Pinoy Dream Academy

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Pinoy Dream Academy (PDA) is the Philippine version of Endemol's Star Academy. The format is similar to Big Brother, where 16, later 20, finalists (billed as "scholars" throughout the series) will live inside the Academy for four months and will be trained by guest teachers to be multimedia performers. Activities in the Academy will be monitored 24/7 by the headmaster.

ABS-CBN affiliate Studio 23 is airing a companion program under the same title. It is a separate show from the flagship station that will feature scenes that were not shown on the ABS-CBN program and has different hosts.

Awit ng Pangarap ("Song of the Dream"), made during the show's run by contestants Yeng Constantino, Yvan Lambatan, and Kristoff Abrenica; became the main theme song of the show, although We're All In This Together was used earlier in the pre-season specials as the unofficial theme song.

[edit] Contestants

Pinoy Dream Academy's 20 finalists. Top row, (L-R): RJ, Yeng Constantino(Grand Star Dreamer), Iya, Eman, and Geoff; 2nd row, (L-R): Jay-R, Irish, Michelle, Gemma, and Rosita; 3rd row, (L-R): Yvan, Kristoff, Insert non-formatted text hereRonnie, Jun, and Panky; bottom row, (L-R): Chai, Richard, Joan, Davey, and Oona.

On August 27, 2006, the Academy Dream Night took place in front of Cebu Provincial Capitol Grounds, hosted by Nikki Gil, Toni Gonzaga, and Sam Milby. The finalists were broken into 6 groups: Acoustic Jamming Section, where members were asked to sing their original composition; Music and Dance Section, where members sang popular dance songs; Music Literature Section, where members sang romantic ballads; Musicthectics Section, where members were asked to sing songs of the band, The Eraserheads, in their own style; Language of Music Section, where members sang native songs; and Rockers' Section, where members sang rock version of popular novelty songs. After two sections had performed, the hosts then announced the Academy finalists.^[1] The selection of accepted finalists was done thrice, and the 16 finalists accepted into the Academy that night were:

• RJ Jimenez (22, a University of Santo Tomas graduate from Pasig City)
• Yeng Constantino (18, a "rebel-rocker" from Rodriguez, Rizal)
• Gemma Fitzgerald (20, a medical administrative officer from Australia)
• Yvan Lambatan (24, a father from Baguio City)
• Kristoff Abrenica (20, a grocery clerk from Canada)
• Ronnie Liang (21, a former Pinoy Pop Superstar contestant from Angeles City)
• Irish Fullerton (23, a nursing student from California)
• Michelle Bond (24, a part-time singer from Amsterdam)
• Jun Hirano (平野 準, Hirano Jun^?, 18, a Japanese-Filipino student from Japan)
• Rosita Bareng (25, an OFW from Dubai)
• Panky Trinidad (20, a passionate musician from Cebu)
• Eman Abatayo (22, an accountancy graduate from Iloilo)
• Chai Fonancier (20, the vocalist of Balde ni Allan band from Cagayan de Oro)
• Geoff Taylor (20, a model from Cagayan Valley)
• Jay-R Siaboc (19, the vocalist of Scrambled Eggs band from Cebu)
• Iya Ginez (21, SK Chairwoman Pangasinan)

The 16 finalists above entered the Academy on August 28. As a surprise twist, four more finalists were added to the roster and they entered the Academy the following day.^[2] They were:

• Joan Jane Ilagan (20, a law student from Italy)
• Oona Barretto (23, a former pre-school teacher from Bukidnon)
• Richard "Chad" Peralta (21, an IT consultant from Australia)
• Davey Langit (19, a guitar instructor from Baguio)

[edit] The Academy

The facade of the Academy

Like the Pinoy Big Brother House, The Academy is found facing the ABS-CBN studios in Quezon City. Although it seemed that the Academy building is erected right next to the House, in reality, the living quarters of the Academy is the House area, modified and expanded to include the other rooms in the Academy, such as the administration rooms, dance studio and piano room. Next to the House is an auditorium where performances by the contestants would be held. The Academy's auditorium was built on the site of some of the former offices of Viva Entertainment.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Faculty

• Headmaster: Jim Paredes
• Dance Teacher: Maribeth Bichara
• Fitness Teacher: Gretchen Malalad
• Voice Teachers: Moy Ortiz, Annie Quintos, Cecile Bautista, and Sweet Plantado
• Diction Teacher: Von Arroyo
• Performance Teacher: Malou de Guzman
• Media Performance Teacher: Joey Reyes
• Songwriting Teacher: Raymund Marasigan
• Belly Dance Teacher: Kat Fonacier
• Media Ethics Teacher: Boots Anson Roa
• Technical Voice Teacher: Kitchie Molina (former juror of several PDA Performance Nights)

[edit] People who visited the academy

• Vilma Santos
• Lea Salonga
• Mig Ayesa
• Ethel Booba
• Sponge Cola
• Moonstar 88
• Bamboo
• Luis Manzano
• Calla Lily
• Imago
• Barbie Almalbis
• Boy Abunda

[edit] Performances inside the Academy

The contestants' life inside the academy is chronicled on the nightly episodes from Monday to Friday. The episodes shown on Saturday showcase the talents of the contestants, and exemplifies the progress of each of them in regards to their education in the academy. While every Sunday, the contestants are assessed by jurors from the performance night.^[3] Starting week 4, the probationary students and the star scholar was determined in this episode.

