Everything about Canada’s Smartest Person, eh?

19-2, Amazing Race Canada, Big Brother Canada, Bitten, Blackstone, Blood and Water, Canada's Smartest Person, Continuum, Dark Matter, Degrassi, Dragons' Den, Featured, Haven, Heartland, Killjoys, Lost Girl, Masterchef Canada, Mohawk Girls, Motive, Mr. D, Murdoch Mysteries, Orphan Black, Polls, Remedy, Rick Mercer Report, Rookie Blue, Saving Hope, Schitt's Creek, Sensitive Skin, Spun Out, Still Standing, Sunnyside, The Nature of Things, The Romeo Section, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, This Life, Vikings, When Calls the Heart, X Company, Young Drunk Punk

Poll: What are your favourite Canadian TV shows of 2015?

188 Comments

UPDATE: The poll has now closed. Thanks to everyone for taking part! You can still let us know your favourite Canadian TV show of 2015 by writing it in the Comments section below.

As the year winds down, it’s time to reflect back on 2015. What a year it was for Canadian TV. Yes, there was some sad news—the cancellation of Strange Empire, Remedy and Rookie Blue come immediately to mind—but there was plenty to celebrate as well.

Sci-fi in Canada is stronger than ever thanks to Orphan Black and newbies Killjoys and Dark Matter, we’re getting laughs from series like Still Standing, Sunnyside and Young Drunk Punk and dramas like This Life, The Romeo Section and Motive continue to entertain.

As we get ready to say hello to 2016, help us celebrate 2015 by voting for your favourite five (5) Canadian television shows of the year. (Vote by clicking the boxes to the left of your favourite shows, then click the shaded “Vote” button located just below and right of Young Drunk Punk.)

UPDATE: The poll has now closed. Thanks to everyone for taking part! You can still let us know your favourite Canadian TV show of 2015 by writing it in the Comments section below.

What are your five favourite Canadian TV shows of 2015?

  • Dark Matter (12%, 7,269 Votes)
  • Lost Girl (11%, 6,777 Votes)
  • Killjoys (9%, 5,766 Votes)
  • Heartland (9%, 5,384 Votes)
  • Murdoch Mysteries (4%, 2,632 Votes)
  • Orphan Black (3%, 2,147 Votes)
  • Tornado Hunters (3%, 2,080 Votes)
  • Rookie Blue (3%, 1,634 Votes)
  • When Calls the Heart (3%, 1,557 Votes)
  • Rick Mercer Report (2%, 1,486 Votes)
  • The Liquidator (2%, 1,279 Votes)
  • Schitt's Creek (2%, 1,227 Votes)
  • Vikings (2%, 1,087 Votes)
  • The Amazing Race Canada (2%, 1,053 Votes)
  • Saving Hope (2%, 1,024 Votes)
  • Property Brothers (2%, 990 Votes)
  • Bitten (2%, 976 Votes)
  • Dragons' Den (2%, 970 Votes)
  • Continuum (2%, 955 Votes)
  • Haven (1%, 791 Votes)
  • Chopped Canada (1%, 786 Votes)
  • 22 Minutes (1%, 783 Votes)
  • MasterChef Canada (1%, 738 Votes)
  • Big Brother Canada (1%, 727 Votes)
  • Highway Thru Hell (1%, 686 Votes)
  • Canada's Worst Driver (1%, 684 Votes)
  • Degrassi (1%, 608 Votes)
  • The Nature of Things (1%, 580 Votes)
  • Love It or List It franchise (1%, 573 Votes)
  • The Fifth Estate (1%, 559 Votes)
  • Motive (1%, 557 Votes)
  • House of Bryan (1%, 549 Votes)
  • X Company (1%, 520 Votes)
  • Still Standing (1%, 480 Votes)
  • Strange Empire (1%, 397 Votes)
  • Marketplace (1%, 394 Votes)
  • This Life (1%, 394 Votes)
  • Hockey Wives (1%, 340 Votes)
  • Backroad Bounty (1%, 321 Votes)
  • 19-2 (1%, 311 Votes)
  • Remedy (0%, 266 Votes)
  • Mr. D (0%, 265 Votes)
  • Blackstone (0%, 262 Votes)
  • Polar Bear Town (0%, 252 Votes)
  • Ice Racer Showdown (0%, 214 Votes)
  • Young Drunk Punk (0%, 207 Votes)
  • Canada's Smartest Person (0%, 198 Votes)
  • Sunnyside (0%, 193 Votes)
  • The Next Step (0%, 174 Votes)
  • Mohawk Girls (0%, 170 Votes)
  • Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan (0%, 128 Votes)
  • Keeping Canada Alive (0%, 120 Votes)
  • The Other Side (0%, 113 Votes)
  • Chef in Your Ear (0%, 104 Votes)
  • The Romeo Section (0%, 99 Votes)
  • Blood and Water (0%, 93 Votes)
  • The Stanley Dynamic (0%, 88 Votes)
  • Make it Pop (0%, 81 Votes)
  • First Dates (0%, 68 Votes)
  • Unusually Thicke (0%, 67 Votes)
  • Open Heart (0%, 65 Votes)
  • Spun Out (0%, 58 Votes)
  • Sensitive Skin (0%, 47 Votes)
  • Max & Shred (0%, 42 Votes)
  • Some Assembly Required (0%, 30 Votes)
  • Crash Gallery (0%, 24 Votes)
  • Tiny Plastic Men (0%, 20 Votes)

