Pinoy Big Brother: Otso is the eighth main (fourteenth overall) season of Pinoy Big Brother which premiered on November 10, 2018 and ended on August 4, 2019 on ABS-CBN. This is the fourth special edition of taking different batches, civilian adults and teenagers, together to compete to win. Toni Gonzaga and Robi Domingo reprised their roles as hosts. Alex Gonzaga, who hosted All In, returned to the show together with former winners Kim Chiu and Melai Cantiveros as new hosts. Bianca Gonzalez reprised her role as host upon the entry of Batch 2 Star Dreamers.
Four batches of housemates, two civilian adults and two teenager groups, compete to be the winner of their respective batches. By the fifth batch, all finalists from each batch return to compete for eight slots in the finale. The show concluded with Yamyam Gucong being declared as the winner of the whole season.
This was the longest season of Pinoy Big Brother yet, having reached 268 days—surpassing Lucky 7 by 32. This season is the third longest season of Big Brother worldwide and also had the second highest number of housemates in a season (58), trailing Big Brother Germany’s fifth and sixth seasons, which lasted for 365 and 363 days respectively, and had 59 housemates each.
Development
Auditions
Auditions for this season has been part of Star Hunt: The Grand Kapamilya Auditions, ABS-CBN's auditions caravan, which started on April 20, 2018. 55,373 auditionees took part, auditioning for other upcoming reality shows like The Voice of the Philippines, Pilipinas Got Talent, and World of Dance Philippines. Several potential housemates have been featured in Star Hunt'''s companion show.
Other contentPinoy Big Brother: Otso Gold returned as a companion show on November 12, 2018, as part of the Kapamilya Gold block. A house livestream also aired on iWant and TFC Online. An additional online companion show called PBB Bring 8 On!, which streamed simultaneously with the primetime TV program, also aired live via show's various social media accounts; it was hosted by Dawn Chang of Pinoy Big Brother: 737, Fifth Solomon of Pinoy Big Brother: All In, and Pamu Pamorada of Pinoy Big Brother: Unlimited.
An online show, YouthTube, which was hosted by Robi Domingo and Bianca Gonzales commenced on November 22, 2018. It talked about the different issues that arose in the house, particularly in the first batch of teen housemates.
Overview
Logo change and subtitle
The Otso in the season title is a Filipino language rendering of the Spanish word ocho ("eight"), indicating the season number. This season saw another logo change from the previous season: an eye logo using motifs from the Philippine flag (from which producers customized the new generic eye logo of Big Brother), atop the show's title and enclosed by an outline of a house. The adaption of the new generic franchise logo is the first among all the franchises worldwide.
Timeslot
The weekday primetime program of the show aired at 10:15 p.m. on weekdays after the last primetime teleserye in the primetime program block of the network. An afternoon edition titled Pinoy Big Brother: Otso Gold aired at 5:15 p.m. after Los Bastardos.
The weekend primetime program was originally aired at 7:30 p.m. during the batch 1 teens; however, after the first season of I Can See Your Voice ended, Pinoy Big Brother: Otso moved its timeslot to 10:00 p.m. on Saturdays and 9:30 p.m. on Sundays in order to give the timeslot to World of Dance Philippines since the batch 2 adults.
House changes
This season showed a major revamp in the house layout. On September 7, 2018, Director Laurenti Dyogi made a vlog about the reconstruction of the house. The new house design was finally unveiled on November 7, 2018 during its house blessing. Several housemates from previous seasons have visited the house and have taken pictures for their social media accounts. Official house photos were released on their Facebook page on November 10, 2018. The management opened its doors to 888 visitors to tour the House for 8 minutes on November 10, 2018.
From his livestream, Dyogi has stated that the show has upgraded to using HD PTZ cameras, making Otso the first season to fully broadcast in high definition and in 16:9 aspect ratio (Lucky 7s Vietnam leg was shown in 16:9, but the show reverted to 4:3 upon the housemates' return to the Philippines). It was worth noting that the one-way mirror system, used in earlier seasons for cameramen to capture events in the house, was no longer present.