Total Drama

Total Drama is a Canadian animated reality television series which is a homage to the conventions commonly found in reality television. The show and its sequel seasons are collectively referred to as the Total Drama series. It premiered on the Canadian cable television specialty channel Teletoon on July 8, 2007, and on the American cable television channel Cartoon Network on June 5, 2008.[3] All of the contestants have distinct personalities that serve as a main plot point with the characters consisting of the eponymous fictional reality series and the contestants therein. The style of this series is similar to that of Survivor, Fear Factor, and The Amazing Race.

The Total Drama series is the original series of the greater Total Drama franchise which consists of five seasons that have aired in the past seven years: the first season, Total Drama Island, the second season, Total Drama Action, the third season, Total Drama World Tour, the fourth season, Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, and the fifth season, Total Drama All-Stars / Pahkitew Island. The latest installment aired on July 7, 2014, in the United States[5] and September 4, 2014, in Canada.[6]

In June 2014, a spin-off series was announced: Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race, which went into production shortly after the fifth season was aired. Although production of the spin-off has put the main series on hold, co-creator Tom McGillis has stated that his personal goal is for Total Drama to go up to ten seasons.[7] Alex Ganetakos, the executive story editor and the senior writer for the series, also says that the production team plans to make more seasons in the future.[8]

Contents
[hide]
 * 1 Format
 * 1.1 Location
 * 2 Production
 * 3 Episodes
 * 3.1 Seasons
 * 4 Broadcasting
 * 4.1 Alternate airings
 * 5 Characters
 * 5.1 Character appearance summary
 * 5.1.1 Key
 * 5.2 Episode participation
 * 5.3 Team participation
 * 5.3.1 Key
 * 5.4 Voice actors
 * 5.5 Role outside series
 * 6 Series reception
 * 6.1 Ratings
 * 6.2 Critical reaction
 * 6.3 Awards
 * 7 Media
 * 7.1 DVD releases
 * 7.2 Online promotion
 * 7.3 Spin-off series
 * 7.4 Other
 * 8 See also
 * 8.1 Related shows
 * 8.2 Other shows
 * 9 References
 * 10 External links

§Format[edit]
The name of each season consists of the title Total Drama with a different word or phrase later in. That changing word or phrase defines the theme for that season. This series is a competition to win a cash prize of C$100,000 in the first season and C$1,000,000 in every other season. This series takes elements of other widely known series such as Survivor, Fear Factor, and The Amazing Race. Like these other series, Total Drama is rated TV-PG because it features mild profanity, censored language, brief censored nudity, and some suggestive dialogue. When more suggestive dialogue is present, the episode is rated TV-PG-D. The first three seasons are rated TV-PG-D while the latter two are rated TV-PG. Unlike many other animated shows, this series has a different logo for every season (while each season might have multiple alternate logos), so there is no official logo for this series.

§Location[edit]
Most seasons in this series takes place in a different location. The first season, Total Drama Island, is set in Camp Wawanakwa, a fictional island located in an unspecified area in Muskoka, Ontario. The second season, Total Drama Action, is set in an abandoned movie studio lot in Toronto, Ontario. In the third season, Total Drama World Tour, the contestants are taken all around the world in the "Total Drama Jumbo Jet", which seems to be structurally unstable. Some of the countries that are visited in the third season include Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The fourth season, Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, is set back at Camp Wawanakwa, but this time the island is radioactive. The first part of the fifth season, Total Drama All-Stars, also takes place on the island,[9] due to the success of the first and fourth seasons. The second part, Total Drama: Pahkitew Island however, takes place on another island called Pahkitew Island.[6]

§Production[edit]
Total Drama was developed and produced by Fresh TV and was distributed by Cake Entertainment. The series is funded in part by the Canada Media Fund (formerly the Canadian Television Fund), and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit.[10] The first season was funded by Xenpohile Media, Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund. The series, primarily targeted at twelve to eighteen-year-olds, was animated at Elliott Animation and directed by Todd Kauffman and Mark Thornton of Neptoon Studios.[11] The creators, Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch, studied what teenagers liked and disliked about reality television shows in the writing process.[12]

McGillis says they used a "countrywide online research project" to determine this demographic's likes.[13] Fresh TV Inc. partners McGillis, Pertsch, Elliott and Irving produced the series.[14] The budget for the first season was $8 million.[15] It was animated in Flash,[11] at Elliott Animation's studio in Toronto.[14]

Every cast and crew member on Total Drama had to sign a confidentiality agreement not to disclose who the winner was.[16] All the characters were designed by Kauffman.[17] An early name for the series was Camp TV when the series first started production in 2006.[18] Camp TV Productions is still labeled in the end credits of every episode, along with the season number in Roman numerals.

