Canada's Worst Driver 8

Canada's Worst Driver 8
Country of origin Canada
No. of episodes 8
Release
Original network Discovery Channel Canada
Original release October 29, 2012 – December 2012

Canada's Worst Driver 8 is the eighth season of the Canada's Worst Driver series, which airs on Discovery Channel. As with previous years, eight people, nominated by their family or friends, enter the Driver Rehabilitation Centre to improve their driving skills.

Contestants

Experts

The experts this season are:

Synopsis

Contestant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Kevin Simmons IN IN IN IN IN IN IN CWD TIE
Flora Wang IN IN IN IN IN IN IN CWD TIE
Diane Zbierski IN IN IN IN IN IN IN OUT
Margherita Donato IN IN IN IN IN IN OUT
Azim Kanji IN IN IN IN IN OUT
Klyne Postnikoff IN IN IN OUT
Dallas Sam IN IN OUT
Robert Cardenas IN OUT
     The contestant became Canada's Worst Driver.
     The contestant was runner-up for Canada's Worst Driver.
     The contestant was on the panel's shortlist.
     The contestant graduated.
     The contestant left the show.

Episode 1: Here They Come...

Original airdate: October 29, 2012

After the challenge, the drivers had their initial meeting with the experts. Robert is reminded that driving too slowly is an offence (he admits actually being fined for doing so at least once), and the experts quickly identify the need to address his high-speed nervousness. Stress is also felt to be the biggest issue for Margherita, Dallas, Diane and Azim. Flora admits that Frank isn't her only problem, and that she still needs to drastically improve her skills. The experts all condemn Klyne for his reckless attitude, both in the episode and toward the ten accidents he caused prior to the show. Kevin admits from the very start that he may be Canada's Worst Driver. As usual, no drivers were graduated at the end of the first episode.

Episode 2: Look Out!

Original airdate: November 5, 2012

While there are three obvious candidates to be the season's first graduate (Klyne, who passed all the challenges, and Flora and Robert, who generally did well despite only passing one challenge each), Robert is the only driver who actually wants to graduate. Cam and Shyamala both vote that Robert should graduate, as they feel that his major issue of being too slow and lacking in confidence has been addressed, and are unconvinced that Klyne's attitude has sufficiently improved. Andrew and Philippe want Klyne to graduate, for doing better in the challenges. Tim's first vote as a judge ends up being the casting one, and he votes in favour of Robert, who becomes the season's first graduate.

Episode 3: Look Where You Want To Go

Original airdate: November 12, 2012

Dallas is the only driver who shows any desire to graduate. Despite this, the experts near-unanimously decide that Diane should be the person who graduates, feeling that she has a better overall attitude than Dallas and would be safer to send back out onto the road. Andrew disagrees with this, pointing out that Dallas had been the best performing driver until this point and that she actually wanted to leave, while Diane expressly said that she wanted to stay. Furthermore, Dallas overcame her stress-related problems, while Andrew argues that the panel should not overlook Diane's failure in the Eye of the Needle challenge at reduced speed. The experts ultimately come around to Andrew's opinion, and Dallas becomes the second graduate.

Episode 4: Making A Splash

Original airdate: November 19, 2012

Prior to the judges' deliberations, Maureen joins Klyne and the two reflect on their respective attitudes, and the role they played in Klyne's destructive habits. It quickly becomes obvious to the judges that Klyne is the only possible graduate, and while Shyamala argues that no-one should graduate this episode and that Klyne should be made to stay at least one more episode to make sure his attitude change sticks, the others conclude that there is nothing more they can teach him, and that his future as a driver is entirely in his own hands now.

Episode 5: Ice Cream

Original airdate: November 26, 2012

When speaking to the experts after the final challenge, none of the drivers express any interest in graduating. Still, the experts shortlist Diane (who is considered the best overall out of the remaining drivers) and Margherita (for significantly improving during the last two episodes), but despite a general agreement among the experts that Diane is the better driver of the two, none of them have any real enthusiasm over letting either of them graduate. With none of the drivers wanting to graduate, and none of the experts feeling that anyone particularly deserves to graduate, the conclusion is obvious; no-one graduates this episode.

