Canada's Worst Driver 3
Canada's Worst Driver 3 | |
---|---|
Season 3 | |
No. of episodes | 8 |
Release | |
Original network | Discovery Channel |
Original release | October 29 December 17, 2007 | –
Season chronology |
Canada's Worst Driver 3 is the third season of the Canadian reality TV show Canada's Worst Driver, which aired on the Discovery Channel. As with previous years, eight people, nominated by their family or friends, enter the Driver Rehabilitation Centre to improve their driving skills. This year, the Driver Rehabilitation Centre is located at the Edgar Adult Occupation Centre, a radar station in Edgar, Ontario that was sold in 1964 and later used as an institution for developmentally disabled or handicapped adults until it closed down in 1999. Unlike the two previous seasons, however, when the focus was on Winter Driving and Summer Driving, respectively, the focus of this season was on Extreme Driving, in the hope that knowledge of these techniques (which is not normally taught to driving students) will help them become more confident and competent at the wheel. Also, for the second year in a row, the Driver Rehabilitation Program is one week shorter (this is due to Billie-Jean Leslie graduating in the fifth episode after the experts believed Shelby D'Souza, who would have graduated that episode, would benefit more from staying in rehab, a decision that later proved costly, as he ended up failing to graduate in the final episode). Also unlike the two previous seasons, the contestants' driver's licenses are confiscated instead of their keys. The initial drive started in Mariposa Beach, Ontario and the final road test occurred in Barrie, Ontario.
Experts
Two experts return from Canada's Worst Driver 2, though Marcus Agyeman and Juliana Chiovitti, insurance broker and performance driving instructor, respectively, from the past season, are not among them.
- Cam Woolley is a traffic sergeant with the Ontario Provincial Police who has seen the habits of Canadian drivers change drastically since 2000, with the most common offense having changed from DUI to distracted driving.
- Philippe Létourneau is a high-performance driving instructor with the Jim Russell Racing School, having been also featured on Discovery's Star Racer series. He is also a lead driving instructor for BMW Driver Training and the "Ferrari Driving Experience" at the Mont Tremblant race track. Philippe has enjoyed a successful career with over 40 podium finishes in 120 race starts.
- Dr. Louisa Gembora is a psychologist who worked at the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario before moving on to private practice in 1994. She drives a race car in her spare time.
- Scott Marshall is the show's head driving instructor, a position he has held since 2005.
Contestants
- Shelby D'Souza, 30 and licensed for four years, from Calgary, Alberta, is an overly cautious forklift operator, to the point in which he spends five seconds facing a green light before moving his car... and even then, he drives slowly. In sharp contrast to road rage, he is far too generous at the wheel and his younger brother, Elerick D'Souza, believes that he will be rear-ended in an accident soon before he can change his ways. He drives a beige Chevrolet Blazer and drove a beige Mazda Protege to the rehab centre.
- Thomas Hobbs, 21, from Lloydminster, Alberta, is an aspiring street racer who has claimed to have gone at over 240 km/h on a highway. Thomas is constantly taking risks behind the wheel, enjoying life on the fast line. He is nominated by his older sister, Lenora Hobbs, because she does not believe that he is in control of his car. He drives a gray GMC Sierra 2500 and drove a blue Ford Explorer to the rehab centre.
- Denice Koke, 33, from Cranbrook, British Columbia, is an emotional wreck at the wheel and believes that this is the reason that she is too reliant on nominator and husband, Henry Koke, a truck driver, for their family activities. She believes that this is interfering in her children's lives, especially her son, who had to be pulled out of a local hockey league because she was not confident driving him to games. She drives a red Dodge Grand Caravan.
- Jennifer Kritzer, 22, from Hamilton, Ontario, is a floral delivery driver who is also extremely accident-prone, proudly admitting to being involved in a large number of hit-and-run accidents. She is nominated by her boyfriend, Jon Park, who later committed suicide in 2014. She drives a silver Ford Focus.
