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Canada's Smartest Person, Featured

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.

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Featured

CBC’s new app decides Canada’s Smartest Person

I am not Canada’s Smartest Person. Heck, I’m not even the smartest in the room. That’s what I gleaned from CBC’s special sneak peek at the app to be used by viewers during the network’s upcoming fall game show.

On Tuesday, journalists were invited down to CBC’s headquarters to test their skills in three of the areas of intelligence that will be the showcase of the series. While the 32 finalists who made the cut to be part of the TV show battle it out on-screen and in front of host Jessi Cruickshank, viewers at home can participate via Android and iOS app, or the show’s website. Available for download on Monday, Sept. 22–a week before the series return–the app tests Canadians’ skills in the arenas of Math & Logic Intelligence, Visual & Spatial Intelligence, Body & Kinesthetic Intelligence, Linguistics Intelligence, Musical Intelligence and Interpersonal Intelligence.

Cruikshank, series creator Robert Cohen and Paul Mcgrath, executive producer of interactive for CBC, guided critics through three of the six tests; I walked out of there pretty humbled. The first, which tasked those in the room kitted out with iPads to make as many words consisting of at least three letters out of the source word “protein”, netted me a horrible 17 out of 100. I was under the room average of 28/100. Yes, I write for a living. I fared better in the next challenge testing logic, nabbing an 89/100 (against 58/100 as the room average) for being able to place a bunch of animated pipe in order to allow water to flow through them. And despite listening to people’s answers for a living, I fell short (39/100) when it came to differentiating which musical instruments were slowly being removed from a piece of music, though the room was even worse (35/100).

Cohen says that–once Canada’s Smartest Person airs and data through the website and apps starts to roll in–those participating will be able to see how they rank against friends and family. But it doesn’t stop there; data will be gathered so you can see how you fared against members of the opposite sex or those on the opposite side of the country. There will be daily challenges available outside of the broadcasts for those who just can’t get enough of testing themselves and others.

Or, in my case, establishing just how much I am not Canada’s Smartest Person.

Canada’s Smartest Person returns Sunday, Sept. 28, at 8 p.m. (8:30 p.m. in Newfoundland) on CBC. The app is available for download on Android and iOS devices on Monday, Sept. 22.

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CBC reveals Canada’s Smartest Person participants

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GemCBC

From a media release:

-From doctors to teachers, an electrician to a fighter pilot, CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON will show the nation a new way to look at ‘smart’-

-Tune-in to the special two-hour season premiere on Sunday, Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. (8:30 NT)-

CBC’s new competition series CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON has narrowed down the field to 32 remarkable Canadians who will put themselves to the test, squaring off every episode for their chance to take home the title of “Canada’s Smartest Person.” Each week, Jessi Cruickshank, along with co-host Jeff Douglas, will guide viewers through the hour-long competition series, which explores how Canadians are smart, based on the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. In each episode four competitors go head-to-head in a series of entertaining and revealing challenges that test six areas of intelligence: linguistic, physical, musical, visual, social and logical, with one winner advancing to the championship finale. Then, in the climactic season finale, the eight weekly finalists will battle it out to claim the title of CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON. Audiences can join the fun and take on every challenge from home by downloading the CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON app or playing along online at cbc.ca/smarterstperson.

Hailing from the east to the west coast and everywhere in between, this diverse group of Canadians range from 16 to 71 years old and includes an artist, scientist, fire fighter and musician to name a few, each demonstrating that intelligence is about much more than IQ.

Introducing the competitors who will compete for the chance to become CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON:

· Yahaya Baruwa, 26, author and entrepreneur from Toronto, ON

· Alisia Bonnick, 20, novelist and psychology student from Stouffville,ON

· Max Cameron, 31, fighter pilot from Calgary, AB

· Brian Charbonneau, 33, drag artist and screenwriter from Sainte-Geneviève, QC

· Alea Ciecko, 23, psychiatric nursing student from Winnipeg, MB

· Mith Das, 29, copywriter from Toronto, ON

· Daryl Dillman, 24, orthopedic surgery resident from Cole Harbour, N.S.