Episode 6: Hole in One

Original airdate: December 3, 2012
The Teeter-Totter: In this returning challenge (which Andrew notes is being run later in the season than previously due to the drivers' habit of destroying the clutches on the test cars), the drivers are put at the wheel of a manual transmission car, which they are asked to balance on a teeter-totter. Flora takes the challenge first and, in what is rapidly becoming a familiar pattern, fails after running out of time due to Frank's constant criticism and attempts to micro-manage her driving; she also caused one of her car's tires to burst during the challenge, though this was not counted toward the half-hour she was given. Prior to Margherita's run, Andrew presents her with a new pair of flat-soled sports shoes which he has purchased for her to drive with instead of her wedged heels. Despite this, she has what proves to be the worst run out of five, using far too much gas and never getting close to balancing the teeter-totter. Cheryl badgers her into swapping back to her wedge shoes, but this just makes matters worse, and Margherita eventually ends up destroying the car's clutch. Diane is third and manages a near-flawless performance, balancing the teeter-totter even faster than Andrew did in his demonstration. Azim takes somewhat longer, but eventually passes the challenge. Kevin has the final run, and makes numerous mistakes in doing so; not only does he repeatedly hit the gas too hard, he tries to change gears without using the clutch, and stalls numerous times. He ultimately fails after running out of time, the only saving grace being that he didn't burn out the clutch.
Mustang Challenge: Mini Golf: This new challenge gives the drivers nine runs at driving an oversized golf ball through a similarly oversized windmill tunnel. Diane is first up, and Stephane's well-intentioned but ultimately bad advice causes her to miss her first five shots, before hitting two (and then missing the final two). She blames Stephane for her underwhelming performance, which Andrew concurs with. Azim is next, and takes a scientific approach by balancing the ball on the left-hand side of the front bumper in order to compensate for the strong wind; he scores four times. Kevin tries to use short bursts of acceleration and strong hits to guide the ball to its target; this proves a less than successful approach however, and he only scores once. Margherita (this time in her sports shoes throughout the challenge) fails her first five attempts due to a lack of understanding over where the bumper is, but she improves as the challenge progresses and scores on her final four goes, posting the joint-best score. Finally, Flora takes her first attempt at an incredibly slow pace, and barely even gets a third of the way down the course before the footage ends; Andrew then informs the viewer that her run eventually had to be abandoned due to her running out of time, and that she didn't score on any of the attempts that she did make.
Forward Handbrake J-Turn: In another of the show's traditional challenges, the drivers are each required to make a handbrake turn in a Mini Cooper and swerve around a foam person featuring the driver's own face inside a confined space; each driver has five attempts. Kevin is first up, and in a change of form nearly gets it on his first attempt, failing mostly because he took the run at 70 km/h instead of the requested 40 km/h; he reduces his speed for his second run, and for only the second time this season passes a challenge. Flora's woeful run of challenges continues, as she goes too slow in her first run, clips the entry obstacles in the second, drives directly into the foam Flora on the third, uses the footbrake instead of the handbrake on the fourth, before plowing through the foam Flora again and this time ending up in the adjoining field in her final run; this leads Andrew to describe Flora's performance as the worst he's ever seen for this particular challenge. Azim, who is now finally showing confidence and self-belief, predicts he will pass this challenge on the first go, and actually succeeds in doing so. Before Margherita's run, Andrew shows Margherita a series of articles listing accidents and fatalities that have been caused by drivers wearing high heels and wedges, but Cheryl loudly insists that his concerns are untrue and that it's perfectly safe to wear heels. This leads to her badmouthing Andrew and the experts after she and Margherita get in the car, unaware that the experts are listening to every word she says. Margherita ultimately fails the challenge after repeatedly using the footbrake instead of the handbrake, and while Cheryl attempts to blame Andrew for upsetting her prior to the challenge, Margherita herself accepts full responsibility and admits to not focusing well enough. Despite being predicted for success by Andrew, Diane fares surprisingly poorly, attempting the manoeuvre too late on her first run, going too slowly on her next three runs, and then hitting the foam Diane on her final run.

