Network: CBC Television Network
Broadcast Run: 2014 to 2015
Broadcast Medium: Television
The CBC fall 2014 schedule announced on May 29th included a new one-hour series, Canada’s Smartest Person, on Sundays at 8:00 pm. The format would provide an opportunity for Canadians from across the country to participate in revealing intelligence challenges that went beyond the average IQ test or trivia quiz.
Canada’s Smartest Person would be based on six shades of intelligence which had been internationally embraced as the new markers of brainpower: Math & Logic Intelligence, Visual & Spatial Intelligence, Body & Kinesthetic Intelligence, Linguistics Intelligence, Musical Intelligence and Interpersonal Intelligence.
The CBC said that most people had strength in two or three of these areas, but only a rare few excelled in all categories. Canada’s Smartest Person planned to seek out the special Canadian who could demonstrate he or she had the most versatile smarts in the country. In the series finale, eight finalists would battle it out but only one would earn the title of Canada’s Smartest Person.
The series launched on Sunday September 28th 2014 at 8 pm with a 2-hour opening episode, hosted by Jessica Cruickshank, with Jeff Douglas as co-host.
On March 4th 2015, the CBC announced that one two-hour and seven one-hour episodes of Canada’s Smartest Person would be produced for broadcast in the Fall of 2015.
The show was not renewed in 2016.