The first season of Pinoy Dream Academy formally began on August 27, 2006, and ended on December 16 of the same year replacing U Can Dance. Nikki Gil was the main host of this season, while joining her in the Saturday Gala Nights were Bianca Gonzalez, Roxanne Barcelo, and Toni Gonzaga. Sam Milby was also part of the Saturday shows, but had stopped appearing mid-season. Barcelo also hosted the UpLate edition of the show.
Yeng Constantino of Rizal was proclaimed as the "Grand Star Dreamer" of the first season on December 16, 2006. Jay-R Siaboc of Cebu and Ronnie Liang of Pampanga were proclaimed as the runners-up. The other finalists of the competition were Panky Trinidad of Cebu, Irish Fullerton of the United States of America and Chad Peralta of Australia. Constantino eventually became a successful recording artist in her own right.
Thirty-Eight contestants were chosen from different areas around the world. The Metro Manila dreamers all came from Metro Manila and nearby provinces. The dreamers from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao are called the regional dreamers. The dreamers from Australia, San Francisco, Dubai, Japan and Europe are called the global dreamers.
Contestants
On August 27, 2006, the Academy Dream Night took place in front of Cebu Provincial Capitol Grounds, hosted by Nikki Gil, 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 16 finalists accepted into 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] The Scholars are expelled on the Saturday Gala Nights and Exit the Academy the next day.
Yeng Constantino was proclaimed the Grand Star Dreamer, followed by Jay-R Siaboc as the 2nd Star Dreamer and Ronnie Liang as the 3rd Star Dreamer. Panky Trinidad, Irish Fullerton and Chad Peralta were the other finalists of the competition.
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".[3][4]
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.[4]
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-scholars 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.[5]
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.[6] 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.[7] The theme of the songs performed by the non-probationary seemed to coincide with Jun's departure, for the lyrics of 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.
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.[8]
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.[9]
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 the 5th Expulsion Night, RJ was the expelled student.[10] 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.[11] 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 Calubad, "Tanging Ikaw Lamang" by Markel Cesar A. Luna, "Karamay" by Gabriel Jesse T. Guevarra, and "Pangarap Lang" by Alvin K. Gonzales.
Week 8: 6th Probation and Expulsion Night
The 6th Expulsion Night took place on week 8, and Kristoff was the expelled student.[12] 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 have 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.[13]
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.[12] 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.
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%).[12] 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.[14] 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.
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. 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.[15]
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.
Week 13: 11th Probation and Expulsion Night
Davey was expelled from the academy, he got the lowest votes from the viewers.
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.
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.
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.
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. Panky, Chad, and Irish 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 of the top 6 from December 2–16, 2006 was 2,956,362 votes. During the finale, ABS-CBN launched their new Philippine National Anthem music video that was aired on the network together with Studio 23 during Sign-on and sign-off until June 12, 2011. The 2006 national anthem MTV is still played on radio via DZMM Radyo Patrol 630, and MOR 101.9.
Prizes
All finalists received Belgian Waffle Mallcarts. The runners-up 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 third placer and P500,000 for the second placer) 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.
Scholars' Grades
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Avg.
Sep 9
Sep 18
Sep 23
Oct 1
Oct 8
Oct 14
Oct 21
Oct 28
Nov 4
Nov 11
Nov 18
Nov 25
Yeng
9.00
7.33
8.00
6.83
7.53
9.50
8.50
8.50
8.32
7.93
7.27
9.06
8.15
Jay-R
8.00
7.66
8.00
7.66
8.16
8.00
8.20
8.10
7.92
6.56
8.55
8.76
7.96
Ronnie
7.66
7.66
7.55
7.66
9.33
9.00
8.30
7.00
8.23
7.70
7.66
8.22
8.00
Panky
8.66
7.66
7.16
10.00
9.50
8.30
7.80
7.70
8.90
9.00
8.99
8.06
8.48
Irish
7.50
8.00
8.00
8.33
9.30
9.16
7.30
8.70
7.83
6.13
8.27
8.28
8.07
Chad
6.73
7.66
7.33
7.66
8.90
7.00
9.30
8.00
8.15
8.27
8.93
8.38
8.03
Rosita
5.33
8.16
5.33
9.00
7.66
4.66
8.50
8.60
8.05
8.23
7.93
8.54
7.50
Yvan
7.30
8.66
6.66
9.50
9.30
9.30
7.20
9.80
8.97
8.13
8.65
9.02
8.54
Eman
6.83
7.66
8.00
10.00
8.66
8.00
7.80
7.20
9.02
7.50
8.49
8.08
8.02
Davey
8.6
7.66
7.66
6.00
7.86
9.10
7.80
7.70
7.52
6.90
8.01
7.72
Joan
8.33
7.66
7.00
9.16
8.06
8.60
8.30
8.50
8.98
7.40
8.20
Michelle
6.66
7.33
7.55
7.50
6.66
6.50
6.90
7.40
7.35
7.09
Chai
7.00
8.66
6.66
7.50
7.63
8.00
8.30
7.10
7.61
Iya
8.00
7.66
8.16
8.16
7.03
8.10
7.60
7.82
Kristoff
6.33
7.66
7.00
5.66
7.00
4.83
7.10
6.51
RJ
7.00
7.66
7.66
7.33
7.26
7.80
7.45
Oona
5.33
7.00
7.16
7.00
6.62
Geoff
8.50
7.66
6.83
7.66
Jun
6.83
5.66
6.25
Gemma
6.33
6.33
Grades in RED indicate that the scholar is on probationary status.
Grades in DARK GREEN indicate that the contestant was the Star Scholar of the week.
Grades in YELLOW GREEN indicate that the scholar received the highest grade for the week, but was not the Star Scholar.
Grades highlighted in BLACK indicate that the scholar's grade was not counted for the organization's grade and their average grade.
Expulsion Nights
The four scholars with the lowest scores of the Gala Night will be put on probation. These four scholars will be voted by the viewing public from the said Gala Night until the next Gala Night. The scholar with the highest text votes will be saved. Among the three remaining probationary scholars, the mentors will be choosing the scholar to save. The remaining two probationary scholars will then be voted by the scholars and the scholar with the lower number of votes from the scholars is expelled from the Academy.
The Number indicated in the first row are the Gala Nights wherein the scholar indicated in the last row was expelled. There were no probationary scholars during the 1st Gala Night. The first set of Probationary scholars were announced during the 2nd Gala Night and the first expulsion happened in the 3rd Gala Night. In the 14th Gala Night, there was no probation as the top 8 scholars were voted by the viewing public. The two scholars with the lowest vote turn-out were expelled from the Academy in the 15th Gala Night. Therefore, the 15th Gala Night was just a Gala Night for the expulsion of the last two scholars and the announcement of the Honor List of 6.
^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 of 9.50 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 of 9.33. 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 have been his fifth time of being on probation, with a score of 7.10. 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 fewest 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.