Prior to the experts' deliberations, Cam informs Margherita that wearing wedges or any other form of cumbersome footwear is considered a criminal offence if it is judged to have been responsible for an automotive accident. While Andrew encourages Diane to put herself forward for graduation, she admits that she does not deserve to be based on her performance in this episode, and Flora also does not want to graduate. Azim, on the other hand, feels that he finally has the confidence and skills to graduate. Kevin, meanwhile, is informed that certain drivers (such as Canada's Worst Driver 3 "winner" Jason Zhang and Canada's Worst Driver 5 runner-up Mike Butt) have given up driving in the wake of their appearances on the show; Kevin's response is to call the drivers in question "stupid" and vow never to give up driving even if he's named Canada's Worst Driver, a response which enrages the panel.

With Azim the best performer in the episode and the only driver showing any desire to leave, his graduation is a foregone conclusion. However, the experts also discuss the possibility of getting Margherita to pick a new nominator and throwing Cheryl out of rehab for her disrespectful behaviour, in what would have been a first for the show. Cheryl is ultimately allowed to stay (as Andrew states: "Kicking Cheryl out wouldn't do Margherita any good"), though is given a warning over her attitude, and Azim becomes the next driver to graduate.

Episode 7: 1-2-3-Go!

Original airdate: December 10, 2012
Three-Point Turning: A small turning space is set up using a variety of cars, and the drivers are each given thirty minutes in which to pull off a three-point turn using a Jeep Wrangler (previously used as Flora's car in the Gas Station challenge in Episode 5). Kevin takes the challenge first and soon finds it tough going due to his lack of understanding of the technique, repeatedly crashing into things and taking far more steps than allowed. He ultimately runs out of time, never managing better than a five-point turn. Flora is next, and in a change of form actually solicits Frank's advice to complete the challenge. Even with his help however, she fails to complete the challenge; like Kevin, the shortest she manages is a five-point turn. Diane takes her first run without any real thought as to how she's going to accomplish the challenge, and duly gets stuck. During the second run, Stephane works out a way of completing the challenge that even the producers had not thought possible, and with his help Diane is able to pass the challenge, getting much credit from Andrew for pulling off a very tricky series of turns. Margherita is in an extremely foul mood during the challenge (why she's in a bad mood isn't stated, though Margherita mentions that she's having personal problems), and thus never really makes an effort in the challenge, repeatedly running into cars and snapping at Cheryl, who for once is the more subdued of the two. She duly fails the challenge, with Andrew advising her to talk to Shyamala, a notion which she has refused until now.
The Longest Reversing Challenge Ever: As the name suggests, this is the longest reversing challenge that has ever been featured on the show, with the drivers having to back up a BMW 540i (previously used as Margherita's car in the Gas Station challenge in Episode 5) for a full kilometre through a straight-line course made up of three sections; one lined with stacked wheel rims, one with cars, and one with plywood boxes and foam blocks. Diane takes the challenge first, and despite knocking over 9 wheel rims during a shaky start, she quickly picks up the challenge and doesn't hit anything during the remainder of the course. Kevin follows and fares much worse, spending nearly the whole challenge looking out the front windshield despite Lenny repeatedly reminding him that he should be looking out the back, and hits 23 objects. Once again, Margherita fails to make a serious effort due to her bad mood, and plows through the course with little regard as to where she's going or what she's hitting. She ultimately hits 37 objects before Andrew calls a halt to the challenge, and tells her that she will not be allowed to take any further challenges until she speaks to Shyamala. Flora takes the last run, and immediately applies full gas without even touching the steering wheel, promptly hitting every single rim in the opening stretch before eventually getting wedged, forcing Andrew and Frank to clear out the rims from underneath the car. Flora restarts her run, only to get stuck again almost immediately, leading to the crew having to get her unstuck. While she ultimately hits fewer objects (29) than Margherita, Andrew judges Flora's run to be the worst based on her extreme carelessness.
Mustang Challenge: Icy Corner: In one of the show's traditional challenges, the drivers are each tasked with approaching an icy corner at 40 km/h, and applying and releasing their brakes in time to take the corner without skidding. Each driver will have five attempts. Kevin drives at nearly double the requested speed on his first run, and crashes through the wall. On his second run, he spends so much time checking his speed that he doesn't look where he's going, and doesn't even brake before hitting the wall. In his remaining three runs, Kevin goes too slowly each time and continues to demonstrate his problems with target fixation, never once looking where he wants to go. Diane nearly gets the challenge right on the first go, but Stephane unwittingly distracts her on her first run by constantly reading her speedometer out loud, causing her to execute the manoeuvre too late and clip the wall. He keeps quiet on her second run, and she passes with ease. Margherita, fresh from a session with Shyamala in which she learned valuable techniques for dealing with stress, does even better and passes at the first time of asking. Flora goes too fast in her first run and stares at the wall, which she duly crashes through. She actually gets the manoeuvre right on her second go, but speeds again and clips the wall. She continues to speed on her next two runs and this time doesn't even look where she wants to go, once again crashing through the wall. On her last run, she finally gets the speed right, but stares straight at the wall and never releases the brake, which leads to her destroying most of the course.

