Episode 303

The third episode of Season 3 of *Canada's Smartest Person* aired on CBC at 8:00 PM on Sunday, November 27, 2016.

## Synopsis

The episode opened with a narration stating that six Canadians are ready to battle to become *Canada's Smartest Person*. In order to present the six contestants that would be competing in this episode, a clip of Maria Samson, Vanessa Vakharia, Ryan Coelho, Rebecca Bromwich, Gwyneth Foster, and Frankie Cena introducing themselves in that order was shown as they entered the stage. Jessi Cruickshank greeted the contestants and warned them that eliminations would be taking place all throughout an episode this season. Jessi announced that contestants would be competing in a universal challenge, the Speed Round, as their first challenge and that the bottom two finishers would be eliminated. The Speed Round tested, in order, the contestants' visual intelligence, musical intelligence, social intelligence, physical intelligence, logical intelligence, and linguistic intelligence. After the challenge was over, but before she revealed the results, Jessi introduced CSP SmartPlay as found on the show's Facebook page before stating that the show was going into a commercial break.

Jessi revealed that, in the Speed Round, Maria finished in 1st place with an overall percentage score of 72%, Ryan finished in 2nd place with an overall percentage score of 57%, Frankie finished in 3rd place with an overall percentage score of 54%, and Vanessa finished in 4th place with an overall percentage score of 51%, leaving Rebecca and Gwyneth as the bottom two finishers with both having received overall percentage scores between 45% and 50%. Therefore, Maria was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Ryan was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Frankie was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, Vanessa was awarded 1 for finishing in 4th place, and Gwyneth and Rebecca were eliminated from the competition for being the bottom two finishers. Jessi prompted applause for Gwyneth and Rebecca in spite of their shared elimination. Following this, a more elaborate clip presenting Vanessa, Frankie, Ryan, and Maria in that order was shown. Jessi then introduced the Randomizer, which would randomly select the intelligence categories for the next three challenges, to the contestants. The Randomizer selected logical intelligence for the second challenge with Broken Register being the corresponding challenge. By the end of the challenge, Frankie got 4 correct answers, Ryan got 1, Maria got 4, and Vanessa got 2. The tie between Frankie and Maria was settled by how quickly they answered. Since Frankie answered faster on average than Maria did in the challenge, the former finished in 1st place and the latter finished in 2nd place. Therefore, Frankie was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Maria was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Vanessa was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Ryan was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, after the first two challenges, Maria had received a total of 8 overall points, Frankie had received a total of 7, Ryan had received a total of 4, and Vanessa had received a total of 3. Jessi commented that the contestants would soon have to sink or swim before stating that the show was going into another commercial break.

The Randomizer selected visual intelligence for the third challenge with Colour Blender being the corresponding challenge. By the end of the challenge, Frankie got 2 correct answers, Ryan got 2, Maria got 4, and Vanessa got 3. The tie between Frankie and Ryan was settled by how quickly they answered. Since Frankie answered faster on average than Ryan did in the challenge, the former finished in 3rd place and the latter finished in last place. Therefore, Maria was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Vanessa was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Frankie was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Ryan was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, after the first three challenges, Maria had received a total of 13 overall points, Frankie had received a total of 9, Vanessa had received a total of 6, and Ryan had received a total of 5. Since the contestant who was currently in 4th place would not be advancing to the fourth challenge, Ryan was eliminated from the competition. Jessi prompted applause for Ryan in spite of his elimination and congratulated the remaining three contestants for their progress before stating that the show was going into another commercial break.

The Randomizer selected linguistic intelligence and social intelligence for the fourth challenge with Screen Test being the corresponding challenge. Given that this would be a hybrid challenge, Jessi announced that it would be worth double the points. Jessi then introduced Ivan Reitman, stating that he would serve as a guest judge in the challenge. Jessi asked Ivan if, given his experience, he ever had to pitch a film in 45 seconds, to which he responded that he hadn't but that the pitch for *Ghostbusters* was four to five minutes long, which is considered really fast. By the end of the challenge, Ivan ranked Frankie in 1st place, Vanessa in 2nd place, and Maria in last place. Therefore, Frankie was awarded 10 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Vanessa was awarded 6 for finishing in 2nd place, and Maria was awarded 2 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, as a final total score for the first four challenges, Frankie had received a total of 19 overall points and finished in 1st place, Maria had received a total of 15 and finished in 2nd place, and Vanessa had received a total of 12 and finished in 3rd place. Since only the top two finishers could advance to the Gauntlet, Jessi congratulated Frankie and Maria on making it to the Gauntlet and prompted applause for Vanessa in spite of her elimination. Then, Jessi told Frankie and Maria that she hopes that they like horror films since a monster of a challenge would be waiting for them before stating 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' physical intelligence, logical intelligence, visual intelligence, musical intelligence, and linguistic intelligence. Jessi told the contestants to take to their starting positions and wished them both luck before the challenge began. Maria maintained a slight lead over Frankie over the first three sections, but the two were neck and neck throughout most of the musical section. However, Frankie hit a road block and struggled to get past the final gate, which allowed for Maria to overtake him and eventually complete the linguistic section. Ultimately, Frankie stopped at the musical section as Maria hit the buzzer, which signalled her victory and her spot in the season finale. Jessi reminded the viewers that they should keep trying out challenges using CSP SmartPlay as found on the show's Facebook page. The show closed with Frankie, Maria, 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.

## Current Placements

### Notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 The placements of the contestants eliminated directly after their respective preliminary episodes' Speed Rounds are determined by how far below their overall percentage scores were from the corresponding average overall percentage score:
In Episode 301, the average overall percentage score was 59.17% and the overall percentage scores of Vincent and Rup were both 49%, resulting in differences of 10.17% for both contestants. Despite this shared difference, it is presumed that Vincent answered faster on average than Rup did based on their eventual call out order. Therefore, Vincent placed higher than Rup.
In Episode 302, the average overall percentage score was 66.17% and the respective overall percentage scores of Christine and CJ were 45% and 59%, resulting in respective differences of 21.17% and 7.17%.
In Episode 303, the overall percentage scores of Rebecca and Gwyneth were unintentionally cut from the episode, but it can be deduced that each was between 45% and 50%. Therefore, the overall percentage scores of Rebecca and Gwyneth are both treated as 47.5% for these calculations and, in turn, the assumed average overall percentage score in Episode 303 was 54.83%, resulting in assumed differences of 7.33% for both contestants. Additionally, in reality, it is presumed either that Gwyneth received a higher overall percentage score than Rebecca did or that they received equal overall percentage scores but Gwyneth answered faster on average than Rebecca did based on their eventual call out order. Therefore, Gwyneth placed higher than Rebecca.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Despite sharing a total score of 5 and an equal number of 1st place finishes in challenges, Ryan placed 2nd in one challenge and Steve and Chris did not place 2nd in any. Therefore, Ryan placed higher than Steve and Chris. Between Steve and Chris, despite also sharing an equal number of 2nd and 3rd place finishes in challenges, Steve had an average placement of 3.7 throughout his preliminary episode while Chris had an average placement of 4 throughout his. Therefore, Steve placed higher than Chris.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/canadas-smartest-person-reveals-30-new-competitors-for-season-3