Kimberly Sue Yap Chiu (born April 19, 1990) is the first Teen Big Winner of Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition, besting 13 teen housemates. Kim and the rest of the housemates entered the Big Brother house on April 23, 2006. After 42 days of spending summer in the Big Brother house, Kim was named the Teen Big Winner with 626,562 votes or 41.4% of the total votes at the Aliw Theater, Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex in Pasay City on June 3, 2006. Kim is a junior high school student at the Distance Learning Center of ABS-CBN, the network’s school for their young talents/artists.
A Chinese-Filipino, Kim was never nominated by her co-teen housemates because of her sense of humor and her smile as well as her very positive disposition and sportsmanship that made her one of the early bets by the viewers to win. A semi-contortionist, Kim made everyone laugh with her stunts like crossing her two legs at the back of her head. She also sang songs and played the guitar with teen housemates Mikee, Matt and Gerald.
A go-getter, she made sure she accomplished the tasks given to her by Big Brother without hesitation. Tasks include eating exotic Filipino delicacies, rope climbing in the garden and sticking out the tongue for an hour, just to name a few. She also participated in the group task to give Jamilla’s son, Miggy, who has cleft palate, the remaining four operations to be shouldered by some doctors at St. Lukes Hospital. One of the tasks was braiding the hair of the girls for six hours.
After a 10-month relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Kim became sort of a man-hater although she wasn’t afraid to admit her admiration to two housemates inside the house. Earlier in the season, the housemates admitted to each other their crushes among the Teen Housemates. Kim said that she likes Mikee, who also admitted that she likes Kim. From then on, the two were inseparable and oftentimes teased by the rest of the housemates. Both of them can sing and play the guitar, which was their favorite pastime together. On the other hand, as the Teen Housemates dwindled each week, Kim found comfort and good friendship with Gerald, a Filipino-American teen housemate from General Santos City. Kim and Gerald became close friends forming a love triangle.
As part of the simple wishes of Kim to Big Brother, she met her idol, the acoustic band MYMP (Make Your Momma Proud) while she was still inside the house. Two weeks before The Big Night, she was taken out of the house blind-folded to record the Chinese song, Peng You (??) by Emil Chou with Juris of MYMP. The song was translated in Filipino and was made into a music video, showing clips in the Big Brother house.
Previously on their first week inside, she was asked by fellow teen housemates Jamilla and Aldred to sing in Chinese. Kim sang Peng You and explained the lyrics line by line. Peng You is friend in Mandarin.
Kim Chiu accepts her winnings.
The Big Night
The Teen Big Four dressed like princes and princesses in The Big Night: The Fairy Tale Finale of the Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition. Local teen stars and the Celebrity Big Four attended the show. Toni Gonzaga, the original host of the show was back to host the event together with Mariel Rodriguez and ex-Celebrity Housemate 3rd Big Placer, Bianca Gonzalez.
Clare Cabuigin of Bukidnon was fourth with 18.5% of votes. General Santos City native, Gerald Anderson exited the Palace Confession Room and was 3rd place scoring 19.4%. And first runner-up was the Ateneo student Mikee Lee, with 20.7% of the votes cast.
Kim Chiu ranked first among the four with 41.4% and was named the Teen Big Winner. Included in the prizes are 1 million pesos (US$19,000), a condominium unit, a 4-year college scholarship courtesy of AMA Computer University, among other prizes worth 3 million pesos (US$57,000).
Life after Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition
The day after The Big Night, The Big Four already appeared in different TV shows. Kim, Mikee, Gerald and Clare together with the ex-Teen Housemates appeared in the Sunday noontime show of ABS-CBN, ASAP 06. The ex-Teen Housemates danced the Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition’s theme song, “Kabataang Pinoy” (Filipino Youth) by Itchyworms.
Kim sang her song, Peng You. She wore a cheongsam dress with her hair set like Chun-Li’s. Hosts Luis Manzano and Piolo Pascual announced that Kim and the rest of the ex-Teen Housemates are now part of the Kampamilya (Family, the name given to ABS-CBN talents) under ABS-CBN’s Star Magic. All 14 Teen Housemates will be receiving management contracts from the network.
In the afternoon, the four appeared in the Sunday showbiz talk show The Buzz. Kim admitted that she’s dreaming of both becoming an actress and a singer. She also said that if given a chance, she would choose Gerald, a co-housemate and a close friend, to be her leading man. Mikee, a former partner inside the house, said he was fine with that explaining that she looks at Kim only as a special friend.
Later that evening, they staged Pinoy Big Brother: The Big Reunion at the Aliw Theater in Pasay City, where all the housemates from the Pinoy Big Brother, Season 1, Celebrity Edition and Teen Edition join in one stage. Kim and Gerald had the loudest support from the fans, naming their love team as Kimerald.
A motorcade was held on June 17 at Cebu City, which started from the Mactan Cebu International Airport and ended at the Provincial Capitol. The next day, Chiu became the guest of honor and performer at a concert at Ayala Center Cebu.
Kim is one of the new endorsers of Bench, a local clothing line. She was paired with Gerald in print ads with a caption, “Perfect Pair”, advertising the denim collection of Bench. The pair then stared in an ABS-CBN television program Love Spell.
