And then there were two. Two winners, that is. The text votes and the Starstruck council members have spoken. During the Final Judgment at the Araneta Coliseum last Sunday night, Steven Silva – a Filipino/Chinese/Portuguese dude who resides in Oceanside, California but representing Davao – and Sarah Lahbati – a Filipino/Moroccan teener who used to live in Geneva, Switzerland and is now based in Cavite – were declared Ultimate Male Survivor and Ultimate Female Survivor, respectively. Although Sarah’s win was almost assured going into the finals, Steven’s was a bit of a surprise since his two competitors – Enzo Pineda and Rocco Nacino – were given the edge to come out victorious.

Steven Silva - Ultimate Male Survivor

Sarah Lahbati - Ultimate Female Survivor

After all scores from the council members and percentages of the text votes were tallied, these two came out on top. Steven got 93.5 total, while Sarah notched 94.6 which gave them relatively comfortable leads over their closest pursuers. Enzo Pineda of QC was named First Prince, while First Princess was Cebuana Diva Montelaba.

Steven and Sarah both win P1.5 million in cash and an exclusive contract with GMA-7 worth a minimum guarantee amount of P3.5 million. The remaining contenders in the Top 5 each received P200,000 in cash plus exclusive GMA-7 contracts. A bit of good news that night was the announcement that the 9 avengers (losers in the Final 14) will also be signed by the network to exclusive contracts, thereby keeping rival stations from pirating the new talents they have painstakingly built in the last four months that the show was on air.

Below is the video higlighting the announcement of winners of Starstruck V last February 21.

video courtesy of YouTube/tirso3rd

This is where the real test begins for the winners and the losers. Let’s see who among them will become big stars in a year or two.

Congratulations to Steven and Sarah! 😉

From the initial cast of 7 boys and 7 girls, the Final 5 Survivors for GMA-7’s long-running reality artista search Starstruck V have been revealed and these young showbiz wannabes will try to outshine one another come Final Judgment Night on February 21 at Araneta Coliseum. They are: Rocco Nacino, Enzo Pineda, Steven Silva, Sarah Lahbati and Diva Montelaba.

The Starstruck V Final 5 : (top L-R) Rocco Nacino, Enzo Pineda, Steven SIlva; (bottom L-R) Diva Montelaba, Sarah Lahbati

It did surprise me a bit that the shy and oft-pensive Steven Silva went into the Top 5 with the highest number of text votes (more than half a mil). He must really have a strong base of supporters who continuously back him up week after week. I would be happy seeing either Enzo or Rocco take it all in the male category. But if Steven pulls the rug from under his competitors, I wouldn’t be shocked.

As for the two ladies, the competition is probably best decided with a toss coin since their text votes and council scores are too close to call an outright winner. If you ask me, my bet would be Sarah Lahbati but gut-feel tells me that the Cebuanos will pour their all-out support to Diva this week going into the final night come Sunday.

For all their fans and supporters, you can still text your votes up until midnight of Saturday, February 20.

ENZO-SARAH for the win!

For now, I’m for an ENZO-SARAH win… 😉

Here are video clips of portions of last Sunday night’s final elimination night going into the Top 5:

Focus on Enzo Pineda

video courtesy of YouTube/frencheskafarrever

Focus on Sarah Lahbati

video courtesy of YouTube/frencheskafarrever