Canada's Worst Handyman was a Canadian television series that aired on Discovery Channel Canada from March 13, 2006 to June 13, 2011. Based on a one-off 2004 episode of Britain's Worst DIYer, the show was produced by Proper Television, whose president, Guy O'Sullivan, was the director of the original Britain's Worst Driver series until its 2003 cancellation and shared its production with Canada's Worst Driver, including executive producer and host Andrew Younghusband. Like sister series Canada's Worst Driver, there have been similar adaptations in other English-speaking countries, in the United States in 2011, with America's 10 Worst DIYers and in Britain with a Britain's Worst 2005 spin-off series, Britain's Worst DIYer. Six seasons of the show have been completed. Throughout the show's five years on air, Younghusband remained in his role of being the only host of Canada's Worst Handyman and has appeared in every season from the show's creation in 2006, until the show's last season concluded filming in early 2011. On January 10, 2013, the series' Facebook page posted a statement that the show is "on hiatus with an unknown date for relaunch." In June 2014, Discovery Channel Canada started canvassing for couples at www.badhandyman.ca. The new version of the show aired in 2015 under the title Blood, Sweat & Tools, featuring couples instead of individual handymen.
Format
In each season, typically five contestants and their nominators arrive at the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, where they partake in a three-week renovation project there, consisting of challenges that are designed to improve the contestants' handyman skills in an effort to not be named Canada's Worst Handyman. Each contestant and nominator pair are assigned colour-coded workplaces and otherwise work separately on their respective projects. Prior to entering the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, each contestant performs a challenge in their own home, to be aired in the first episode; this is colloquially referred to as the "home challenge." Since season two, each challenge is judged on a pass/fail system, based on whether challenges are completed within the allotted time limit. Nominators are expected to assist their nominees and contestants may freely help each other upon the completion of their challenges. Contestants may also revisit a previous challenge on their own time if they had failed the challenge or was otherwise incomplete. Each episode also contains a group challenge, where the five contestants, typically without their nominators, must perform a challenge together. Starting with the second group challenge, one contestant is deemed the foreman and is given the task of leading the other four. The foreman concept was instituted starting with the second group challenge in the first season as a reaction to how bad the contestants had worked together for the first group challenge and it has stayed with the series since. At the end of each episode, two judges and host Andrew Younghusband inspect the contestants' worksites and after each contestant is interviewed, deliberate on which contestant had improved the most and which contestant was named the worst. The contestant named the most improved is given the "golden hard hat" and is rewarded with the privilege of leading the next group challenge. The contestant named the worst must "hang their head in shame" and nail their portrait to a "wall of shame" and is treated to a private "homework challenge" with Andrew. The experts reserve the right to not name the most improved handyman or to name more than one contestant as the worst, though the former has never occurred and the latter only once. On rare occasions, nominators may also be awarded the most improved or the worst for helping or hindering their nominees. On one occasion, the contestant and their nominator pair was collectively the most improved and worst. Throughout the entire process, the experts teach the contestants the various skills they may need in order to perform the challenge in classroom sessions. Starting in the third season, the experts also perform each and every challenge themselves before the contestants are given the challenges, partly as a demonstration to the contestants and partly to show that the tasks can be done correctly and within the time limit. During the challenge the experts observe each contestant from the show's production facilities, or in later seasons, the "expert's room." The experts may also intervene in the event of a gross safety violation or other serious incident or if a contestant is otherwise unprepared for the challenge. The final episode of each season differs in many details, but is centered on a list of tasks that all contestants must finish. For the first season, this was the "handyman final exam," where contestants must work together to fully renovate an apartment in an extended group challenge. For the second season, the list was used in a group challenge where the contestants and nominators as a whole must finish every shed, with the final challenge being moving their sheds out of their workshop, while in subsequent seasons each contestant is given their own lists for the tasks that they must finish in their workspaces so as to make their rooms presentable for a series of clients; furthermore, the list must be completed in the order stated therein, typically corresponding to the order in which the challenges were originally presented. The contestant with the worst finished product, as determined by the clients, experts and Andrew, is named Canada's Worst Handyman.
Experts
Tools
In the first three seasons, the contestants were given the tools and materials needed for each challenge, with most tools being of the DeWalt brand. Canadian Tire became the series' primary sponsor for seasons four-five and one of the first challenges in those years was to shop for all the required tools and materials from the local Canadian Tire store; as a consequence, Mastercraft products are prominently featured. Canadian Tire withdrew their sponsorship as of season six and, as such, the shopping challenge was eliminated and contestants' tools returning to being from multiple different brands. The show has not given any indication as to whether the contestants are given the tools as a keepsake or whether the tools are returned to the show's production staff following each season. Furnishings for the rooms in the first three seasons included decor from IKEA.
Nominations
Like its sister series, the contestants are chosen by nominations submitted to Proper Television. Canada's Worst Driver and Canada's Worst Handyman are filmed alternately, with each season of Driver followed by a season of Handyman. Nominations for the next season of one are accepted shortly before the airing of a season of the other on Discovery Channel. Candidates may be nominated by multiple nominators, though, like its sister series, only one nominator accompanies the contestant to the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre.
Home Video/Internet Availability
Like its sister series, all six seasons are available for download in Canada from the iTunes Store in anamorphic widescreenstandard definition, with seasons 5-6 also being available for streaming on DiscoveryChannel.ca. Seasons 2-6 are available for streaming on CraveTV. Seasons 3-4 are available in some countries such as the UK and Sweden through streaming service Netflix. There has been no news on whether the series will be released on DVD/Blu-ray.
Seasons
Spinoffs
Junk Raiders was a spinoff series starring veteran contractor Geoff Woodmansey which used construction junk and castoffs to produce quality construction. Blood, Sweat & Tools was a 2015 revival of Junk Raiders starring Helder Brum,Rob Koci and Hillary Manion, who also served as challenge judges and expert advisers to the contestants that featured handymen couples instead of individual handymen, proceeding on DIY challenges. In June 2014, Discovery Channel Canada started canvassing for couples for a new season at www.badhandyman.ca, using clips from past seasons.