- Billie-Jean Leslie, 22 and licensed for four years, from Victoria, British Columbia, is a student and hairdresser who is more concentrated on looking good than looking at the road. She only uses her car's mirrors for applying makeup and has on numerous occasions changed clothes while at the wheel, all of which leading to 16 accidents since getting her license, including 12 in a single year and four license suspensions (her choice of footwear is also an issue). She is nominated by her cousin, Nicola Coulter. She drives a gray Mazda 323 and drove a beige Mitsubishi Lancer to the rehab centre.
- Marnie Maddison, 41, from Calgary, Alberta, is extremely nervous at the wheel and not confident in going anywhere other than her workplace, preferring to starve over driving to the grocery store. Because of this, she is on her eighth learner's permit in 22 years and has never mustered the confidence to take a final road test. Worse yet, she has no one to turn to, as her boyfriend and nominator, Bruce Toye, is frequently out of town in his job as an airline pilot. She drives a silver Honda Civic and drove a silver Ford Taurus to the rehab centre.
- Edward "Ed" Porter, 43, from Ottawa, Ontario, is a biologist with an extreme road rage problem, which has torn apart his relationship with his nominator and ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth Cecchi. He enters rehabilitation in an effort to address his road rage, which causes their children to vomit whenever he is driving, but also as a step towards reconciliation of their broken common-law relationship. He drives a black Saturn Ion and drove a green Ford Focus to the rehab centre.
- Jason Zhang, 42, from Vancouver, British Columbia, is a travel consultant who, when driving, has a case of "extreme tunnel vision," making him unable to see what's around or directly in front of him. Because of this, he relishes gridlock (due to it being slow) and always parks in the most expensive parking stalls to avoid others. He is nominated by his husband, Adrian Fehr. He drives a silver Honda Civic and drove a blue Ford Focus to the rehab centre.
Synopsis
Contestant | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
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Jason Zhang | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | CWD |
Shelby D'Souza | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | RUNNER-UP |
Jennifer Kritzer | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | OUT |
Ed Porter | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | OUT | |
Billie-Jean Leslie | IN | IN | IN | IN | OUT | ||
Marnie Maddison | IN | IN | IN | OUT | |||
Thomas Hobbs | IN | IN | OUT | ||||
Denice Koke | IN | OUT |
- (CWD) The contestant became Canada's Worst Driver.
- (RUNNER-UP) The contestant was runner-up for Canada's Worst Driver.
- (OUT) The contestant graduated.
- (IN) The contestant was shortlisted for graduation.
Episodes
No. | Title | Original air date | |
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1 | "Rock Bottom" | October 29, 2007 | |
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2 | "Car Confidential" | November 5, 2007 | |
In deliberation, the experts and Andrew were deadlocked as to whom to graduate. Andrew and Scott preferred Billie-Jean, while Sgt. Cam and Phillipe preferred Denice. Dr. Gembora's first vote as a judge ends up being the deciding one, as she votes in Denice's favour and she becomes the first graduate of the third season. | |||
3 | "Cool Bus" | November 12, 2007 | |
In deliberation, the experts were favoring Thomas for his skill level being far above the rest (but believing that Thomas has still learned nothing besides the consequences of his street racing from Sgt. Cam, in which life imprisonment is a distinct possibility), Billie-Jean for developing the habit of driving with flats instead of stilettos (and having dramatically improved results therein) and making use of mirrors and Marnie for improvements in confidence (despite few challenges being completed). In the end, Andrew, with a racing helmet and a pair of scissors, gives Thomas a choice to either take the racing helmet and be the second graduate or choose the scissors and be expelled. Thomas makes the right choice, but instead of leaving in his car (as is the norm for all graduates), he is taken back to the Barrie Speedway, where he partakes (and wins) in his first race on a track. According to Thomas, the experience from being at the track alone (let alone racing) is well worth the trip to rehab, as he vows to never street race again. | |||
4 | "Skid Marks" | November 19, 2007 | |
