Episode 201

The premiere episode of Season 2 of *Canada's Smartest Person*, **Bigger, Better, Smarter**, aired on CBC at 8:00 PM on Sunday, October 4, 2015.

## Contestants

 **Anthony Craparotta** | 32
 **Jessica Joy** | 32
 **Richard Pinnock** | 56

## Synopsis

The episode opened with a narration about what the contestants should expect to experience on their journey to becoming Canada's Smartest Person and what they need to do in order to accomplish this. Also, the six intelligences, Musical, Physical, Social, Visual, Linguistic, and Logical, were listed. In order to present the four contestants that would be competing in this episode, a clip of Maya Burhanpurkar, Richard Pinnock, Anthony Craparotta, and Jessica Joy introducing themselves in that order was shown. Jessi Cruickshank then introduced the Canada's Smartest Person app and announced that musical intelligence was going to be the first intelligence that the contestants would be tested on with Beat It being the corresponding challenge. By the end of the challenge, Maya got 4 correct answers, Anthony got 4, Jessica got 2, and Richard got 3. The tie between Maya and Anthony was settled by how quickly they answered. Since Maya answered faster on average than Anthony did in the challenge, the former finished in 1st place and the latter finished in 2nd place. Therefore, Maya was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Anthony was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Richard was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Jessica was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi stated that the show was going into a commercial break.

Jessi announced that visual intelligence was going to be the second intelligence that the contestants would be tested on with Crosswalk being the corresponding challenge. By the end of the challenge, Maya got 3 correct answers, Anthony got 2, Jessica got 2, and Richard got 2. The tie between Anthony, Jessica, and Richard was settled by how quickly they answered. Since Anthony answered faster on average than the other two did and Jessica answered faster on average than Richard did in the challenge, Anthony finished in 2nd place, Jessica finished in 3rd place, and Richard finished in last place. Therefore, Maya was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Anthony was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Jessica was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Richard was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, after the first two challenges, Maya had received a total of 10 overall points, Anthony had received a total of 6, and Jessica and Richard had each received a total of 3. Jessi commented that Maya and Anthony were right up there before stating that the show was going into another commercial break.

Jessi announced that social intelligence was going to be the third intelligence that the contestants would be tested on with Human Lie Detector being the corresponding challenge. Jessi then presented the guest that would be hooked up to the polygraph machine for the challenge, Amber Marshall. Jessi asked Amber if humans or horses were easier to work with when working on *Heartland*, to which she responded that horses were. By the end of the challenge, Maya got 2 correct answers, Anthony got 0, Jessica got 1, and Richard got 3. Therefore, Richard was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Maya was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Jessica was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Anthony was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, after the first three challenges, Maya had received a total of 13 overall points, Richard had received a total of 8, Anthony had received a total of 7, and Jessica had received a total of 5. Directly after, Jessi announced that linguistic intelligence was going to be the fourth intelligence that the contestants would be tested on with Letter Chaos being the corresponding challenge. By the end of the challenge, Maya got 2 points, Anthony got 3, Jessica got 4, and Richard got 0. Therefore, Jessica was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Anthony was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Maya was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Richard was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, after the first four challenges, Maya had received a total of 15 overall points, Anthony and Jessica had each received a total of 10, and Richard had received a total of 9. Jessi commented that this was a close race before stating that the show was going into another commercial break.

