Pinoy Dream Academy (season 1)

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.

Yeng Constantino (17, a "rebel-rocker" from Rodriguez, Rizal)
Songs Performed

Jay-R Siaboc (19, the vocalist of Scrambled Eggs band from Cebu)
Songs Performed

Ronnie Liang (21, a former Pinoy Pop Superstar contestant from Angeles City)
Songs Performed

Panky Trinidad (20, a passionate musician from Cebu)
Songs Performed

Irish Fullerton (23, a nursing student from California)
Songs Performed

Richard "Chad" Peralta (21, an IT consultant from Australia)
Songs Performed

Rosita Bareng (25, an OFW from Dubai)
Songs Performed

Yvan Lambatan (24, a father from Baguio)
Songs Performed

Eman Abatayo (22, an accountancy graduate from Iloilo)
Songs Performed

Davey Langit (19, a guitar instructor from Baguio)
Songs Performed

Joan Jane Ilagan (20, a law student from Italy)
Songs Performed

Michelle Bond (24, a part-time singer from Amsterdam)
Songs Performed

Chai Fonancier (20, the vocalist of Balde ni Allan band from Cagayan de Oro)
Songs Performed

Iya Ginez (21, SK Chairwoman Pangasinan)
Songs Performed

Kristoff Abrenica (20, a grocery clerk from Canada)
Songs Performed

RJ Jimenez (22, a University of Santo Tomas graduate from Pasig)
Songs Performed

Oona Barretto (23, a former pre-school teacher from Bukidnon)
Songs Performed

Geoff Taylor (20, a model from Cagayan Valley)
Songs Performed

Jun Hirano (平野 準, Hirano Jun, 18, a Japanese-Filipino student from Japan)
Songs Performed

Gemma Fitzgerald (20, a medical administrative officer from Australia, member of Koolchx)
Songs Performed

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

• Season 1 Official website
• Pinoy Dream Academy at IMDb