[edit] Week 1 and Week 2: Gala Performance Night

In Weeks 1 and 2, the show was called the 1st and 2nd Gala Performance Night, respectively. In both gala nights, the contestants were put into four groups and they sang the original compositions of seven of the contestants, and one of the NCR Dreamers. These were Yeng's "Hawak Kamay", Richard's "Sunshine", Yvan's "Babalik Rin", RJ's "Miss Kita Pag Tuesday", Davey's "Dinggin", Panky's "Behind Those Eyes", Jay-R's "Hilot" and Jenner Mallari's "Salamat Sa'Yo Ina".^[4][5]

[edit] Week 2: 1st Nomination Night

Three prominent people from the Philippines' music industry, termed the jurors, were invited to this week's show, as well as to the succeeding performance nights up to the present, to judge the performance of the contestants. In this show, the contestants they nominated for expulsion were Kristoff, Rosita, Oona, and Gemma.^[5]

[edit] Week 3: 1st Expulsion Night

This show had a different format from the Gala Performance Nights, and this format has been implemented ever since. The probationary students each had to give solo performances, while the contestants not on probation were put into groups of varying number and they either sing as a group or perform a medley. Gemma was the first expelled scholar from the Academy. Kristoff was saved by the viewers, Rosita was saved by the faculty and Oona was saved by her co-contestants winning 14 out of 18 votes. For the 1st Expulsion Night, the theme of the songs performed by the contestants not on probation was a crossing over of genres. The novelty song "Isang Linggong Pag-ibig" was given a Latin flavor. The folksong "Karaniwang Tao" was sung in an ethnic rock version, and Hale's song "The Day You Said Goodnight" was performed with a techno-alternative vibe.^[6]

[edit] Week 4: 2nd and 3rd Nomination Night

Week 4's Monday episode was the 2nd Nomination Night wherein Oona, Michelle, Yeng and Jun were nominated for expulsion.^[7] Week 4's Saturday show was called the 3rd Nomination Night instead of the 2nd Expulsion Night, because of Jun. He was not expelled because he opted to drop out from the academy. He was one of the four probationary students named in the 2nd Nomination Night, and his actions saved the other three nominees.^[8] The theme of the songs performed by the non-probationary seemed to coincide with Jun's departure, for the lyrics of the their performance songs were translated to other languages and Filipino dialects. Freddie Aguilar's "Magdalena" was partly translated to Italian. "No Touch" was sung in Ilocano and Visayan. Eman and Jun's composition "Arigato Tomodachi" had some lines in Japanese. The coincidence is due to the fact that Jun did not develop a fluency in Tagalog during his stay in the Academy.

Pinoy Dream Academy hosts on ABS-CBN. From left to right: Bianca Gonzalez, Sam Milby, Toni Gonzaga and Nikki Gil.

[edit] Week 5: 3rd Expulsion Night

Week 5's Saturday show was the 3rd Expulsion Night and in this episode, out of the 4 probationary contestants (Rosita, Chai, Yvan and Geoff), Geoff was the expelled student. Yvan was saved by the viewers, Rosita was saved by the faculty and Chai was saved by her co-contestants winning 11 out of 16 votes. The contestants not on probation sang in duets.^[9]

[edit] Week 6: 4th Probation and Expulsion Night

The Sunday night after the 3rd Expulsion Night came the 4th Probation Night wherein Kristoff, Oona, Davey and Yeng were named the probationary contestants. For the 4th Expulsion Night, Oona was the expelled student. Kristoff was saved by the viewers, Yeng was saved by the faculty and Davey was saved by his co-contestants winning 10 out of 15 votes. The non-nominees sang popular songs in a medley format.^[10]

[edit] Week 7: 5th Probation and Expulsion Night

After the 4th Expulsion Night came the 5th Probation Night on Sunday. It was Kristoff, Michelle, Iya and RJ who were nominated. On th 5th Expulsion Night, RJ was the expelled student.^[11] Kristoff was saved by the viewers, Iya was saved by the faculty and Michelle was saved by her co-contestants winning 12 out of 14 votes.Those not in probation sang some of the winning songs of the Dream Songwriting Competition.^[12] The songs performed were "Pag Nandiyan Siya" by Ernest Yvan Cruz Esguerra, "Wishing Lampara" by Mark Eduard de Mesa and Michael Sapico, "Ako" by Soc Villanueva, "Unfair" by Michael Plaga Ong, "Krishna’s Eyes" by Edgardo P. Miraflor Jr., "You Moved Me" by Elisette Blancaflor, "Go with My Heart" by Gino Torres, "May Tama Ako" by Rickenson Canlubad, "Tanging Ikaw Lamang" by Markel Cesar A. Luna, "Karamay" by Gabriel Jesse T. Guevarra, and "Pangarap Lang" by Alvin K. Gonzales.