· JP Doiron, 30, cheese salesman from North Rustico, P.E.I.

· Brent Hayden, 30, Olympian, private swim coach, and photographer from Vancouver, B.C

· Dipna Horra, 39, audio-visual artist from Ottawa, ON

· Jennifer Hurd, 21, doctorate student from Ottawa, ON

· Cat Jahnke, 33, musician from Winnipeg, MB

· Rhiannon Jones, 30, stay-at-home mom from Chilliwack, B.C.

· Kaveh Kavoosi, 27, doctor from Aurora, ON

· Roselyn Kelada-Sedra, 30, actor and law student from Toronto, ON

· Kate LaFrance, 28, middle school teacher from Fredericton, N.B.

· Braden Lauer, 22, law student from Vancouver, B.C.

· Victoria Leenders-Cheng, 33, magazine editor from Montreal, QC

· Kiel Lemmen, 31, high school teacher from Port Coquitlam, B.C.

· Johnny MacRae, 27, poet from North Vancouver, B.C.

· Melanie Martin, 40, physicist and associate professor of physics and, radiology from Winnipeg, MB

· George Millar, 71, teacher from Edmonton, AB

· Nader Nadernejad, 16, high school student from Peterborough, ON

· Nick Nickerson, 49, retired naval communicator and cryptographer from Merrickville,ON

· Norm Odjick, 42, Algonquin Nation tribal council director general from Anishinabeg, QC

· Lisa Preston, 39, radio host from Mississauga, ON

· Mary Rose, 39, Ayurvedic cleaner from Victoria, B.C.

· Chris Sensenig, 37, master electrician from Welland, ON

· Tova Sherman, 52, CEO from Bedford, N.S.

· Ellen Snider, 48, executive director from Quispamsis, N.B.

· Albert Tam, 25, MBA candidate and arts administrator from Woodbridge, ON

· Chris Tessaro, 51, firefighter and poker player from Mississauga, ON

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Featured, Industry News

CBC hits TIFF in grand style

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Kudos to the folks over at the CBC for taking a crucial first step in the network’s reinvention by using the Toronto International Film Festival as a backdrop to let folks know about the upcoming television season and the brand overall.

Canada’s public broadcaster staked out the corner of King St. West and Blue Jays Way this past weekend, turning what used to be a condominium sales office into a welcome centre called Canada House stocked with snacks, virgin Caesars, phone recharging stations and cardboard fans emblazoned with the iconic network logo and the Twitter message “#FallForCBC.” The stars of CBC’s radio and TV shows rolled through as well, meeting fans, posing for pictures and promoting their projects all weekend long.

The network even had a cool little set-up where those featured folks held press conferences in front of groups of about 50 or so fans at a time. I sat in on the panel for Canada’s Smartest Person, and hosts Jessi Cruickshank and Jeff Douglas described how the interactive program will not only showcase the linguistic, physical, musical, visual, social and logical skills of selected finalists from across the country, but an app will challenge viewers at home.

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I also got the chance to interview Dragons’ Den David Chilton and newest panelist Michael Wekerle for an online bit for TV-Eh (I’ll post that when it’s all been edited) and the pair swear the show’s upcoming Season 9 is deserving of your investment of time. Also appearing over the weekend were the stars of Mr. D, Murdoch Mysteries‘ Jonny Harris, Adam Beach, the folks behind The Book of Negroes–which has been adapted into a miniseries—and that Mamma Yamma thing.

The CBC knows it has some catching up to do with regard to connecting with newer and younger viewers. No longer able to sit back and allow NHL hockey to draw in numbers, they’re experimenting with content very unlike CBC. Dark western drama Strange Empire has got great buzz (the rough poster I was shown has a Deadwood feel), co-production sci-fi offering Ascension is definitely not typical CBC fare and historical drama Camp X promises to be thrilling.

Sure the network acknowledges this is somewhat of a rebuilding year, but there was a palpable optimism on Saturday that they are moving in the right direction with content and, even more importantly, connecting with an audience.

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