VietNamNet Bridge – Hanoi-based businessman Hoang Son Viet, 28, won the first season of the 65-day reality show Big Brother which finished up on VTV6 last week in HCM City.

Hoang Son Viet - Photo: Courtesy of the organizers

Viet had an audience vote of 38.86% to defeat the three other finalists of model Nguyen Quynh Trang, 28, tattooist/dancer Nguyen Minh Long, 25, and 22-year-old hip hop dancer Huynh Ngoc Tri to win a dream VND2-billion home.

The show, which debuted in 1999 in Europe, has been produced in 40 countries and screened in over 100 countries. It is a challenge for a group of 12 strangers aged between 20 and 34 coming from different walks of life to become housemates in a large constructed house with no cell phones, Internet or other communication devices.

Contestants are monitored by in-house television cameras as well as personal audio microphones 24 hours a day.

The show was brought to Vietnam by VTV6 and BHD Company with the copyright of Dutch-based international television production firm Endemol.

In the last challenge, the quartet had to remember years of birth and death anniversaries of Vietnam’s emperors, recognize 200 national flags from around the world and to learn vehicle registration numbers and zipcodes in Vietnam.

Trang had the most correct answers but she and Long were eliminated due to the lowest number of votes from the audience.

Viet brought home the first prize of a VND2 -billion house of the Ecopark project in Hanoi. This is the biggest prize ever for a reality show. Viet has decided to lease the house and will give 50% of the profits to his mother and younger brother. The rest of the profits will go to Operation Smile, a fund that he has been active in since he was a student.

Source: SGT