[edit] Week 8: 6th Probation and Expulsion Night

The 6th Expulsion Night took place on week 8, and Kristoff was the expelled student.^[13] He was automatically expelled because he received one of the four low grades from the jurors of the performances that week. His scores made him a probationary student for the following week's expulsion night, and it would had been his fifth time of being on probation. His automatic expulsion was due to an additional rule implemented by the academy on week 7. The new rule stated that contestants who get nominated five times will be automatically expelled so that the academy can maintain its standard of excellence.^[14]

[edit] Week 9: Midterm Exams, 7th Probation and Expulsion Night

The probationary contestants were Yvan, Iya, Irish and Michelle. During this week, the contestants faced their midterm exams. They were tested by the academy's faculty on their knowledge in musical theories, their media and dance performances, their fitness, and their diction.^[13] On the expulsion night, Iya was the expelled student. Giving the best in her rendition of Anita Baker's Sweet Love, some of the audiences were shocked in her expulsion. Irish was saved by the viewers, Yvan was saved by the faculty and Michelle was saved by her co-contestants winning 9 out of 12 votes.

Pinoy Dream Academy hosts on Studio 23. From left to right: Bettina Carlos, CJ Cuadrado, and Sitti Navarro.

[edit] Week 10: 8th Probation and Expulsion Night

Last 7th Expulsion Night, Rosita was automatically put on probation because she got the lowest score in the midterm exams (having 68%).^[13] During the 8th Probation Night, Eman, Chai, and Ronnie got the lowest marks from the jurors and they completed the list of four contestants on probationary status.^[15] This week was the start of the 2nd semester inside the Academy. At the 8th Expulsion Night, Chai was the expelled student. Ronnie was saved by the viewers, Rosita was saved by the faculty and Eman was saved by his co-contestants winning 6 out of 11 votes. All the contestants sang classics from world icons Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Billy Joel, among others, as well as Filipino hitmakers like Didith Reyes and Rey Valera.

[edit] Week 11: 9th and 10th Probation Night

On the 9th Probation Night, Michelle was automatically expelled. It was her fifth time being on probation, for she received one of the four low grades from the jurors of the 8th Expulsion Night. As with Kristoff's case, her automatic expulsion was due to the five-probation rule. Her expulsion ensured the safety of the three other probationary students, namely Jay-R, Davey, and Irish.^[16] Because of Michelle's exit, the Performance Night on Saturday became the 10th Probation Night. In this episode, all finalists sang Filipino rock songs. The finalists who were put on probation were Joan, Jay-R, Davey, and Irish. The other 7 finalists who were not nominated were put on the Headmaster's List and have been guaranteed spots in the final 10.^[17]

[edit] Week 12: 10th Expulsion Night

At the beginning of the episode, 7 finalists were already confirmed to be in the Headmaster's List. The finalists sang their own renditions of classical and modern Christmas songs. Joan was expelled from the Academy, as she got only 4 save votes from her co-finalists. Jay-R was saved by viewer's votes, Irish was saved by the faculty and Davey got the 5 save votes from his co-finalists.

[edit] Week 13: 11th Probation and Expulsion Night

Davey was expelled from the academy, he got the lowest votes from the viewers.

[edit] Week 14: 12th Expulsion Night

Eman was expelled from the academy.There will be no Probation nights starting this week. The new rule is that, the finalists who has the lowest number of votes next expulsion night will be expelled. The viewers have the fate of the finalists till this day on. The viewers will decide who will be at the Honors list of 6.

[edit] Week 15: Final Expulsion Night

The two finalists, who has the lowest number of votes this week, are Yvan and Rosita. They are the ones who were expelled from the academy. The six finalists left are Jay-R, Yeng, Panky, Irish, Ronnie, and Chad. They are the one who will face-off at the Grand Dream Night.

[edit] Week 16: Preparations for the Grand Dream Night

The finalists prepared themselves for their biggest night ever. They were busy all week long. Doing rehearsals for their performances, for both dance and songs. Also they had a special taping for the ABS-CBN Christmas special. At the same time they had a chance to meet their own idols and fans of their own.