Total Voters: 27,337

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Canada's Smartest Person

Katy Warren wins Canada’s Smartest Person

From a media release:

CBC’s CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON has crowned Katy Warren of St. John’s, NL with the coveted title of Canada’s Smartest Person. Katy emerged victorious after beating out the seven remaining finalists in a series of new and exciting challenges that tested six areas of intelligence in the epic two-hour finale on Sunday night. The 21-year-old is an engineering student at Memorial University in St. John’s, NL.

Katy competed in the fourth episode of the season where she consistently finished in the top two in every challenge she faced. Katy is an engineering student who was awarded an entry scholarship at the largest university in Atlantic Canada. Her resume boasts a wide array of accomplishments including receiving the prestigious Chief Commissioner’s Gold Award from the Girl Guides of Canada, where she is a life-long member, and being the 2006 Provincial Spelling Bee champion. In her free time Katy rides the unicycle, plays the piccolo and ukulele, participates in roller derby and has a passion for improv and performing.

Hosted by Jessi Cruickshank, CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON is an innovative, original competition series that redefines what it means to be smart. Based on the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, the program tests participants in six different categories of smarts: Visual, Musical, Logical, Linguistic, Physical and Social. Each week, viewers can play along in real-time with the ground-breaking CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON app, available for iOS and Android devices. The app syncs to every broadcast allowing viewers to participate with each challenge in the show in real time and receive their own intelligence profile. During the week, viewers can try their hand at a series of bonus challenges and new this season, is Head2Head, which allows players to dual against their family and friends.

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Canada's Smartest Person, Mr. D

Link: It’s early days for U.S. Mr. D adaptation

From Cassandra Szklarski of the Toronto Star:

It’s early days for U.S. Mr. D adaptation
CBC star Gerry Dee is putting his trust in Will Arnett to shepherd a proposed U.S. revamp of his Halifax-shot comedy Mr. D. But fellow Canadians who’ve been through similar adaptations warn of pitfalls that come with reworking a series for a new audience.

The comedian-turned-actor says details of the show, being developed in conjunction with CBS, are still being worked out. That includes storylines, writers and cast. Continue reading.

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Canada's Smartest Person, Featured

Heartland star lands Canada’s Smartest Person return

I competed in Canada’s Smartest Person, and I won. OK, I didn’t compete in a full instalment of the intelligence test, but I did come in first in a head-to-head special journalist edition matchup against my buddy Denette Wilford in The Gauntlet. (For proof, check out the video below.)

