Canada's Worst Driver

Canada's Worst Driver
Developed by Proper Television
Written by Andrew Younghusband
Presented by Andrew Younghusband
Country of origin Canada
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 11 as of 2015
No. of episodes 80
Production
Executive producer(s) Philip Dharamraj
Producer(s) Guy O'Sullivan
Running time 60 minutes (including commercials)
Release
Original network Discovery Channel
Original release September 26, 2005 (2005-09-26) – Present
Chronology
Related shows Britain's Worst Driver
Canada's Worst Handyman
Don't Drive Here
External links
Website

Canada's Worst Driver is a Canadian television series on Discovery Channel, based on Britain's Worst Driver, and is part of the Worst Driver television franchise. The series is produced by Proper Television, whose president, Guy O'Sullivan, was the director of the original Britain's Worst Driver series. As such, Canada's Worst Driver is considered to be the production company's flagship show.

Unlike other Worst series around the world, the Canadian version emphasizes the learning process of the contestants and the science of driving. As such, it is often more serious than the other Worst shows around the world, which are mainly played for laughs. It is the longest running of any Worst series to date.

The series is also aired dubbed in French in Canada, as the Les Pires Chauffards Canadiens on Z Télé.

Canada's Worst Driver and its sister series Canada's Worst Handyman / Blood, Sweat & Tools are the two highest-rated programs on Discovery Channel.

Format

In each season, eight drivers and their nominators are taken to the Driver Rehabilitation Centre where they compete in challenges designed to improve their driving skills, in an effort to not be named Canada's Worst Driver. In the first challenge, the contestants begin at a location about an hour's drive from the Driver Rehabilitation Centre. Following the directions that are given, each contestant must drive to the Driver Rehabilitation Centre. Upon arriving at the Driver Rehabilitation Centre, the driver's licence of each contestant is confiscated (for the first two seasons, their car keys were confiscated instead). The first episode concludes with an obstacle course challenge, meant to evaluate the skills of each driver.

The series is well known for its obstacle course challenges. Contestants must routinely maneuver their cars through tight spaces with less than an inch of clearance on either side. To show that the challenge can be done without hitting obstacles by an average driver, host Andrew Younghusband performs each challenge before any contestant attempts the challenge.

At the end of the second episode, each contestant meets with a panel of four experts and Andrew for an evaluation of his or her performance. After all remaining contestants are interviewed, the judges and Andrew deliberate on which contestant and nominator pair have improved enough to graduate from the Driver Rehabilitation Centre. The driver who has graduated is eliminated from the competition and is sent home with his or her license returned to him or her. Typically, the contestants drive off with their nominators in the car that they used to arrive at the Driver Rehabilitation Centre. The experts also reserve the right to not graduate anyone during an episode or to graduate multiple contestants at the same time. The experts may also choose to expel any contestant who does not show any incentive to learn, who they believe should not continue driving, or who can not continue the rehabilitation program often for medical or legal reasons. In this particular instance, certain contestants are eliminated from the competition and their licenses are returned, and they are given a ride home. In extreme cases, the experts may contact the relevant Ministry of Transport and request that a driver's licence be put up for review, if they believe that a contestant is medically unfit to continue driving. To date, this has happened only twice, in Canada's Worst Driver 4 and Canada's Worst Driver Ever.

The elimination process continues until only three contestants remain (the original intent was for two contestants to remain, but due to the first season containing an episode in which no-one graduated, there were three; every season since has had three finalists). The remaining contestants are then given the Mega-Challenge, an obstacle course challenge with elements of almost every previous challenge,[1] as well as a driving examination through the busy streets of a major urban centre in Canada near the Driver Rehabilitation Centre. Based on these two challenges, the experts determine which among the three is deemed Canada's Worst Driver. With the exception of the second season, the contestant who fared the second worst is deemed to not have graduated from the Driver Rehabilitation Centre, while the third contestant is considered a graduate.

Unlike other versions of the Worst Driver series around the world, where being eliminated early or being the Worst Driver is either rewarded with a new car or had their car destroyed, no prizes are given for being eliminated early or for being named Canada's Worst Driver, aside from a commemorative trophy in the latter case, as the point of the show is to educate rather than entertain.

Experts

Experts Season
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Cam Woolley
Philippe Létourneau
Shyamala Kiru
Tim Danter
Peter Mellor
Dr. Lauren Kennedy-Smith
Dr. Louisa Gembora
Dan Bagyan
Scott Marshall
Marcus Agyeman
Juliana Chiovitti
Kelly Williams
Jim Kenzie
Dr. Uzma Rehman

Challenges

With the exception of the challenges in the first and last episodes, challenges are specifically tailored to each contestant and are designed by show host Andrew Younghusband and the driving school sponsoring the series (whose head instructor is one of the judges). Challenges typically range from traditional driving school lessons such as parallel parking, reversing, and driving with a trailer, to those not normally found in a beginner's driving course, such as driving a standard transmission vehicle and extreme driving manoeuvres (such as the Scandinavian flick). However, there are some challenges that are reused from year to year.

Nomination

The contestants are chosen by nominations submitted to Proper Television. Candidates may be nominated by multiple nominators, though only one nominator accompanies the contestant to the Driver Rehabilitation Centre.

Until Canada's Worst Handyman became Blood, Sweat & Tools, Canada's Worst Driver and Canada's Worst Handyman were filmed alternately, with each season of Driver followed by a season of Handyman. Driver is filmed during the summer and Handyman was filmed in winter. Nominations for the next season of one were accepted shortly before the airing of a season of the other on Discovery Channel.

Home Video/Internet Availability

Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are currently available for download in Canada from iTunes in Standard Definition (480i/p) Anamorphic widescreen. Seasons 8, 9 & 10 are available from iTunes in both Stanadard Definition (480i/p) Anamorphic Widescreen and High Definition (720p/1080p). Seasons 2 through 7 are available for streaming on CraveTV. Each season has also been posted on Discovery Channel's Canadian website in the past for streaming. There has been no news on whether the series will be released on DVD/Blu-ray.

Seasons

See also

References

  1. The standard transmission balancing challenge, among others, is not part of the Mega-Challenge, but every challenge that is practical to include gets included.
  2. Bolichowski, Jeff (June 18, 2011). "Bad drivers hit St. Catharines street". St. Catharines Standard. Retrieved June 19, 2011.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, December 21, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.