Episode 103

The third episode of Season 1 of *Canada's Smartest Person*, **Bouncing to the Final**, aired on CBC at 8:00 PM on Sunday, October 12, 2014.

## Contestants

 **Melanie Martin** | 40
 **Norm Odjick** | 42
 **Lisa Preston** | 39

## Synopsis

The episode opened with Jessi Cruickshank narrating that an adman, a radio host, a tribal council performer, and a physicist would battle it out for a spot in the season finale of *Canada's Smartest Person*. After the intro, Jessi introduced herself and stated the theme and purpose of the show before listing the six intelligences, Visual, Linguistic, Physical, Social, Musical, and Logical. She then introduced her co-host, Jeff Douglas, who went on to introduce the Canada's Smartest Person app and explain how viewers could use it to participate in the episode's challenges in synchronization with the contestants. In order to present the four contestants that would be competing in this episode, a clip of Melanie Martin, Mith Das, Lisa Preston, and Norm Odjick introducing themselves in that order was shown. Jessi personally introduced the contestants to the viewers and summoned them to the stage before explaining to them how the evening would proceed. Jessi announced that musical intelligence was going to be the first intelligence that the contestants would be tested on before Jeff revealed that Lost Instrument would be the corresponding challenge. By the end of the challenge, Mith earned 1 point, Melanie earned 1, Norm earned 0, and Lisa earned 2. The tie between Mith and Melanie was settled by how many missing instruments they correctly identified regardless of their drop out positions. Since Mith correctly identified all 4 of the missing instruments and Melanie correctly identified 3, the former finished in 2nd place and the latter finished in 3rd place. Therefore, Lisa was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Mith was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Melanie was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Norm was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi stated that the show was going into a commercial break.

Jessi reminded trailing contestants that the night was young and that there are more opportunities to catch up and announced that social intelligence was going to be the second intelligence that the contestants would be tested on before Jeff revealed that Motivate would be the corresponding challenge. Jessi then introduced John Herdman, stating that he would serve as a guest judge in the challenge. Each contestant had to deliver a 30-second half-time speech, via the role of a coach, to a soccer team in order to boost their sunken morale for the rest of their game. By the end of the challenge, John ranked Mith in 1st place, Lisa in 2nd place, Norm in 3rd place, and Melanie in last place. Therefore, Mith was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Lisa was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Norm was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Melanie was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, after the first two challenges, Mith and Lisa had each received a total of 8 overall points and Melanie and Norm had each received a total of 3. Jessi commented that there are still more chances for trailing contestants to balance the scores since the show is designed to test multiple intelligences. She and Jeff reminded the viewers to download the Canada's Smartest Person app if they haven't done so already before stating that the show was going into another commercial break.

Jessi reminded the viewers that the show doesn't categorize one's intelligence based solely on their knowledge of facts and figures and demonstrated this by stating that a high school dropout is neck and neck with an adman. She then announced that logical intelligence was going to be the third intelligence that the contestants would be tested on before Jeff revealed that Pipe Fitter would be the corresponding challenge. Mith filled his glass first in 1 minute and 3 seconds, Lisa filled her glass second in 1 minute and 33 seconds, and Norm filled his glass third in 2 minutes and 2 seconds, forcing Melanie to stop her progress. Therefore, Mith was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Lisa was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Norm was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Melanie was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, after the first three challenges, Mith had received a total of 13 overall points, Lisa had received a total of 11, Norm had received a total of 5, and Melanie had received a total of 4. Jessi commented that Melanie and Norm really need to pick up the pace if they would like to qualify for the Gauntlet. Directly after, Jessi announced that linguistic intelligence was going to be the fourth intelligence that the contestants would be tested on before Jeff revealed that Scrambled would be the corresponding challenge. By the end of the challenge, Mith got 29 acceptable words, Melanie got 19, Norm got 16, and Lisa got 17. Therefore, Mith was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Melanie was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Lisa was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Norm was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, after the first four challenges, Mith had received a total of 18 overall points, Lisa had received a total of 13, Melanie had received a total of 7, and Norm had received a total of 6. Jessi confirmed to Mith that he is mathematically qualified to compete in the Gauntlet and congratulated him for achieving this early on before stating that the show was going into another commercial break.

