Canada's Worst Handyman 5 was the fifth season of the Canadian reality TV show Canada's Worst Handyman, which aired on the Discovery Channel. As with previous years, five people, nominated by their family or friends, enter the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre to improve their handyman skills. This year, the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre is located at the Delta Upsilon fraternity house located on Central Avenue in London, Ontario. As with the previous season, contestants must purchase the 245 supplies they need, this time to renovate individual rooms in the frat house. Group challenges this season center on the renovation of a central kitchen. There are several changes that were made for this season: contestants were allowed full access to a computer during challenges for informational purposes and nominators were not permitted to make suggestions to their nominees. It is also the first time since the first season that the nominators are not present at the end of the episode when the most improved and the worst are named.
Experts Geoff Woodmansey has been in the trades for most of his life. One of his recent projects was shown on the TV show Junk Raiders, where he and others attempted to renovate a loft using only recycled and reclaimed materials. Gail Prosser-Craig is the show's carpentry expert. She was trained in finish carpentry and currently operates a renovation company entirely staffed by women.
Contestants Angela Finseth, 30, a stay-at-home mother of three from Spruce Grove, Alberta (near Edmonton), has been bitten by the decoration bug, but the quality of her redecoration leaves much to be desired. In fact, her husband and nominator, Matt Hanley, an audio engineer, is said to be disgusted by her workmanship. However, it is often his attitude that makes her give up the projects. As the season progresses, it becomes clear that Matt wants Angela (the only female nominee) to fail so she will stop doing handiwork. Deen Flett, 38, a youth worker from High Prairie, Alberta (at the time of taping; he has since moved to Stony Plain, Alberta at the time of airing, both of which are near Edmonton), is completely clueless when it comes to tools, not knowing what they are and what they are used for. His twin brother, Doug, is putting him in rehab because he does not want to bail him out of handiwork trouble again. Cory Goertzen, 27, an auto mechanic from Burns Lake, British Columbia, is a person who rushes through projects to finish them. His short temper has led his fiancée, Kim Pettigrew, to nominate him based on his attitude and he accepted simply to prove her wrong. Simon Larade, 63, a retired school teacher from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, is passionate about home renovation. According to his wife of 37 years and original nominator, Linda, the passion may be there, but the skill needed to get things done is not—so much so that she has barred Simon (the oldest nominee overall) from doing projects on the ground floor of their home. Linda was only able to attend the first half of the rehab course due to other commitments and for the second half was replaced by the couple's son, Joey. Matt Webb, 24, a former soldier from Elmsdale, Nova Scotia, is a self-described hillbilly. Handiwork is in his blood; he had built his house from the ground up. However, his friend and nominator, Keith MacNeil (referred to as Silent Keith on the show because he went through almost the entire series without saying a word; the only exception being the Frat House Bender: Part Two Challenge in Episode 6), thinks that it is all for naught, as his house is crooked and nothing is properly done.
Synopsis Contestant(with hard hat colour) Nominator 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Angela Matt IN IN IMP WORST NOM IN IN Cory Kim IN IMP IN IN IN WORST IN Deen Doug IMP IN IN IN IN IN CWH Matt Keith WORST IN IN IN IMP IN IN Simon Linda/Joey IN WORST WORST IMP IN IMP IN
CWH – The contestant is Canada's Worst Handyman. WORST – The contestant is the worst of the episode. NOM – The nominator of the contestant is the worst of the episode. IN – The contestant was considered for the worst for this episode. IMP – The contestant is the most improved of the episode.