Meanwhile, contestants from across the country once again descended on Toronto to compete in Season 2 of CBC’s mind-bender, returning Sunday at 8 p.m. with 16-year-old wunderkind Maya Burhanpurkar of Barrie, Ont., rapper Anthony Craparotta (a.k.a. iLLvibe) of Toronto, diversity executive Richard Pinnock from Montreal, and new mom Jessica Joy of Golden, B.C., facing off.

Smartest_Person2

With the title of Canada’s Smartest Person up for grabs, the four competitors test the theory of multiple intelligence in six categories: linguistic, logical, physical, musical, visual and social before the top two scorers race through The Gauntlet to determine a winner.

“In Season 2, you really want to go bigger and better and we have,” says host Jessi Cruickshank. “The challenges in every episode are unreal, the new challenges are so spectacular and we have fantastic guest stars appearing.” Among them is Heartland lead Amber Marshall, who pops by for Human Lie Detector, telling a mixture of truth and fiction to test social skills. (One unforgettable story recounts a memorable Christmas involving a puppy and an ex-girlfriend; tune in to see if it’s true or not.) Upcoming celebrity guests include Mary Walsh, Steve Patterson, Perez Hilton and Alan Thicke.

“All of Alan Thicke’s stories were so over-the-top for Human Lie Detector,” Cruickshank says with a laugh, noting just one person read Thicke perfectly.

Canadians will once again have the chance to compete at home via the show’s app and—new this season—compete with friends and family in Head2Head. Jeff Douglas, who explained the app and noted test result trends across the country, is not back for Season 2, meaning Cruickshank is doing all of the heavy lifting, juggling hosting with challenge explanations and playing cheerleader to the weekly players.

“As much as I’m running the challenges, it’s my job to bring out the personalities of the competitors,” she says. “We have smart and incredibly charismatic people this season with a wide range of abilities and it’s my job to make them shine.”

Canada’s Smartest Person airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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Canada's Smartest Person

CBC unveils Canada’s Smartest Person first round competitors

From a media release:

CBC’s ultimate competition series, CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON returns for its second season on Sunday, October 4 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT), hosted by Jessi Cruickshank and featuring an all-new roster of competitors and exciting celebrity guest judges. Thousands of Canadians applied and underwent a series of rigorous tests for the chance to compete in this epic intelligence showdown. Each week, a diverse group of Canadians including a CFL player, cheerleader, Youtube star, matchmaker, police officer and more battle it out for the chance to be crowned “Canada’s Smartest Person.”

In the season premiere, 16-year-old wunderkid Maya Burhanpurkar of Orillia, ON, rapper Anthony Craparotta(aka iLLvibe) of Toronto, ON,  diversity executive Richard Pinnock from Montreal, QC and new mom Jessica Joy of Golden, BC  go head-to-head, competing  for a spot in the finale and their chance to take home the coveted title. Amber Marshall star of CBC’s hit family-drama HEARTLAND is the season’s first celebrity guest star.

CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON is an innovative, original competition series based on the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Each week, four participants compete in a series of challenges in six areas of intelligence (linguistic, logical, visual, physical, musical and social) that redefines smart. This season features even more action-packed competition marked by bigger, bolder, mind-bending challenges that push participants to their limits. It also includes an all-star line-up of celebrity judges including CBC sports host Scott Russell, comedian Mary Walsh (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, actor Alan Thicke (Unusually Thicke), choreographer Sean Cheeseman, comedian Steve Patterson (The Debaters), actor Dan Levy (Schitt’s Creek), sports anchor Dan O’Toole (Fox Sports), singer Jully Black, Toronto International Film Festival artistic director Cameron Bailey, chef Mark McEwan and the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Sean O’Neill (Crash Gallery).

Each week, viewers can play along in real-time with the ground-breaking CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON app, available for iOS and Android devices. The app syncs to every broadcast allowing viewers to participate with each challenge in the show in real time. During the week, viewers can try their hand at a series of bonus challenges and new this season, is Head2Head, which allows players to dual against their family and friends.

CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON airs Sundays at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT) on CBC-TV beginning October 4.

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