Published on July 18, 2005

He does not have a privileged background, but motorbike taxi driver Nipon Perktim won the hearts of an overwhelming majority of viewers with his down-to-earth charm to become Big Brother Thailand’s first winner.

Nipon, or Tui, received 70.74 per cent of the vote from viewers on Saturday night, well ahead the two other candidates, who received 12.27 and 16.99 per cent of the vote.

Following 106 days of life inside the Big Brother House, the 22-year-old motorcycle taxi driver is now a wealthy young man, after receiving prizes worth Bt3.77 million, including Bt1 million in cash, a house and a Mazda 3 sedan.

The host of the show, Saranyu Wongkrajang, said Tui received a “startlingly” high number of votes through mobile phones SMS messages. Saranyu declined to reveal the exact number of votes cast during the winner’s round.

“Tui, you would be startled if you knew how many votes you have received from people from all walks of life,” Saranyu told Tui on Saturday night after announcing the outcome.

Big Brother placed 12 people from different backgrounds together in a house monitored by television cameras 24 hours a day.

Each week, two of the contestants would be nominated for elimination by other contestants, but only one contestant would be eliminated as viewers were allowed to vote on which one to save by sending in SMS messages.

Tui was nominated by other players for elimination following the first episode, but was saved by the viewers. In fact, he was nominated for elimination a number of times in subsequent weeks, apparently because he appeared out of place with other contestants, but he always won enough votes to stay.

Tui was always saved with a high percentage of votes from viewers, indicating just how popular he was.

After surviving 106 days inside Big Brother House, Tui and two other players waited for viewer SMS votes to be counted and the winner to be announced.

Pimchak Chiwarak, who came third in the winner round, said that Tui was a straightforward person and talked straight from his heart, something that Thai people respect.

Tui said he would get married and live in the home he won in the contest. He would spend part of the money to build a house for his parents.

Tui said yesterday that he was very happy to receive the most votes.

He said he would use some of the prize money for study, but would still work as motorcycle taxi operator because he enjoyed it.

“I’ve never imagined that a guy like me would be given this much support,” Tui said.

Budsarakham Sinlapalavan

The Nation

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