Handyman Superstar Challenge
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| Handyman Superstar Challenge | |
|---|---|
| Format | Game show |
| Presented by | Karen Bertelsen |
| Narrated by | Karen Bertelsen |
| Country of origin |  Canada |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 21 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | HGTV Canada |
| Original run | 2006 – Present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Designer Superstar Challenge Superstar Chef Challenge Superstar Hair Challenge |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
Handyman Superstar Challenge (also referred to as Superstar Handyman Challenge from the show's first season logo) is a television game show on HGTV Canada, hosted by Karen Bertelsen. The show seeks to find the best handyman in Canada, with the winner originally being awarded the opportunity to host a show on HGTV (though it has since been dropped, though by tradition the winning contestant has always appeared on an upcoming Holmes on Homes as a special guest). Candidates could be nominated through HGTV's website. The ten finalists are evaluated by two handyman judges: Mike Holmes from Holmes on Homes and Jim Caruk from Real Renos. HGTV casting agent Shasta Lutz is also among the judging panel for the first two seasons.
Contents |
[edit] Format
At the start of each day, each of the remaining contestants are given a challenge, with the contestant believed to have done the worst according to the three judges being eliminated. This continued until three contestants remain, from which one of the three would be named the Handyman Superstar after a final head-to-head challenge.
Challenges tend to combine a skill aspect and a presentation aspect - some challenges, however, are purely skill-oriented or purely presentation-oriented.
For the first season, each show is 30 minutes in length, with the final show being one hour long. Starting with the second season, (to be consistent with its companion shows) every show is one hour long.
[edit] Synopsis
[edit] Season 1
The ten finalists, as chosen by the judges, for the first season are the following:
| Name | Hometown | Finish |
|---|---|---|
| Ted Andersen | Welland, Ontario | Runner-Up |
| Ivan Gojmerac | Welland, Ontario | 10th |
| Glen Horwood | Courtice, Ontario | Runner-Up |
| Randy Jones | Vancouver, British Columbia | 7th |
| William Lush | Upper Guilles, Newfoundland and Labrador | 4th |
| Jordan MacNab | Coquitlam, British Columbia | Winner |
| Ian MacRae | Burlington, Ontario | 5th |
| Ilka Riemann | Vancouver, British Columbia | 9th |
| Paul Stary | Niagara Falls, Ontario | 7th |
| Richard Zwic | Toronto, Ontario | 6th |
| Episode | Title | Challenge | Eliminated |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Pitch | Each contestant must pitch an idea for an HGTV show to the judges, with the contestant having the worst pitch eliminated. | Ivan |
| 2 | Stick Around | Each contestant has two hours to build and two minutes to present a piece of furniture or a decorative item fashioned from hockey sticks, with the contestant giving the worst combined effort being eliminated. | Ilka |
| 3 | Finishing School | The eight remaining contestants are split into four teams of two, with each team having to finish a mock room in three hours. Aspects tested include tilework, drywalling, floorboard laying, and wainscotting. The worst team is eliminated. | Paul and Randy |
| 4 | Meet the Client | Each contestant must give an estimate of the costs of a homeowner's basement renovation. The contestant giving the worst estimate, according to the homeowner, is eliminated. | Richard |
| 5 | Know it or Blow It | Each contestant must complete three challenges with twenty minutes for each challenge: shingling a doghouse, hanging a door, and installing a toilet. Each contestant is also subject to a 20-question quiz by the judges on their contractor skills. The contestant with the worst overall performance is eliminated. | Ian |
| 6 | Show Time | Each of the four remaining contestants, after being given acting lessons and a makeover, are to deliver a script, which are then evaluated by an HGTV focus group. The contestant with the worst performance according to both the group and the judges are eliminated. | William |
| 7 | All Hands on Deck | The three remaining contestants are given eight hours to build a deck. Each contestant is given ample materials and tools, as well as a budget for obtaining additional materials, as well as a team of carpenters, led by a "celebrity carpenter" (either Neil Davies from Real Renos, Shawn Morren from Holmes on Homes, or Jay Purvis from Kitchen Equipped). The contestant with the best deck is named the Handyman Superstar | Glen and Ted |
[edit] Season 2
Although the format remains the same for Season 2, various minor changes have been made to match the format of the fourth season of Designer Superstar Challenge, including having the challenges take place on consecutive days, requiring the contestants to live together in a luxury loft, and the initial "three rooms" challenge. The second season also further separated the skill-based "Handyman" challenges (which themselves de-emphasized the need for skills more suited for professional contractors, such as home renovation estimates) and the presentation-based "Superstar" challenges. The look-and-feel is also altered to match the fourth season of Designer, which is also consistent with the third season of Chef and the first season of Hair.
