The Philippine version was first announced by ABS-CBN on its trade show for advertisers in Rockwell Tent, Makati. In this show, 8 celebrities will compete in a song and dance number while impersonating iconic singers. In each week, the "Iconizer" will assign the artists of whom they will impersonate. When the iconizer is pressed, the icon the contestant is assigned will be shown, along with a preview of the song they have to perform.[2]
Jed Madela, Gary Valenciano and Toni Gonzaga were initially reported to serve as judges for the first season. However Gonzaga was replaced by Sharon Cuneta following Cuneta's return to ABS-CBN on March 9, 2015.[4][8] Annie Quintos and Georcelle Dapat-Sy were later revealed to help the contestants in impersonating their icons with Quintos coaching the contestants for their vocals and the latter coaching the contestants for choreography.
On April 5, 2015, due to Holy Week, the Week 4 of the first season was a single-episode duet special, as Black Saturday pre-empted all special programming.
On two weekends, Gary Valenciano temporarily left the show to fulfill his commitment of performing in a series of concerts. He was substituted by Boy Abunda for the April 18–19, 2015 episodes. The same instance happened on May 16–17, 2015, and he was substituted by Vice Ganda.
On June 6, 2015, it was announced that the show will return for a second season in the same year, which premiered on September 12, 2015, taking over the timeslot vacated by the second season of The Voice Kids. In August 2015, Melai Cantiveros, the winner of the first season was announced to co-host the show, impersonating different icons for each week.[9]Sharon Cuneta, Gary Valenciano, Jed Madela, and Billy Crawford were announced to return to the show to reprise their former duties.[10]
In January 2020, ABS-CBN announced that the show will have a third season after Sharon Cuneta renewed her contract with the network. However, the season was postponed following the implementation of the Enhanced community quarantine in Luzon, which prompted the network to suspend it's tapings.
Also, during the Enhanced community quarantine in Luzon, the first Kids season was re-aired on the primetime slot from March–May 2020 as part of the network's temporary programming changes.
However, the reruns were abruptly stopped after May 3, 2020, due to the closure of ABS-CBN's free-to-air assets following the cease and desist order issued by the National Telecommunications Commission on account of its franchise expiration.
In December 2020, during the trade launch for 2021 held during the ABS-CBN Christmas Special, it was revealed the show will have a 3rd season, with this season being the first regular season since 2015 after two straight Kids seasons. However, due to Crawford focusing on blocktime shows on TV5, Luis Manzano replaced him as host for Season 3. The third season premiered on February 20, 2021.
On April 4, 2021, due to Holy Week, the Week 7 of the third season was originally going to have duet episodes, as Black Saturday pre-empted all regular programming. but however, as an enhanced community quarantine was reimposed in the Greater Manila Area in response to the surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the variants of the said illness, the plans for a duet episode was scrapped, and a compilation of Week 1's performances was re-aired instead.
The season's tapings resumed on April 12, 2021, following the downgrade of the enhanced community quarantine, however, Jhong Hilario withdrew from the competition for the safety of his newborn baby.
Format
For 12 or 13 weeks, all the celebrity contestants (four male, four female, in some cases groups composed of individuals of either gender) competes for a cash prize. The contestant with the highest points per week is crowned the weekly winner, and wins the said cash prize. The top four (or more in case of ties) contestants will advance to the finale and competes for the public's votes, where the artist with the most votes will be declared the winner.[11][12]
Each contestant impersonates a different singer each week, and performs an iconic song and dance routine well known by that particular icon. The "Iconizer" assigns icons to the contestants and can assign any icon living or dead regardless of its age, race or gender. The contestants must press the "Iconizer" at the end of every Sunday episode, in which after pressing the red button, they reveal the icon they have to impersonate in the following week, and a playback of the song assigned to them being played afterwards.
Following the end of the performances, the judges give 1-8 points to the contestants, afterwards, the contestants give 3 points to a contestant other than themself.
However, in Season 3, the format for the finale was changed wherein all remaining contestants advanced to the finale and the winner was determined via a combination of votes cast by the public and the points accumulated by the contestant.[13]
Prizes
The prize given to the weekly winner varied from season to season. In seasons 1 and 2, the weekly winner was given a trophy and a cash prize worth ₱100,000, half of which were donated to a charity chosen by the winner.[2][3] In Season 3 the weekly winner was still given a trophy, however the cash prize was 50,000 pesos with none being donated to charity.
The Grand Prize is usually composed of a cash prize, a house and lot, and additional prizes, such as tickets to a particular destination. However, the cash prize varied from season to season. In seasons 1–2, the cash prize was worth ₱2,000,000 pesos, with half being donated to the winner's charity of choice. In Season 3 the cash prize was ₱4,000,000.
On August 15, 2016, Crawford announced that the show will return with a third season; which was later on revealed as a spin-off entitled Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids at the ABS-CBN Trade Launch.[14] On November 22, 2016, Ogie Alcasid, returned to ABS-CBN, and was revealed to be the newest addition to the show's judges, replacing Madela. The first season of the Kids edition premiered on January 7, 2017.[6] It replaced the timeslot of Kapamilya Weekend Specials filler block, which temporarily filled the vacated timeslot of Pinoy Boyband Superstar after the said show concluded in December 2016. Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids has currently run for two seasons and produced two winners, Awra Briguela for its first season and TNT Boys for its second season.
Judges, hosts and mentors
Judges and host of the most recent season of Your Face Sounds Familiar
Ogie Alcasid
Gary Valenciano
Luis Manzano
Sharon Cuneta
Hosts
Billy Crawford served as the host of Your Face Sounds Familiar during the first two seasons. The winner of the first season, Melai Cantiveros, co-hosted the show along Crawford in season 2.[15] However, since Crawford left ABS-CBN after the said network lost its franchise, Luis Manzano hosted the third season instead.
Judges
The panel of judges in this show is called "The Jury".[16] In each season there are usually three members of the jury.
In an event that a sitting jury member cannot fulfill their duties for a particular week, a temporary replacement will take their place in that particular week.
In every week, two mentors (one for vocals and another for character and movement) helps the contestants in impersonating the icon that was assigned to them.
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