§Episodes[edit]
Main article: List of Total Drama episodes

This is a list of all the seasons that have aired with the original Canadian air dates shown below along with basic elements for each season. The 100th episode of the whole series aired in Canada on February 27, 2014, with the producers very happy of this milestone.[5] That means that it took Teletoon 6 years and 7 months for them to air the first 100 episodes. Source for table:[24]
 * : Current airing season
 * : Seasons in production

The first part of the fifth season has already finished airing in the United States and Canada with Mike as the most recent winner. The second part of the fifth season is currently airing as of 2014. For the most recent seasons, the United States and other countries usually air the seasons first and before Canada gets to air it (usually the following year).

§Seasons[edit]
There are currently five seasons in the Total Drama series that have aired worldwide, with new seasons currently in production, which all are listed below. The air dates listed in the table are from the original Canadian airings. Source for season list:[38]
 * 1) Jump up^ Main characters only; not including the host and other supporting characters.

§Broadcasting[edit]
Total Drama first premiered in Canada on July 8, 2007 on Teletoon, while the United States aired the show one year later on Cartoon Network on June 5, 2008, followed by several other countries thereafter. Since then, Total Drama has become an international franchise and one of the biggest successes for Fresh TV. As of September 2011, the entire series has been shown in over 100 countries around the world, with the first season airing in 188 countries worldwide.[10]

The series airs on Teletoon in Canada, ABC1, ABC3, and Cartoon Network in Australia, Jetix and Disney XD in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and Cartoon Network in the United States. The fourth season first aired on Télétoon+ and Canal+ Family[39] in France, while the fifth season finished airing first on K2[40] in Italy. Australia was also the first country to finish airing the third season.

§Alternate airings[edit]
For every season, the show's producers create two alternate endings for the final episode, such that the winner seen in one country's broadcasts is the runner-up in other countries (and vice versa) where the show airs. Recently however, the winners have been the same for all the new countries the series is being introduced in (like Hungary, Africa, Slovenia, etc.). The characters, Gwen, Beth, Alejandro, Cameron and Zoey are depicted as the season winners in these versions. Winners in bold are the original winners (the winners that aired in the country the series was produced).

List of winners by country [show]

After a season is done, the winner usually gets to keeps the money and is able to spend it at the end, except for Total Drama Island where the money is eaten by a shark, and in Total Drama World Tour where the money is thrown into a volcano.

§Characters[edit]
Total Drama has had a total of 52 characters in the series who were introduced as contestants throughout the series' five seasons. The first three seasons consists of an original set of cast, with a total of 25 characters (22 are introduced in the first episode of the series, while the other three are introduced later on), while the fourth season consists of only a new cast with 13 characters. However, the fifth season brings back both casts to compete together and against each other, while also introducing a third set of cast with 14 new characters.

Characters of the Total Drama series Introduced in Total Drama Island First set of cast; 25 contestants (3 not shown) total Introduced in Total Drama: Revenge of the Island Second set of cast; 13 contestants total Introduced in Total Drama: Pahkitew Island Third set of cast; 14 contestants total

The names of all the contestants who have competed in the first five seasons are: Alejandro, Amy, Anne Maria, B, Beardo, Beth, Blaineley, Brick, Bridgette, Cameron, Cody, Courtney, Dakota, Dave, Dawn, DJ, Duncan, Ella, Eva, Ezekiel, Geoff, Gwen, Harold, Heather, Izzy, Jasmine, Jo, Justin, Katie, Leonard, Leshawna, Lightning, Lindsay, Max, Mike, Noah, Owen, Rodney, Sadie, Sam, Samey, Scarlett, Scott, Sierra, Staci, Shawn, Sky, Sugar, Topher, Trent, Tyler, and Zoey.

Most characters have appeared in two or more seasons, but only twelve characters have been depicted as winners (only six characters are winners in their respective countries). Shawn is the most recent winner as of July 2014, while previous winners who competed again after their win are no longer capable of winning due to their unfortunate events. 22 characters competed in Season 1, 15 competed in Season 2, 18 competed in Season 3, 13 competed in Season 4, and 14 characters competed in each half of Season 5 (28 total).