When meeting with the experts, Kevin asks to be considered for graduation out of a desire to avoid being in the final, but is immediately shot down and told that there's no way he will graduate. Flora is more realistic about her chances, and admits she may be Canada's Worst Driver. Margherita feels that she's ready to graduate, while Diane is unsure. With Kevin and Flora obviously unfit to graduate, the decision comes down to Diane and Margherita, and Diane's lack of enthusiasm over graduating combined with a feeling that Margherita is more technically skilled leads to Tim, Philippe and Shyamala voting for her to graduate. Andrew and Cam are adamant that Diane is a much better driver overall and that Margherita is not ready to graduate, but the other three do not change their minds, leading to Margherita being the penultimate graduate for this season. While Andrew tells Margherita to her face that he totally disagrees with the decision and that Diane should be leaving instead of her, he nonetheless congratulates her on having improved so much, as she had been one of the worst drivers in rehab during the first few episodes.

Episode 8: Trophy Please...

Original airdate: December 17, 2012
The Forward and Reverse Slalom: For this challenge, the drivers are placed at the wheel of the Ford Crown Victoria "taxicab" previously used in the Distracted Driving challenge in Episode 3 (with the other two candidates as their passengers), and given the task of driving forwards and then in reverse through a slalom course containing six foam people. Each driver will have ten attempts to complete the course in less than fifty seconds. Kevin is first, and on his first run, he drives too fast and holds the steering wheel awkwardly, resulting in him hitting a foam person. After being advised by Andrew to go slower and correct his grip, Kevin quickly masters the forward section, but soon runs into massive difficulties on the reverse section, constantly hitting the obstacles and destroying the car's front bumper. While Andrew concedes that Kevin's glass eye is a major impediment, he also notes that Kevin could try turning his head more, using his mirrors or asking Flora or Diane for help, none of which he does. Before his last run, Lenny gives Kevin some encouragement, but Kevin approaches the run with a defeatist attitude, and this time, can't even complete the forward part. Diane immediately aces the forward section, but ends up clipping a foam person on her first shot at the reverse section, in no small part due to Kevin (who is sat next to her) constantly fidgeting. After getting him to swap with Flora (which also gives the car a better weight distribution) she passes with ease on her second attempt. Flora is the last driver to take the course, and her performance proves to be the worst; like Kevin, she takes two goes to get the forward section right, before a series of ultimately disastrous attempts on the reverse section which see her repeatedly go off the tarmac altogether. She comes close to passing on her second-last run, but ends up crashing into the blocks which make up the starting section. After she goes off the track yet again on her final attempt, Andrew comments that were the title of Canada's Worst Driver decided solely on this challenge, Flora would be the worst.
Mustang Challenge: The Mega-Challenge: This year's Mega-Challenge is a full kilometre in length, and as in most previous years consists of elements from many of this year's challenges. It begins with the drivers having to go through five Eye of the Needle arches, then having to swerve and avoid a foam pedestrian, before having to drive forwards and then backwards through a lengthy course of wheel rims. The drivers then have to do a reverse flick, and then end the run with a handbrake J-turn. Flora gets the first run, and hits every single arch in the Eye of the Needle section before mowing down the foam pedestrian. She then has a bad run through the wheel rim track in both directions, takes her reverse flick much too early and crashes through the outer wall of that part of the course, and then fails to turn at all in the final J-turn, crashing through both the foam Flora that serves as an obstacle, and the outer wall. Diane goes next, and drives far too quickly to begin with, hitting most of the arches on the opening run, though she at least avoids the foam pedestrian. After a comparatively decent run through the wheel rim segment, she then takes her reverse spin-out, but execute it a little too late and clips the far wall. On the final J-turn segment, Diane clips the foam Diane, skids and then goes even further off the course than Flora did. Diane is tearful after this run and proclaims herself Canada's Worst Driver; Andrew admits