The ten finalists for the second season are as follows:
| Name | Hometown | Finish |
|---|---|---|
| Brian Bailey | Caledon, Ontario | 7th |
| Christina Hillborne | Golden, British Columbia | 2nd |
| Kevin Howe | Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia | Winner |
| Brian "Lex" Leuthel | Aurora, Ontario | 6th |
| Richard McLellan | Delta, British Columbia | 9th |
| David O'Rourke | St. Catharines, Ontario | 2nd |
| Christian Pack | Hamilton, Ontario | 4th |
| Mahendra Henri Persaud | New Westminster, British Columbia | 10th |
| Anastasia Vaskova | Burlington, Ontario | 7th |
| Tony Vieira | Richmond Hill, Ontario | 5th |
| Episode | Title | Description | Eliminated |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Three Rooms | The contestants must face three different challenges, one from each judge. In Shasta's challenge, the contestants must deliver a pitch for a TV show and describe a randomly chosen tool. In Mike's challenge, the contestants are asked to answer seven questions on handyman skills, and also to identify seven problems with a deck (built specifically for this challenge). In Jim's challenge, the contestants must cut a square and a circle from a piece of plywood so that it fits over a square and circle template. The one with the worst overall performance is eliminated. | Henri |
| 2 | Re-Claim to Fame | In the "Handyman" portion, the contestants have three hours to take wood from discarded furniture and create something new. In the "Superstar" portion, the contestants must conduct a 3-minute interview with Steve Kelley and Jim Kelley from Junk Brothers in a television segment titled Reclaim to Fame. The contestant with the worst overall performance is eliminated. | Richard |
| 3 | Sink or Swim | The contestants have two hours to build a floating dock out of wood, beach balls, pool noodles, barrels, and milk jugs, with a partner. The two contestants with the worst effort (not necessarily on the same team) are eliminated. | Anastasia and Brian |
| 4 | Know it or Blow it | In the "Handyman" portion, the remaining contestants must complete three challenges with thirty minutes per challenge: tiling, plumbing, and repairing a screen door. The "Superstar" portion has the contestants preparing and delivering a one-minute Streeter-style rant on a topic of their choosing. The contestant with the worst overall performance is eliminated. | Lex |
| 5 | Doors, Walls, and Windows | In the "Handyman" portion, the contestants have three hours to frame a wall, including installing a door, a window, drywall, trim, and plaster. In the "Superstar" portion, the contestants must host a segment where they answer "viewer mail". The contestant with the worst installation and the worst presentation is eliminated. | Tony |
| 6 | Good on Paper | In the "Handyman" portion, the contestants have three hours to purchase lumber and build a piece of furniture given only a diagram (which may be slightly inaccurate or missing in details). In the "Superstar" portion, the contestants must make a seven-minute presentation on seven different kinds of wood. The worst contestant in both portions is eliminated. In addition, the three remaining contestants are informed of their final challenge. | Christian |
| 7 | It's an Elevating Finish | In the final challenge, the remaining contestants team up with three contractors to build an outdoor living space. At the end, one is named the Handyman Superstar. | David and Christina |
[edit] Season 3
In the third season, 20 contestants are invited instead of ten, although in the first challenge, where contestants have 90 minutes to create a work out of two sheets of plywood, the field is reduced down to ten. Only the ten people advancing from this challenge are considered to be the finalists. Shasta Lutz is not returning in this season, leaving only Mike Holmes and Jim Caruk as judges. However, in every episode (except the first and last) there will be a guest judge joining them. Instead of a presentation-oriented challenge, the bottom finishers from the main challenge will compete in a "play-in" elimination challenge later that day.
