking chaos on the housemates
3. failure to give the accurate number of votes
4. failure to be docile to the sensitivity of the viewers
5. failure to show true values, worthy of imitation by the viewers
6. failure to uphold fairness among competitors
7. and exploiting human emotions and weaknesses at the expense of the housemate being booed.

If the show made an effort to help Wendy to control her emotions or at least reminded her, none of these would ever happen. The least they could have done was to remind the housemate of their actions. A certain Maricris was force-evicted just because she unwittingly said that she would stab one of the housemates, but why did not Wendy suffered the same fate, where in fact the people are already clamoring for her eviction and questioning her stay in the house? Ratings is everything! To blame people for expressing their anger is so unfair. The responsibility rest on the show’s shoulders, irresponsible and profit driven, just like what its previous folly during the Ultra stampede dilemma years ago.

Not your family

Wendy was heard many times during her appearance on ABS CBN about her plea to the mob of not including her family in their angst against her. Again this is a distortion of the truth and reality. The viewers are not angry with her family. They are angry with her and for Pete’s sake, booing her does not mean that they are also booing her family. It was just a coincidence that her family was at the stage with her when she was booed but it doesn’t mean that the audience are dim witted to actually include them in their hate. People are not narrow-minded as to fail to distinguish who the real culprit is. I hate to think that this is just another display of strategy, but the logic in her claims is vague enough to convince everyone that she’s just using her family to get the audience’s sympathy. Again another failure of the show’s handlers to come up with a more truthful and convincing excuse, other than using the innocent members of Wendy’s family.

Hypocrisy

Last Monday when I was taking my breakfast in front of the TV, I saw the Big Brother Psychologist being interviewed by the host of the network’s morning show. The Psychologist emphasized and somehow justified the behavior of Wendy while antagonizing the supposedly rude “behavior� of the thousands of people who expressed their anger by booing her in the country’s biggest coliseum. Again, these is a consolidated strategy of the show’s exec’s to sugarcoat the already withering career of their talent by conditioning the mind of the viewers that Wendy deserves pity rather than hate. I agree because a person no matter how worse she maybe deserve respect and second chances. But the mere fact that they allowed these things to happen doesn’t give them any right to blame the fault on the viewers and going so far as to distort the reality that they screwed the viewers big time. Such hypocrites. It is Pontius Pilate all over again. The least they can do is to tell the truth and accept that the show went on jeopardizing the Filipinos sensitivities. Filipinos are natural psychologists. They don’t need any professional psychologist to explain what Wendy went thru, for the fact that everything was laid in the eyes of the viewers in the shows entire duration.

Credibility

According to some news, there were claims that the show’s final results were leaked. The night before the actual Big Night, a handful of entertainment writers confessed that they received text messages from some insiders telling them that Beatriz will actually win the game. Now this has no basis at all. We are not in the position to just irresponsibly be swayed by these claims. But for some viewers this wouldn’t be hard to believe since the actual controversy of the show does not only evolve on the housemates but also on the way PBB handled its credibility. This is what I’m talking about. The viewers would believe anything, even the most unfounded of all accusations against the show precisely because they did not show any credibility at the start of the controversy. This is the long term effect: any explanation that the network would concoct will just be treated as press releases convincing no one of their claims. The story of the “Boy who cried wolf� comes alive in our own very eyes just because profit is favored instead of values.

Significance

The controversy that haunted the show is a wake up call to all Filipinos that even in the most absurd forms of entertainment, ethics and values still counts. Filipinos are not war freaks. Then don’t want any show showing chaos nor arrogance. They are so tired of seeing them in their very own lives that is why they turn to TV, not just for escapism, but also for refuge against the constant bombardment of their own dysfunctional families and the society, which made them what they are. Everyday, people suffer in poverty and resort to different crimes and deviant behavior just to get the money they needed and wanted. Instead of showing positive values, PBB just reinforced the distorted reality of achieving everything and making a step forward at the expense of those who are morally upright. Like what most of the commenter in YouTube said, PBB failed to show the good nature/side of Filipinos. It is during this time that shows like these, are significant to the lives of Filipino viewers because they would somehow serve as buffers and a channel of inspiration for those who are also dreaming to be successful, just like that of the winners. Of the four months that the PBB aired its episode, there is only one lesson that needs to be reiterated and that is, the truth shall always prevail no matter how hard you try to conceal it. And this time, the lies they generated backfired at them.

This is not a short-term forecast, but a long-term prediction of the PBB’s fate in Philippine Television, powered by the combined forces of Miss Cleo and Madame Auring’s fraudulent spirits roaming in my nephews Pokémon trading cards.