Character participation summaries [show]

§Voice actors[edit]
There are several voice actors who have recorded the voices for all the characters in the Total Drama series. Both Christian Potenza and Clé Bennett voice the two main characters in the series, who appear in almost every episode.[43] Christian Potenza plays the role of host Chris McLean and said that the best part of the job was that his character could not be voted off the show.[44] Egotistical and immoral to them, unless it affects him legally, Chris places the show's contestants in various life-threatening challenges. Clé Bennett plays the role of the co-host of the series, Chef, who is Chris McLean's best friend despite being mistreated at times. Other notable voice actors include Brian Froud, who voices contestants Harold and Sam, and is the only other voice actor who has a main role in every season. Emilie-Claire Barlow plays the contestant Courtney on Total Drama Island and stated that Courtney was her favorite character that she had ever played.[45]

A list of all the voice actors for the original cast: Emilie-Claire Barlow as Courtney,[46] Clé Bennett as DJ,[47] Julia Chantrey as Eva, Carla Collins as Blaineley, Katie Crown as Izzy,[47] Novie Edwards as Leshawna, Megan Fahlenbock as Gwen,[48] Kristin Fairlie as Bridgette,[47] Brian Froud (actor) as Harold, Sarah Gadon as Beth,[49] Marco Grazzini as Alejandro (for Total Drama World Tour), Carter Hayden as Noah, Alex House as Alejandro (for Total Drama All-Stars), Lauren Lipson as Sadie, Scott McCord as both Owen and Trent,[47] Stephanie Anne Mills as both Katie and Lindsay,[50] Drew Nelson as Duncan,[51] Annick Obonsawin as Sierra, Peter Oldring as Ezekiel, Tyler and Cody, Dan Petronijevic as Geoff,Adam Reid as Justin, and Rachel Wilson as Heather.[52]

For the second-generation cast, the voice actors are:[47] Carleigh Beverly as Dakota, Jon Cor as Brick, Cory Doran as Mike, Kevin Duhaney as Cameron, Laurie Elliot as Jo, Brian Froud (actor) as Sam, Athena Karkanis as Anne Maria, Barbara Mamabolo as Zoey, Caitlynne Medrek as Dawn, Ashley Peters as Staci, Tyrone Savage as Lightning, and James Wallis as Scott.

For the third-generation cast, the voice actors are:[53] Clé Bennett as Beardo and Leonard, Zachary Bennett as Shawn, Katie Bergin as Jasmine, Daniel DeSanto as Dave, Bruce Dow as Max, Kristi Friday as Scarlett, Christopher Jacot as Topher, Bryn McAuley as Amy and Samey,[54] Sunday Muse as Ella,[55] Sarah Podemski as Sky, Ian Ronningen as Rodney,[56] and Rochelle Wilson as Sugar.

Most voice actors have only voiced one character, while some actors have voiced two characters. Peter Oldring and Clé Bennett are the only two voice actors who have voiced more than two characters, Oldring voicing three and Bennett voicing four (five if counting DJ's mother). Brian Froud and Bennett are the only voice actors to voice contestants from more than one generation. Claire-Barlow revealed that Courtney was voiced by an unnamed voice actress in the first two episodes ofTotal Drama Island before the role was given to her. Alejandro is the only character to have three voice actors; he was voiced by Marco Grazinni in Total Drama World Tour, Keith Oliver while he was in the robot suit and Alex House in Total Drama All-Stars.[57] Josh is the only minor character to have a voice actor of his own, Dwayne Hill, as these roles are usually given to one of the main cast members.

§Role outside series[edit]
Total Drama characters are seen in an entire different series called Skatoony where the characters are interviewed to play in quiz trivia games against real people and other Canadian series characters. Some Total Drama characters will also appear in an upcoming new series called, Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race.[4]

§Ratings[edit]
As of 2011, the first season has been shown in over 188 countries[10] while the entire franchise has been seen in at least 100.[58] The series has received incredible ratings (dominating the under-14 age group base) and very involved fans who keep talking about the series throughout various online communities, while also inspiring them to create their own fanart and fanfictions.[5] Cake Entertainment, the main distributor of the series, calls the show "phenomenally popular",[58] while the creator of the series said that "For tweens around the world, Total Drama is more than just a parody of a reality show. It's THEIR reality show".[5]

§Critical reaction[edit]
The first season, Total Drama Island received general acclaim from critics and fans. Users from TV.com gave the show an 8.6 "Great",[59] while users from IMDB gave it a 7.5 out of 10.[60] Common Sense Media gave the show 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a "[c]lever cartoon reality show spoof".[61] The second season, Total Drama Action, however received less acclaim due to being seen as less on par with Total Drama Island although some critics[who?] did enjoy it as much as the first season.[citation needed] The third season, Total Drama World Tour, has also received critical acclaim from critics and won multiple awards including "Best Animated Series", "Best Voice Actress" (for Annick Obonsawin), and was also nominated for several other awards, although there was some criticizing about the love triangle between Courtney, Duncan and Gwen.[citation needed] Total Drama: Revenge of the Island received mixed to positive reviews, airing in over 100 countries. However, Total Drama All-Stars has received mixed to negative reviews, blaming the overuse of the Season 4 cast and many wasted plot lines such as building up a reconciliation between Courtney and Gwen's friendship, only to have it be ruined again. Although, Total Drama Pahkitew Island has also received critical acclaim. The season currently holds a 73% approval rating with 3 out of 5 and an 8.5 out of 10.

