Episode 102

The second episode of Season 1 of *Canada's Smartest Person*, **The Competition Heats Up**, aired on CBC at 8:00 PM on Sunday, October 5, 2014.

## Contestants

 **JP Doiron** | 30
 **Rhiannon Jones** | 30
 **Chris Tessaro** | 51

## Synopsis

The episode opened with Jessi Cruickshank narrating that a firefighter, a novelist, a stay-at-home mom, and a cheese salesman 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 Alisia Bonnick, JP Doiron, Rhiannon Jones, and Chris Tessaro 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 Music Match would be the corresponding challenge. By the end of the challenge, Alisia got 2 correct answers, JP got 3, Rhiannon got 4, and Chris got 3. The tie between JP and Chris was settled by how quickly they answered. Since Chris answered faster on average than JP did in the challenge, the former finished in 2nd place and the latter finished in 3rd place. Therefore, Rhiannon was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Chris was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, JP was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Alisia was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi stated that the show was going into a commercial break.

Jessi briefly restated how the evening would proceed to the contestants and announced that social intelligence was going to be the second intelligence that the contestants would be tested on before Jeff revealed that Human Lie Detector would be the corresponding challenge. Jessi then presented the guest that would be hooked up to the polygraph machine for the challenge, Raine Maida. She informed Raine that she used to have pictures of him on her high school locker. When she asked him if he was creeped out by that, he told her that he wasn't and that it was actually good for his ego, but the polygraph examiner signalled that that was a lie, much to the amusement of the audience. By the end of the challenge, Alisia got 1 correct answer, JP got 0, Rhiannon got 2, and Chris got 4. Therefore, Chris was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Rhiannon was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Alisia was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and JP was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, after the first two challenges, Rhiannon and Chris had each received a total of 8 overall points and Alisia and JP had each received a total of 3. Jessi commented that, at the current rate, it is still anyone's game before stating that the show was going into another commercial break.

Jessi announced that visual intelligence was going to be the third intelligence that the contestants would be tested on before Jeff revealed that Spaced Out would be the corresponding challenge. Jessi pointed out to Alisia that she seemed excited about the challenge, to which she responded that this was because she did a lot of puzzles as a kid. Jessi also joked to JP that he would likely be good at this challenge due to how well he styled his beard. JP finished both of his shapes first in 58 seconds, Alisia finished both of her shapes second in 1 minute and 10 seconds, and Chris finished both of his shapes third in 1 minute and 26 seconds, forcing Rhiannon to stop her progress on her second shape, though she had finished her first in 42 seconds. Therefore, JP was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Alisia was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Chris was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Rhiannon was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, after the first three challenges, Chris had received a total of 10 overall points, Rhiannon had received a total of 9, JP had received a total of 8, and Alisia had received a total of 6. Directly after, Jessi announced that logical intelligence was going to be the fourth intelligence that the contestants would be tested on before Jeff revealed that Broken Register would be the corresponding challenge. By the end of the challenge, Alisia got 4 correct answers, JP got 4, Rhiannon got 2, and Chris got 3. The tie between Alisia and JP was settled by how quickly they answered. Since Alisia answered faster on average than JP did in the challenge, the former finished in 1st place and the latter finished in 2nd place. Therefore, Alisia was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, JP was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Chris was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Rhiannon was awarded 1 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, after the first four challenges, Chris had received a total of 12 overall points, Alisia and JP had each received a total of 11, and Rhiannon had received a total of 10. Jessi told the contestants that it is still anyone's game because the scores are so close before stating that the show was going into another commercial break.

Jessi noted to the viewers that it was a close match, but that it would all come down to the next challenge, which would test the contestants' physical intelligence and linguistic intelligence simultaneously. Jeff revealed that Pedal Power would be the corresponding challenge. Before the challenge began, Jessi warned the contestants that they really need to finish in 1st or 2nd place in this challenge if they want to move on to the final challenge. By the end of the challenge, Alisia had scored a total of 13 points, JP had scored a total of 9, Rhiannon had scored a total of 7, and Chris had scored a total of 14. As a result, Chris was awarded 10 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Alisia was awarded 6 for finishing in 2nd place, JP was awarded 4 for finishing in 3rd place, and Rhiannon was awarded 2 for finishing in last place. After the challenge, Jessi revealed that, as a final total score for the first five challenges, Chris had received a total of 22 overall points and finished in 1st place, Alisia had received a total of 17 and finished in 2nd place, JP had received a total of 15 and finished in 3rd place, and Rhiannon had received a total of 12 and finished in last place. Since only the top two finishers could advance to the Gauntlet, Jessi congratulated Chris and Alisia on making it to the Gauntlet and prompted applause for JP and Rhiannon 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, Hannah Warren of Ottawa, Ontario, with a score of 579, Matthew De Monye of Winnipeg, Manitoba, with a score of 563, David Hutchison of Brandon, Manitoba, with a score of 557, Erin Grevstad of Toronto, Ontario, with a score of 556, and Taytay of Winnipeg, Manitoba, with a score of 555. Then, Jessi stated that the show was going into one last commercial break.

Jessi revealed that, in relation to two pie charts, Alisia performed best in challenges of logical intelligence (consisting 29% of her pie chart) and Chris performed best in challenges of physical intelligence, linguistic intelligence, and social intelligence (each consisting 23% of his pie chart). Physical intelligence, linguistic intelligence, social intelligence, visual intelligence, and musical intelligence, based on the related challenges, consist 18%, 18%, 12%, 18%, and 6% of Alisia's pie chart, respectively, and logical intelligence, visual intelligence, and musical intelligence, based on the related challenges, consist 9%, 9%, and 14% of Chris' 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. Alisia and Chris were neck and neck for a good portion of the challenge, but when Alisia struggled at the physical section, it allowed for Chris to get past her and easily complete the linguistic section. Ultimately, Alisia stopped at the logical section as Chris 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 3, Chris answered faster on average than JP did in the challenge. Therefore, Chris and JP placed 2nd and 3rd, respectively, for this challenge.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Despite sharing a total score of 4, Alisia answered faster on average than JP did in the challenge. Therefore, Alisia and JP placed 1st and 2nd, respectively, for this challenge.

## State of the Nation

In terms of gender, men performed better than women overall with average percentage scores of 65% and 63%, respectively. More specifically, women performed better than men in linguistic, visual, and social challenges with average respective percentage scores of 75% and 77%, 73% and 76%, and 48% and 49%, respectively. However, men performed better than women in physical, musical, and logical challenges with average respective percentage scores of 99% and 98%, 47% and 40%, and 47% and 39%, respectively.

In terms of age, the demographic of individuals aged 18-49 performed the best with an average percentage score of 56%, the demographic of individuals aged 17 and under performed the second-best with an average percentage score of 51%, and the demographic of individuals aged 50 and over performed the worst with an average percentage score of 46%.

## 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.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/episode-2-recap-canadas-smartest-person-ups-the-ante
2. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/m\_episodes/canadas-smartest-person-episode-2
3. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2544177167
4. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/canadas-top-performers-from-episode-2