Again, the experts are split at the end of the episode. Sgt. Cam and Andrew are both confident that Billie-Jean, having been passed over twice already, has shown repeatedly what it takes to graduate. However, Phillippe and Dr. Gembora prefer Marnie's dramatic improvement from the previous episode, leaving Scott to cast the deciding vote and while he would rather graduate both, he's pressured by Andrew into choosing one, so he casts the deciding vote for Marnie, resulting in Billie-Jean being passed over for the third straight episode on the grounds that someone else had a breakout performance. | |||
5 | "Bumpy Road Ahead" | November 26, 2007 | |
In deliberation, only Dr. Gembora had the dissenting opinion on who was the most improved driver, as the rest thought Shelby had improved the most. However, everyone agrees that this was not enough for Shelby to graduate, due to his horrible off-road challenge and his critical mistake in the Water Tank Challenge of leaving the car in drive. As a result, the choice to graduate was painfully obvious: Billie-Jean, shortlisted but passed over three times due to someone else having a breakout performance, gets her just reward as she graduates, having accomplished all her goals in rehab (this also marked the first—and, at the time, only—instance of a contestant graduating in the fifth episode). | |||
6 | "Unhappy Trails" | December 3, 2007 | |
At the start of the episode, Andrew reiterates that the driver rehabilitation program has had a number of success stories-- Manuel Tejeda (from the previous season) has not hit a thing since leaving rehab (amounting to over two years and 15,000 km (9,300 mi) of driving), while Jodi Slobodesky (from the previous season) is now in a job where driving well is paramount—selling cosmetics door-to-door. Coincidentally, both had graduated in the second-to-last episode in their respective series. They were the only two drivers to graduate in the second-last episode of the previous two seasons, excluding Sean McConnell (as the second-last episode of Canada's Worst Driver 2 was, at the time, the only episode of Canada's Worst Driver in which two drivers graduated).
In the end, Jason and Shelby are quickly ruled out as graduates—Jason, because often he didn't know which way his wheels were positioned and Shelby, because of the belief that he, in fact, got worse. The experts are split yet again on who should graduate—Dr. Gembora and Scott choosing Ed and Sgt. Cam and Andrew choosing Jennifer—leaving Phillippe with the deciding vote, in which he immediately decides that Ed, whose relationship with Elizabeth has gradually improved over the course of the season, should be the next graduate, not only ensuring that there will not be three men in the finale, but also sending Jennifer into the finale with Jason and Shelby, with Ed also admitting that he was not as good of a driver as he thought when he arrived and that alone has helped the couple reconcile. | |||
7 | "Road Tests" | December 10, 2007 | |
In their final discussion, the experts immediately agree that while she still has some way to go, Jennifer is definitely not Canada's Worst Driver, as she improved the most out of the final three and learned to take responsibility for her actions, while neither Shelby nor Jason deserved to graduate. Jason is visibly defeated and says that he's considering giving up driving, while Shelby admits being disappointed with his final performance, but adds that he intends to continue driving and try to improve on his own. Though the experts briefly ponder the possibility of naming Shelby as the worst in the hope that he will also give up driving (an option Jason is already considering), Andrew reminds them that the show is about deciding who is Canada's Worst Driver and the experts quickly agree that, overall, Jason is clearly a worse driver than Shelby. Jason is therefore named Canada's Worst Driver, becoming the third person (second man) to be awarded the trophy and he accepts the decision, along with surrendering his driver's license in a clear case and also confirms that he will give up driving in the wake of the announcement. Because Adrian left the Rehabilitation Centre to make it to his sister's wedding after the Mega-Challenge, Jason gets a ride home from Shelby in the Cool Bus. It is also noted by Andrew that now that Jason has retired from driving, that technically makes Shelby, who therefore fails to graduate, "Canada's Worst Driver." | |||
8: Why Accidents Happen | "101 Problems on Canadian Roads" | December 17, 2007 | |
In this season's recap finale, Andrew explains how and why accidents happen on the road and how the eight contestants are affected by this information. Among the "top 101" problems being explored, only some 70 of which actually were aired and demonstrated by the drivers themselves-- street racing (Thomas), road rage (Ed), loss of bodily functions (Denice), using a car as a change room (Billie-Jean), inability to understand driving phrases (Jason didn't know what "acceleration" was, but did, however, stick to his vow to "get out of the driver's seat"), driving philosophy (Marnie), generosity (Shelby) and hit and run (Jennifer). |