§Awards[edit]

 * Total Drama Island was a nominee in The Gemini Awards, in 2008.[62]
 * In 2010, the overall show won Best Tween Series and the Viewer's Choice Award for Kid Screen's 1st Annual Award presentation in New York.
 * Total Drama Action was nominated for The Gemini Awards, in 2010.[63]
 * Total Drama World Tour won "Best Foreign Series" and "Best Music Score on a TV series" in the ToonZone Awards.
 * The song Oh My Izzy from Total Drama World Tour was nominated for "Best Song in a TV series" in the ToonZone Awards.
 * Carter Hayden, the voice actor for Noah, was nominated for "Best Voice Actor in a TV Series" and Annick Obonsawin, the voice actress for Sierra, won "Best Voice Actress in a TV Series," in the ToonZone Awards.
 * Total Drama World Tour won "Best Animated Series," "Best Voice Talent," and "Best Tweens/Teens Program" in the Tweens/Teens, Creative Talent, and Viewers Choice categories for the 2011 KidScreen Awards.

§DVD releases[edit]
Up until November 1, 2011, only Total Drama Island had been released on DVD. Cartoon Network released their Total Drama Island DVD in the U.S. on August 18, 2009 (Region 1), while Madman Entertainment (Region 4) also released Total Drama Island on DVD in Australia, but this time in two parts (Collection 1 on May 5, 2010[64] and Collection 2 on September 29, 2010[65]). However, almost two years after Total Drama Action was first aired, Madman released their Collection 1 DVD of the second season on November 2, 2011[66][67] (with Collection 2 being released on July 4, 2012[68]), making Australia the only country that has released the entirety of Total Drama Action for private home viewing. Australia also released Total Drama World Touron DVD with Collection 1 being released on April 3, 2013[69] and Collection 2 being released on August 7, 2013.[70] On October 8, 2014 Total Drama: Revenge of the Island was released into one part due to it being a shorter season. The entire season of Total Drama: All-Stars will be released on March 4, 2015.[72]

§Online promotion[edit]
Teletoon is hosting a Total Drama-based website called "Total Drama Online" where players can play games and earn badges to win prizes.[73] Even though most features (like user accounts, original avatar designer and badge counter) from this website are exclusive to only Canadian viewers, all of the games and basic elements are available to the rest of the world. Cartoon Network also has their own Total Drama website which is very similar to the Canadian one,[74] but is only exclusive to viewers in the United States. Various alternate websites based on the series also exist throughout most of the other countries the show airs in, which are all in their respective languages.[75]

§Spin-off series[edit]
Main article: Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race

A new spin-off series called Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race is in production and which takes place in the same universe as the current show.[76] The new series is loosely based off after the format of the The Amazing Race where the cast are split into multiple teams of two (referred to as duos) and must race around the world throughout the season. There will be a new host named Don[77] whose design was revealed in a Fresh TV post in October 2014.[78] It was confirmed that 26 episodes have been picked up for the show and it will air sometime this year.[79] However, one of the producers, Alex Ganetakos, states that many Ridonculous Race seasons are possible if the first season is successful.[8]

Even though some of the characters from the main series will make appearances, the spin-off series will be primarily dominated by a new cast who has yet to be introduced.[4] Alex Ganetakos is set to produce the show,[80] while Terry McGurrinwill write screenplay,[81] and Chad Hicks is set to direct it.[82] Kristin Fairlie, the voice actor for the character Bridgette, is set to voice one of the new contestants named Carrie.[83] Scott McCord (voice of Owen and Trent) as well as Carter Hayden (voice of Noah) were also revealed to be returning on Twitter.[84] It was eventually revealed that the first pair is to be the aforementioned character Carrie and her best friend Devin, who is played by Jeff Geddis.[85] In February, the second pair was revealed: Stephanie and Ryan. The two are voiced by Nicki Burke of Dead Rising 2 and Joseph Motiki, from Rescue Heroes.[86] The spin-off series will be a "Buddy Comedy" and will include 18 pairs of teams (36 contestants). The spin-off series will premiere in summer on Cartoon Network[87] while it will premiere in the fall on Teletoon.

§Other[edit]
In the 2014 Fan Expo Canada, many characters from the series take over as commentators to several movies that are presented in the event. New scenes are animated in order for the characters to take shape and present themselves in the big screen.[88] Christian Potenza plays the role of the host while over voice actors like, Bryn McAuley, Cory Doran, Scott McCord, Sunday Muse and Zachary Bennett are also involved in this presentation.