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What’s on: Week of September 28
Everything about Canada’s Smartest Person, eh?
Preview: Canada’s Smartest Person an addictive test of intelligence
Are you the type of person who is naturally successful at word puzzles? Do you wow your friends with your sports prowess? Think you’re just all-around more intelligent than everyone else in the room? Canada’s Smartest Person may very well be for you.
Debuting Sunday at 8 p.m., CBC’s rollicking game show goes beyond the standard I.Q. test–dismissed as too narrow to gauge real intelligence–to find the Canadian who is successful in a total of six categories. After an exhaustive cross-Canada search, 32 finalists compete in the categories of Math & Logic Intelligence, Visual & Spatial Intelligence, Body & Kinesthetic Intelligence, Linguistics Intelligence, and Musical Intelligence and Interpersonal Intelligence.
Sunday’s two-hour debut introduces viewers to the first four finalists–who by the time the episode ends is trimmed to one who moves on to the finals–and co-hosts Jessi Cruickshank and Jeff Douglas. Cruickshank, known for her personality co-hosting The Hills After Show on MTV Canada, is a natural to corral the show finalists. Her reactions to blunders and successes are classic, as are the numerous ways she contorts her body in a physical reaction to how well the finalists fare. Or don’t. As It Happens Happens co-host Jeff Douglas is the dude who explains the six ways of measuring intelligence and serves as the at-home viewers’ guide through app and online game play. Slow and steady, he’s the one with the task of explaining the results as they arrive in real-time from across the country.
But the real star of Canada’s Smartest Person is the online and smartphone app available for viewers to play along at home. With an easy-to-use interface and plenty of instruction by Douglas, viewers are encouraged to play along in games that are related to–but not always exactly like–the games the show’s finalists are playing. Enter a few extra bits of login information and at-home players can see how they rank against friends and family and other participants across the country. It’s adds a level of fun, addictive game play that honestly at times overshadows the television series.
Canada’s Smartest Person airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on CBC.
Video: Canada’s Smartest Person sneak peek
From CBC:
Canada’s Smartest Person is a new take on smart. Each week, competitors will be tested in a variety of challenges. Here’s who’s competing in the 1st show. In our season finale, eight finalists will return to see who becomes Canada’s Smartest Person! Season premiere Sunday Sept., 28 2014 on CBC.
Link: The “convoluted cuteness” of Canada’s Smartest Person
From John Doyle of the Globe and Mail:
Canada’s Smartest Person is all convoluted cuteness
Cruickshank is the host of Canada’s Smartest Person (CBC, Sunday, 8 p.m.), a show that has CBC very excited. The network is hoping this thing becomes huge. Well, we’ll see. It’s not stupid, this show about smart people, but while it’s fun, its format is overly familiar and unadventurous. Apart from Cruickshank’s right arm. Continue reading.
Link: Canada’s Smartest Person ‘addictive and fun’
From Denette Wilford of Huffington Post Canada:
‘Canada’s Smartest Person’, CBC’s New Brainchild, Wants To Take On The World
On a recent jaunt to the CBC headquarters in Toronto, I got up close and personal with the broadcaster’s new series, “Canada’s Smartest Person.†It was meant to be a screening and showcase of the show’s new app but had I known my intelligence would also be tested, I probably would have boned up for it a little differently and not just played “Candy Crush” on the train ride down. Continue reading.