| Name | Hometown | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Elimination Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Chalupa | Burlington, Ontario | IN | BYE | IN | BYE | BYE | BYE | IN | Dave was paired with Adam and Kate. His shed, a poolside change room, had only one major criticism: an overly steep roof. However, he did lead efficiently, doing most of the hard work (such as building the roof pieces and shingling the roof) himself. |
| Ian Crosby | Calgary, Alberta | IN | BYE | IN | IN | IN | IN | OUT | Ian was paired with Carl and Pinky. Ian's shed was crooked, but had a unique roof structure that redeemed it somewhat. His roof shingling was also questionable. |
| Mike Golder | Victoria, British Columbia | IN | IN | BYE | BYE | BYE | IN | OUT | Mike was paired with Mike Jr. and Damon. Mike, who had never built a shed (and relied on a book Ian had brought with him for design advice), nevertheless built a shed whose key feature were the unique trusses in the roof. However, his floor was not glued down, and he was caught trying to squeeze more work after the time limit. |
| Mike Thomas | Toronto, Ontario | IN | BYE | BYE | IN | IN | OUT | Mike's fence was the worst, being bowed and likely to collapse with any strong wind. His wheelbarrow, made from Gill's popcorn cart, a qualifier's Handyman Superstar Challenge plywood poster, Joel's folding table, and one of Brad's set pieces for the wheels, was considered too large and unwieldy (being able to hit the wheelbarrow's legs while moving it around). | |
| Joel Issac | Port Rowan, Ontario | IN | BYE | BYE | BYE | OUT | Joel had problems getting his folding table to fold, but the clincher was the fact that he had made a critical mistake on the toolbox that rendered it unusable. | ||
| Brad Lovell | Port Coquitlam, British Columbia | IN | BYE | BYE | OUT | Brad simply struggled in the obstacle course, failing all three challenges. His crown moulding did not go any better, conceding defeat based on the fact that the Mike and Ian finished while he did not (due to many missed cuts). | |||
| Gill Carvalho | Mississauga, Ontario | IN | BYE | OUT | Gill, paired with Valerie, built a pier instead of a bridge, and had made more errors than the other three in the stairs. | ||||
| Valerie Tymoshuk | Caledon, Ontario | IN | IN | OUT | Valerie, paried with Gill, built a pier instead of a bridge, and the fatigue from the morning challenge caused her to make a critical error when one of her stair heights was too high. | ||||
| Jason Kim | Calgary, Alberta | IN | OUT | Jason's crib in the morning challenge was considered unsafe for children, and although his kitchen cart in the second challenge was better, his past performance figured into his elimination. | |||||
| Jacques Perreault | Niagara Falls, Ontario | OUT | Jacques' did not make a single cut during Jim's challenge, and struggled in all aspects of Mike's challenge. | ||||||
- BYE - Contestant advanced without competing in the evening challenge.
- IN - Contestant competed in the evening challenge, and managed to advanced
- OUT - Contestant has been eliminated
| Episode | Challenges | Eliminated |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | After the qualifying challenge, which saw 20 contestants compete for 10 finalist spots by creating works from two pieces of plywood in 90 minutes, the contestants must take on Jim's "cookie-cutter" challenge, where contestants must cut an oval and hexagon out of a piece of plywood and fit it onto an existing block, as well as Mike's skills challenge, where they are quizzed on general handyman skills, fairly obscure tools, and spotting errors in a poorly-framed exterior wall. | Jacques |
| 2 | The second episode brings the traditional trash-to-treasure challenge, where the contestants have to recycle old furniture to make their creations. The bottom three contestants will have to build something out of three drawers in one hour, with the requirement being that it cannot be a dresser and all three drawers must remain intact. Shell Busey, home improvement expert and founder of the HouseSmart building referral network, will be a guest judge in this episode. | Jason |
| 3 | In the traditional pairs challenge (where two are eliminated), the teams of two handymen must build a bridge. The bottom two teams must build, as individuals, a set of stairs in one hour. Cheryl Gillespie, interior designer and canoe.ca contributor, will be a guest judge in this episode. | Gill and Valerie |
| 4 | The obstacle course challenge, where three challenges (this year, it is drywall repair, plumbing, and installing a fluorescent light), is featured in this episode. The bottom three contestants must install crown moulding on a wall with odd angles, with limited amounts of moulding available. Rob Koci, editor of Canadian Contractor Magazine, will be a guest judge in this episode. | Brad |
| 5 | The remaining contestants must build an item based on a drawing. The elimination challenge this time is to build a sawhorse and a toolchest based on prefab designs. Douglas Thompson, editor of Canadian Home Workshop Magazine, will be this episode's guest judge. | Joel |
| 6 | In the new penultimate challenge, the contestants must build a fence. One will advance to the final three, while the other three must construct a wheelbarrow using the materials used in previous challenges (namely, the qualifying challenge, the trash-to-treasure challenges, the bridge challenge, and the challenges from the previous day) as parts. Frank Cohn, a personality on CFRB Radio, will be the guest judge. | Mike T |
| 7 | The three remaining contestants, each with two members of the Holmes Crew (either Damon Benett and Mike Holmes, Jr., Carl Pavlovic and Corin Ames, or Kate Campbell and Adam Belanger), have eight hours to build their own shed. The members of the Holmes Crew will not be permitted to correct the contestant's errors in design or construction. | Ian and Mike G |
