Your Face Sounds Familiar is a singing and impersonation competition for celebrities and is based on the Spanish version of the same name. It debuted on March 14, 2015, on ABS-CBN, replacing The Voice of the Philippines. Luis Manzano currently serves as host since Season 3. It was Originally hosted by Billy Crawford for the first two seasons, and for the second season, also co-hosted by Melai Cantiveros. Jed Madela, Gary Valenciano and Sharon Cuneta served as the show's judges for the first two seasons. In Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids, Ogie Alcasid replaces Madela, while Valenciano and Cuneta reprised their roles as judges. The Kids season premiered on January 7, 2017. The show's third season ended on May 30, 2021, and was replaced by Everybody, Sing!.
Development
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 "" 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.
The first season of the show took over the timeslot of the second season of The Voice of the Philippines, after its conclusion on March 1, 2015.
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. 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 show only had duets, as Black Saturday pre-empted all special programming.
On April 18–19, 2015, Gary Valenciano temporarily left the show to fulfill his commitment of performing in a series of concerts. He was substituted by Boy Abunda. 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. Sharon Cuneta, Gary Valenciano, Jed Madela, and Billy Crawford were announced to return to the show to reprise their former duties.
In January 2020, ABS-CBN announced that the show will have a third season after Sharon Cuneta renewed her contract with the network. Also, the first Kids season was being re-aired on the primetime slot from March–May 2020 as part of the network's temporary programming changes caused by the Enhanced community quarantine in Luzon. However, the reruns were abruptly stopped after May 3, 2020, due to the temporary closure of ABS-CBN 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 being focused 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 which resulted in 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) complete for a cash prize. The contestant with the highest points per week is crowned the weekly winner, and will win the said cash prize. The top four (or more in case of ties) contestants will advance to the finale and compete for the public's votes, where the artist with the most votes will be declared the winner.