that he thought she'd do better, but still considers her far from the worst. Kevin also drives far too fast on the first straight; he somehow avoids hitting the first three arches, but completely smashes the last two. This is followed by an abysmal run through the wheel rim section, in which he manages to wedge himself on the rims during the reverse part, requiring Andrew to step in and free the car. On the reverse spin-out, Kevin takes too long to start turning the wheel and doesn't turn it far enough when he does, crashing off-course. When doing the final J-turn, Kevin completely forgets how to do the manoeuvre and hits the footbrake instead of applying the handbrake, losing control and going off the course yet again. Kevin's run is judged to be the worst by Andrew, as he hit more obstacles than Diane and Flora combined.
The Road Test: This year's road test once again takes place on the streets of Hamilton, Ontario, in a convertible version of the Mustang that has been featured throughout the season. Diane is first up and turns in a flawless performance, not making a single mistake (aside from going slightly too slow on the highway) in what Andrew describes as the best Road Test performance in the show's history. During the run, Diane discusses the confidence she has gained from being on the show, and even admits that it has improved her relationship with Stephane. At the run's conclusion, Andrew tells Diane that even without Flora or Kevin having done their runs, she will be this year's final graduate for certain. Flora very quickly starts making basic mistakes, including stopping at every intersection even when the lights are on green, failing to signal, making prohibited turns, making turns from the wrong lane, driving into oncoming traffic, and even driving head-on into a bus depot. She then takes two attempts to get on the highway, missing her first turn after being too nervous to make it. Her actual run on the highway proves relatively uneventful, though she drives well below the speed limit. To cap things off, she even parks several feet away from the pavement at the end of the run. Kevin has the last run, and for the most part, the mistakes he makes are the same as Flora's, making turns from the wrong lane and cutting off other drivers in particular. Andrew also notices that Kevin tends to drift between lanes and very rarely looks in any direction other than straight ahead when driving, which only exacerbates the problem caused by the lack of vision in his right eye. His highway run also goes without major incident, but Andrew again tells him that he needs to be far more observant of the other traffic. As they return to the starting parking lot, Andrew asks Kevin if he really thinks he should be driving, and while Kevin admits that he probably shouldn't be driving, he says that he doesn't intend to give up.

In an obvious decision, Diane becomes the final graduate, with Andrew and the panel describing her as a "model student." It's a different story for Kevin and Flora, though; both are deemed completely unfit to drive by the experts, yet both are adamant that they will never give up their licences. In the final discussion, Tim and Philippe deem Kevin to be the worst, feeling that while Kevin and Flora are equally bad overall, Flora has a slim chance of improving someday, while Kevin's missing eye has proved to be an insurmountable problem on top of his existing issues. Cam and Shyamala, on the other hand, deem Flora to be the worse of the two, feeling that she showed a dismissive attitude toward the entire process, and that while Kevin had at least put some effort into the city drive, Flora made no real attempt to improve her driving. Andrew has the casting vote, but notes on the difficulty of actually deciding who is worse; both passed just two challenges over the course of the whole season, both have nominators who tend to exacerbate their problems (Lenny by not pushing Kevin harder, and Frank by constantly interfering with Flora's driving and giving her bad advice), Flora did worse on the Slalom challenge and Kevin worse on the Mega-Challenge, and both were equally bad (in slightly different ways) on the final Road Test.

This lack of a clear difference between the two leads to an unprecedented decision; both Kevin and Flora are named Canada's Worst Driver, with Andrew giving each a separate part of the trophy and implying that had either one of them volunteered to give up their licence, they would have avoided the title. As the two are driven away by Lenny and Frank respectively, Andrew ends the season on a somber note by voicing his concern that two drivers could be so equally and so terrifyingly bad.

External links

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