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FORMAT

The premise was to take the eight worst drivers (nominated by friends, family, or co-workers) off Canadian streets and put them through an eight-week driving school from the ''Driver Rehabilitation Centre'', a decommissioned air force base/airport near Picton, Ontario . Each of the drivers brought with them the person who nominated them for the show, and had their car keys confiscated upon arrival at the centre. Over the next 6 weeks, a panel of experts selected one driver believed to have shown the most improvement, and returned their keys, allowing them to go home. In a twist different from other reality programming, the experts had the option to choose not to select anyone to be the most improved. The eliminations would continue until three remained, and, after a final set of challenges, the experts selected ''Canada's Worst Driver'' from the remaining three.

The first season was filmed in winter and focused on winter driving conditions, while the second season will be filmed in spring/summer of 2006, and will focus more on summer driving hazards.


PARTICIPANTS



Experts

It was the job of the experts to evaluate the drivers, help give instruction and counselling, and ultimately judge how well the drivers did or did not improve. The experts consisted of the following individuals:

  • Kelly Williams was a Canadian CASCAR driver and the only female to win a race in that series. She has also been the spokesperson for "Be Car Care Aware", an auto safety organization.

  • Jim Kenzie was an automotive journalist, reviewing vehicles for the Toronto Star. He also has a segment on TSN 's Motoring 2005 program. He wrote the textbook used for advanced driver training used by the Toronto Police Department and other advanced training classes, and is widely recognized as a vehicle expert.

  • Scott Marshall was the Director of Training for Young Drivers of Canada. His job was to train the instructors who train drivers.

  • Dr. Uzma Rehman was a behavioural psychologist and a member of the Faculty at Queen's University .



Contestants

Each of the eight drivers had his or her own reason for being there - not all were generically incompetent drivers. Below describes each of the drivers in the first series and what brought them to the program:

  • Madalena Phillips, 21 and licensed for 5 years, had been in well over 30 accidents as well as innumerable incidents she called "bumps" when there were no witnesses, largely due to a complete lack of concern about anything except shopping, partying, and fashion. She was by and large an incompetent driver by choice, and considered it part of her lifestyle. Madalena was nominated by her friend Jennifer.

  • Bob Coad, 36 and licensed for 20 years, was an otherwise excellent driver, except for a tendency towards Road Rage and a little freeway game he called ''bumper tag''. This involved passing cars that he was annoyed at and suddenly slamming on his brakes in front of them, forcing them to panic brake to avoid a collision. Bob was nominated by his friend Rob.

  • Chris Ferguson, 31 and licensed for 13 years, was totally inexperienced behind the wheel, having driven only five times since getting his licence 13 years ago. He was insecure, and very slow while driving, creating a hazard on the road. Chris was nominated by his wife Michelle.

  • David Chau, 24 and licensed for 5 years, attributed his driving problems to being "unlucky" and refused to take responsibility for his incompetence on the road. His driving errors during the program often completely destroyed the cars used for the show. He would listen to, and then blame, his passengers for bad driving advice. David was nominated by his friend George.

  • Faith Ann Stone, 30 and licensed for 14 years, had been in 37 reported accidents. She was reckless and drove far too fast, in spite of having been laid-up for 6 months by a collision 2 years previously. She was nominated by 4 different people to be on the show. Her issues largely arose from lack of proper driving instruction and her cavalier attitude towards driving. Faith Ann was nominated by her friend Joanne.

  • Heather Reynolds, 59 and licensed 30 years, had written off 10 cars in 20 years. During the series it was discovered that most of her troubles were caused by not having a proper prescription for her glasses. Like Chris, she was not reckless, but dangerously slow due to lack of confidence in her driving. Heather was nominated by her husband, Ernie.

  • Manuel Tejeda, 36 and licensed for 6 years, had difficulties with overthinking everything he did while driving until it was too late. He also had a problem with his temper causing him to lose control when he failed during driving lessons. Manuel was nominated by his co-worker Alex.

  • Tatiana Rheaume, 42 and 22 years licensed, was involved in a serious car accident that turned a competent driver into a paranoid wreck behind the wheel. She drove hazardously slow on freeways and refused to make left turns, which were involved in her car accident, often dangerously bunching up traffic and driving in the wrong lane. Tatiana was nominated by her mother-in-law Beth.



Crew

The company in charge of production was Toronto-based Proper Television which also produced '' Canada's Worst Handyman '', '' Building The Biggest '', and '' The Strangest UFO Stories Of All Time ''.

The series was hosted and co-written by Andrew Younghusband , who has made occasional appearances in other Canadian television fare, such as '' Halifax Comedy Festival '', '' Random Passage '' and '' Black Harbour ''.

Guy O'Sullivan, owner of Proper Television, was the executive producer and also directed and co-wrote the episodes. Andrew Kaufman shared producer duties with O'Sullivan, and was a third co-writer. Other crew included editors Anna Bigos, Chris Crosby, and Marc Dupont, and production managers Rob Esposito and Mike Stewart.


BONUS EPISODE

A ''"bonus"'' episode called Canada's Worst Drivers vs. The World, in which the worst of team Canada 'competed' through video clips against the 'world team' that consisted of the worst drivers from the U.K. , Australia , Sweden , Switzerland , Denmark , Belgium , and the Netherlands , each of which aired versions of the show. Canada scored 4 against World team's 10. However, when the listing was divided based on the individual countries, Canada tied with the U.K. for earning the most "worst" categories.


SERIES RUN

The first season of the series ran in the autumn of 2005 and finished airing on December 12 , 2005 . Since then, the entire series has occasionally re-run on Discovery Channel Canada. Due to the success of the first series, a second series of ''Canada's Worst Driver'' is being cast. Production is scheduled to start in May of 2006. The show's homepage has more information about the filming of the next series.


REFERENCES