Jessi announced that the next challenge would test the contestants' physical intelligence and visual intelligence simultaneously. Jeff revealed that Bouncer would be the corresponding challenge. Before the challenge began, Jessi told Mith that, even though he has guaranteed himself a spot in the Gauntlet, his performance in this challenge would still affect the rankings and reminded the other three contestants that they are battling for the final spot. By the end of the challenge, Mith had scored 15 points, Melanie had scored 1, Norm had scored a total of 2, and Lisa had scored a total of 5. As a result, Mith was awarded 10 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Lisa was awarded 6 for finishing in 2nd place, Norm was awarded 4 for finishing in 3rd place, and Melanie was awarded 2 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, as a final total score for the first five challenges, Mith had received a total of 28 overall points and finished in 1st place, Lisa had received a total of 19 and finished in 2nd place, Norm had received a total of 10 and finished in 3rd place, and Melanie had received a total of 9 and finished in last place. Since only the top two finishers could advance to the Gauntlet, Jessi congratulated Mith and Lisa on making it to the Gauntlet and prompted applause for Norm and Melanie in spite of their shared elimination. Jeff then revealed that, on a score out of 600, the best performers of the night were, in order, Ryan Gentile of Kamloops, British Columbia, with a score of 418, Nilyk of Surrey, British Columbia, with a score of 287, Aaron Boyd of North Vancouver, British Columbia, with a score of 281, Steve Ellam of Langley Township, British Columbia, with a score of 273, and Stephanie Hood of Medicine Hat, Alberta, with a score of 273. Then, Jessi stated that the show was going into one last commercial break.

Jessi revealed that, in relation to two pie charts, Mith performed best in challenges of physical intelligence, linguistic intelligence, logical intelligence, social intelligence, and visual intelligence (each consisting 18% of his pie chart) and Lisa performed best in challenges of musical intelligence (consisting 26% of her pie chart). Musical intelligence, based on the related challenges, consists 11% of Mith's pie chart and physical intelligence, linguistic intelligence, logical intelligence, social intelligence, and visual intelligence, based on the related challenges, consist 16%, 11%, 16%, 16%, and 16% of Lisa's pie chart, respectively. The final challenge, the Gauntlet, consisted of five sections that would test, in order, the contestants' visual intelligence, musical intelligence, logical intelligence, physical intelligence, and linguistic intelligence. Jessi told the contestants to take to their starting positions and wished them both luck before the challenge began. Mith gained the early lead on Lisa and held it throughout the challenge. He surpassed Lisa further and further as she struggled at the musical section. Ultimately, Lisa stopped at the musical section as Mith 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 1, Mith correctly identified more of the missing instruments than Melanie did in the challenge. Therefore, Mith and Melanie placed 2nd and 3rd, respectively, for this challenge.

## State of the Nation

The top overall performing Canadian cities, by percentage score, were Caledon, Ontario, with 84%, Comox, British Columbia, with 76%, and Bradford, Ontario, with 76%.

As for the public, the top performers, on a score out of 600, were Ryan Millar of Langley, British Columbia, with a score of 508, Sabrina Van De Kerckhove of Swan Lake, Manitoba, with a score of 505, Melissa DeGasperis of Caledon, Ontario, with a score of 503, Troy Burge of Chilliwack, British Columbia, with a score of 498, Aaron Boyd of North Vancouver, British Columbia, with a score of 485, Anastasia\_ of Whitby, Ontario, with a score of 483, Ivana R of Ottawa, Ontario, with a score of 480, Pasticho of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with a score of 479, Vandekma56 of Swan Lake, Manitoba, with a score of 476, and Sophie She of Edmonton, Alberta, with a score of 471.

In terms of gender, men performed better than women overall with average percentage scores of 40% and 35%, respectively. More specifically, women performed better than men in linguistic challenges with average percentage scores of 27% and 25%, respectively. However, men performed better than women in physical, musical, visual, and logical challenges with average respective percentage scores of 40% and 30%, 33% and 32%, 40% and 30&, and 45% and 37%, respectively. Further, men and women had equal performances in social challenges with a shared average percentage score of 54%.

## Current Placements

### Notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Despite sharing a total score of 14, Tova placed 1st in one challenge and Kiel did not place 1st in any. Therefore, Tova placed higher than Kiel.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Despite sharing a total score of 19, Roselyn placed 1st in two challenges and Lisa placed 1st in one. Therefore, Roselyn placed higher than Lisa.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/episode-3-recap-the-man-the-mith-the-legend
2. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/m\_episodes/canadas-smartest-person-episode-3
3. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2553849234
4. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/state-of-the-nation-episode-3