[edit] Expulsion Nights

Note 1: The finalists cast votes to save one of the last two nominees. The nominee who got the fewer number of votes would be expelled.
Note 2: Jun opted to leave the Academy because of loneliness, further worsened by his frequent nosebleeds and large language barrier, because he could not speak English and Filipino. He made his exit on September 24, with his last gala night on September 23. That night was supposedly the 2nd Expulsion Night, but because of Jun's exit, it became the 3rd Nomination Night.
Note 3: Panky was this week's star scholar as she got the highest grade for the week. However, since she was the star scholar the previous week, Ronnie was awarded the distinction instead as he got the second-highest grade. This was done to give other finalists a chance to become the star scholar for the week.
Note 4: Richard was the Viewer's Choice for this week, as announced by the hosts at the end of the episode. However, the support he got from the voters did not have any bearing with the outcome of the expulsion that night.
Note 5: Kristoff was automatically expelled because he received one of the four low grades from the jurors. His low grades made him one of the probationary students for the following week, and it would had been his fifth time of being on probation. His expulsion was due to a new rule implemented by the academy, which states that a scholar is automatically expelled when he/she receives a fifth nomination.
Note 6: Rosita was automatically put on probation because she got the lowest grade in the midterm exams. The other three probationary students were determined based on their performances in the gala night.
Note 7: Michelle was automatically expelled during the 9th Probation Night because she received one of the four low grades from the jurors of the 8th Expulsion Night. This ensured the safety of the three other probationary students who were named in that episode.
Note 8: Although this was Rosita's fifth nomination, her four previous nominations were disregarded as she was finally part of the top ten, or the Headmaster's List. The same can be said with the rest of the top ten.
Note 9: Faculty's choice and scholar voting were ruled out for the 11th, and 12th Expulsion Nights. The probationary scholar with the least number of viewer votes was declared the expelled scholar.
Note 10: In preparation for the Grand Dream Night, two finalists who got the two lowest viewer votes were expelled this week. Meanwhile, the viewer votes for the six remaining finalists in the academy were carried over to the tally of the votes they need to be declared winner on the Grand Dream Night.

[edit] Finale: Grand Dream Night

After sixteen weeks of training, six finalists remained. The Pinoy Dream Academy culminated with the “Grand Dream Night”, which will proclaim the "Grand Star Dreamer", held on December 16, 2006 at the Araneta Coliseum packed with thousands of fans and supporters.

After the honor list of six performed along with guest singers, voting was temporarily closed to find out who made it in the top three. Chad, Irish, and Panky rounded out the bottom three while Ronnie, Jay-R, and Yeng had the highest number of votes. The top three faced off each other with solo performances.

Garnering 558,912 votes or 29.9% of the total votes, Ronnie was declared as Pinoy Dream Academy's second runner-up. Yeng won the competition becoming the first "Grand Star Dreamer" getting a total of 697,648 votes (37.32%) placing Jay-R as the first runner-up with 612,767 votes (32.77%) . The total number of votes from December 2 - December 16, 2006 was 2,956,362 votes.

[edit] Prizes

All finalists received Belgian Waffle Mallcarts. The runner-ups received an additional motorcycle from Suzuki, a brand new condominium unit in Chateau Valenzuela from Globe Asiatique, cash prizes from Fitrum (a vitamin supplement, P200,000 for the second runner-up and P500,000 for the first runner-up) and a recording contract.

The Grand Star Dreamer, Yeng Constantino , received a brand-new Suzuki Swift, a condo unit at G.A. Towers, a 60-inch SXRD Sony Bravia, a Touch music video unit, a Belgian Waffle dine-in franchise, a recording contract, and 1 million pesos from Fitrum.

[edit] Talent piracy controversy

Philippine Idol, Associated Broadcasting Company's (ABC) franchise of American Idol, alleged Pinoy Dream Academy conducted contestant piracy,^[18] with ABS-CBN employees even apporoaching a judge to “just let [some of] the contestants go.”^[19] This came after ABC turned down ABS-CBN's offer to co-produce Philippine Idol^[20]

ABS-CBN denied talent piracy in a letter sent to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, saying that they successfully staged competitions without poaching contestants from other contests and would fully respect a contestant's choice in which competition one would join.^[21]

ABC sent a formal letter of complaint to ABS-CBN, alleging that three Gold Passers of Philippine Idol became contestants of rival Pinoy Dream Academy. ABS-CBN did not comment on the letter, as neither of the three talents questioned became a finalist of that show.^[22]

[edit] See also

• Kapamilya, Deal or No Deal, ABS-CBN's game show franchise from Endemol.
• Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition, ABS-CBN's other Endemol franchise.
• Star Circle Quest, ABS-CBN's original talent search program.
• StarStruck, GMA Network's talent search that started in 2003.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Pinoy Dream Academy at the Internet Movie Database
• pinoydreamacademy.info
• pinoy-dream-academy.com