Jessi reminded everyone that it was a close match and announced that the next challenge would be worth double the points because it would test the last two remaining intelligences, physical intelligence and logical intelligence, simultaneously with Balls of Fury being the corresponding challenge. Anthony finished the challenge in 1 minute and 16 seconds, Jessica finished the challenge in 1 minute and 20 seconds, and Maya finished the challenge in 1 minute and 26 seconds, forcing Richard to stop without completing the challenge upon his turn because he was unable to correctly complete it by the 1-minute-and-26-second mark. Therefore, Anthony was awarded 10 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Jessica was awarded 6 for finishing in 2nd place, Maya was awarded 4 for finishing in 3rd place, and Richard was awarded 2 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, as a final total score for the first five challenges, Anthony had received a total of 20 overall points and finished in 1st place, Maya had received a total of 19 and finished in 2nd place, Jessica had received a total of 16 and finished in 3rd place, and Richard had received a total of 11 and finished in last place. Since only the top two finishers could advance to the Gauntlet, Jessi congratulated Anthony and Maya on making it to the Gauntlet and prompted applause for Jessica and Richard in spite of their shared elimination. It was then revealed that, on a score out of 600, the best performers of the night were, in order, Catherine Vogelaar of Edmonton, Alberta, with a score of 553, Mark Rogers of Ottawa, Ontario, with a score of 538, Jessica Larrea of Pickering, Ontario, with a score of 532, Alex Manea of Waterloo, Ontario, with a score of 505, Klara Lindquist of Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia, with a score of 483, Keith Jones of Barrie, Ontario, with a score of 463, Karen Charbonneau of Beauharnois, Quebec, with a score of 457, Grace Silver of St. Albert, Alberta, with a score of 455, Braden Lauer of Vancouver, British Columbia, with a score of 454, and Trevor Holness of Oakville, Ontario, with a score of 434. Then, Jessi stated that the show was going into one last commercial break.

The final challenge, the Gauntlet, consisted of five sections that would test, in order, the contestants' linguistic intelligence, visual intelligence, musical intelligence, physical intelligence, and logical intelligence. Jessi told the contestants to take to their starting positions and wished them both luck before the challenge began. Anthony gained the early lead on Maya as the former completed the first three sections at a decent speed and arrived at the physical section just as the latter finished unscrambling her final word at the linguistic section. However, Maya managed to catch up to Anthony due to both her speed in completing the subsequent two sections and Anthony having a couple of mishaps at the physical section. Right after this though, Anthony finally completed the physical section and proceeded to the logical section, which he completed with ease. Ultimately, Maya stopped at the physical section as Anthony hit the buzzer, which signalled his victory and his spot in the season finale. Jessi reminded the viewers that they should keep trying out challenges on the Canada's Smartest Person app and that they could share their results on Facebook and Twitter. The show closed with the four contestants and Jessi celebrating onstage.

## Episode Progress

  WON  This contestant won the final challenge and advanced to the finale.
  LOST  This contestant lost the final challenge and was eliminated from the competition.
  ELIMINATED  This contestant was already eliminated from the competition.
     This contestant qualified for the final challenge due to a sufficient total score.
     This contestant was eliminated from the competition due to an insufficient total score.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on linguistic intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on physical intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on musical intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on visual intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on social intelligence.
     Denotes a challenge that is based on logical intelligence.
### Notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Despite sharing a total score of 4, Maya answered faster on average than Anthony did in the challenge. Therefore, Maya and Anthony placed 1st and 2nd, respectively, for this challenge.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Despite sharing a total score of 2, Anthony answered faster on average than both Jessica and Richard did and Jessica answered faster on average than Richard did in the challenge. Therefore, Anthony, Jessica, and Richard placed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, respectively, for this challenge.

## State of the Nation

In relation to a pie chart, the public performed best in challenges of physical intelligence (consisting 31% of the pie chart). Musical intelligence, visual intelligence, social intelligence, logical intelligence, and linguistic intelligence, based on the related challenges, consist 19%, 11%, 19%, 8%, and 12% of the pie chart, respectively.

The top overall performing Canadian cities, by percentage score, were Tignish, Prince Edward Island, with 65%, Pickering, Ontario, with 64%, and Lethbridge, Alberta, with 56%.

As for the public, the top performers, on a score out of 600, were Catherine Vogelaar of Edmonton, Alberta, with a score of 553, Mark Rogers of Ottawa, Ontario, with a score of 538, Jessica Larrea of Pickering, Ontario, with a score of 532, Alex Manea of Waterloo, Ontario, with a score of 505, and Klara Lindquist of Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia, with a score of 483.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/canadas-smartest-person-is-back-and-better-than-ever
2. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2676601999
3. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/state-of-the-nation-episode-1