Episode 1: The Frat Pack Original Airdate: May 3, 2010 The contestants arrive at the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, where the nominators await them with their colour-coded hats: Angela in pink, Simon in red, Cory in yellow, Matt in orange and Deen in blue. They are also greeted at the door by Andrew and over a video monitor by former Delta Upsilon alumnus Alan Thicke, who had lived in the house during his education at the University of Western Ontario. The second floor of Canada's Worst Frat House contains the five rooms they are to renovate. Inside each room is a binder consisting of a description of the 31 challenges that the nominees will do, as well as a monitor with a picture of Thicke. Entering: The first task is to enter the rooms, which have all been boarded up on the outside. Whereas Matt enters easily by kicking the door open from behind the boards, Deen tries to prod the door open with a hockey stick before changing gears and cutting the boards with a circular saw (as revealed in the following episode the show's crew stopped him halfway through when he was found to be holding his hand mere inches from the blade). Cory gets in by ripping all the wood apart with a chain saw. Simon and Angela both enter by undoing the screws holding the boards to the door frame, but Simon finishes much faster. Shopping: For the second year in a row, the nominees travel to Canadian Tire, where they are each given $4,000 to locate and purchase the 245 items that will be needed for their 31 challenges ahead. Cory, who tries to cheat by soliciting a Canadian Tire staffer to pick all his tools, manages to get creative with accounting and goes slightly over-budget, but enough that the difference is covered by the Canadian Tire money he gets back. Matt (180/245) gets a few items not on the list, intending to build a bar in the room. Simon (104/245) goes over budget, while nominator Matt's insistence of buying more expensive tools (and other arguing) causes Angela also go over budget (the number of items she got was not stated). Deen (57/245) has the worst trip, with Doug gathering all 57 items. Home Challenge: The Trunk: The contestants are tasked to, prior to entering rehab, build a trunk that can support their own weight out of a sheet of plywood and an assortment of hinges, handles, and other fasteners. Despite promising starts by all (Matt's plan involves not wasting wood), all of them fail when they discover that their lids are too small for the boxes they have made. In addition, Angela cuts the floor to her garage when she uses a circular saw to cut her plywood that's placed on the ground, Cory cutting his wood with a chain saw, Simon with multiple saws after frustration over the operation of a table saw leads him to switch to a jig saw. The Workbench: The contestants must build a workbench to start their project. Cory is first to finish, but his bench only consists of a plywood board and four 2x4s for legs. Matt's workbench is a single sawhorse, which must combined with his ladder and a piece of plywood to form a bench. Deen's idea of a cube with a top is a pass, even supporting Andrew's weight. Simon's workbench is too low, but otherwise fine. Angela fails when it is "slightly too wobbly" due to a short leg. Group Challenge: Demolition: Group challenges this year are centred around the demolition of the kitchen on the first floor. Everyone begins ripping things apart, with Matt and Cory tearing the dishwasher while the plumbing and electricity is still connected, creating a potentially lethal hazard. After being chastised by Andrew on electrical safety, the team continues going in an ad-hoc style, earning the team another chastising by the experts when a vent hood nearly falls on them.
In final inspections, Cory's workbench is harshly critiqued and admits that he does not take criticism easily (though Andrew and the experts make the point that brutal honesty will be given in spades over the course of the series). Praise is given to Deen's workbench, while Angela's workbench is given a minor critique for not making the legs flush to the floor. Simon admits that he lacks organization and Matt admits that he was the worst of the episode after the group challenge, as he felt that his effort in both his workbench (which he rebuilt, but still failed) and the group challenge was "half-assed." The experts agree that the worst is based on who made more safety violations in the episode—Geoff choosing Matt for disconnecting a running dishwasher without switching off the power and standing on a stove and Gail choosing Cory for using a chainsaw indoors in a tight space. In the end, Matt is declared the worst, while Deen is named the most improved of the episode, due to building the workbench that exceeded the "non-trunk." For his homework challenge, Matt is forced to build a new workbench and paint the phrase "Am I Finished?" on the walls of his room until he believed it is properly complete. While doing so, he admits to various incomplete projects around the house.
Web extras for this episode: Andrew Responds to Your Questions: Between seasons, viewers could ask Andrew questions regarding either Canada's Worst Handyman or Canada's Worst Driver on the Discovery Channel website, which he would answer on the show. Questions answered included the following: With regards to a "worst of the worst" series, Andrew replies that it has been floated around but never acted upon. He does note that there would be five contestants that would have been named Canada's Worst Handyman at the end of this season, so a "worst of the worst" season for Canada's Worst Handyman could come as early as next season. With regards to who the worst of the four contestants named Canada's Worst Handyman are so far, Andrew simply defers the answer to the outcome of a "worst of the worst" season. With regards to why there has not been a contestant for Canada's Worst Driver or Canada's Worst Handyman from Newfoundland and Labrador, the only province so far unrepresented in the history of the two shows combined (that has since changed with Santana Pike in Canada's Worst Driver 10; none of the territories have also been represented on the show as well), Andrew states that there has not been a "fellow Newfie" who has even come close in the nomination process and thus, he believes that Newfoundlanders are simply better drivers and handymen. With regards to how the experts interact with the contestants, Gail states that the contestants often leave messes lying about when doing their work, making the worksite seem unprofessional. However, she also defends the contestants, stating that they need to be nurtured with respect to their skills. The New Nominees: Andrew gives his opinions on the new nominees, in particular, that the nominees (Deen aside) are more experienced (in terms of having done handiwork) but less skilled. More specifically, the nominees, having not had any direction into what the right and wrong way to do things and thus, accept mistakes as being correct due to not knowing otherwise. (As a result, the experts often demand a higher standard compared to previous years.) As with previous seasons, he also gives a quick rundown on each of the contestants and their quirks. Geoff's Take (2): Geoff, after numerous glitches, manage to give his take on the contestants. He notes that the number of mishaps, including tools catching on fire, is a major issue this season. Another major issue this year was the age of the house, which is especially prominent during the upcoming electrical challenges, where the various different styles of wiring was revealed that the electrical wiring was considered dangerous for the house, not just the contestants.
Episode 2: Lofty Ideas Original Airdate: May 10, 2010