Blood, Sweat & Tools is a Canadian television series that aired on Discovery Channel hosted by Helder Brum, Rob Koci and Hillary Manion, who also acted as the challenge judges and expert advisers to the contestants.
Format The series is the successor of Canada's Worst Handyman and has a broadly similar format, but with an emphasis on rewarding competent handiwork rather than finding the nation's worst handyman. The couples are divided into teams, who are each tasked with undertaking a number of handiwork-related challenges, with the overall goal of improving their skills and confidence. At the end of each episode, the most improved couple is awarded a prize (unlike Canada's Worst Handyman, no one is named the worst). At the end of the series, a $50,000 cash prize is given to the most improved couple as voted on by the public.Bell Media: Press Release
Contestants Steve Garner and Richelene Bautista are a young couple from Winnipeg, Manitoba who, by their own admission, are in serious need of an education in handiwork. Steve's projects around the house have almost all ended in failure and Richelene has virtually no knowledge of tools or handiwork whatsoever. Jesse Graham and Holly Dusome are a young couple from Penetanguishene, Ontario who are rapidly discovering the limits of their handiwork abilities when trying to adapt their house for their young family. Both have different opinions on what their primary problem is, with Jesse considering Holly a control freak and Holly in turn accusing Jesse of being too sloppy and not planning enough. Danielle Routliffe and Tyler Routliffe are a husband and wife from Woodstock, Ontario who met as children, but fail to see eye-to-eye on handiwork. Danielle considers herself to be very capable, but Tyler is worried about her destructive tendencies and habit of abandoning jobs. Jake Sharma and Nicole Sharma are a husband and wife from Mission, British Columbia who have a house that is full of incomplete jobs, including exposed wiring and incomplete plumbing. Jake is convinced that he's a good enough handyman to someday start his own business, but Nicole is less convinced. Fabian Sprik and Luayn Sprik are a husband and wife who live in a former hotel in Teeterville, Ontario. Fabian dreams of restoring it to its former glory, but so far has accomplished little, much to Luayn's annoyance.
Synopsis Team Members 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Red Team Fabian & Luayn IN IMP IN IN NOM NOM IMP IN WINNER Pink Team Danielle & Tyler IN IN IMP IN NOM IMP IN IN RUNNER-UP Blue Team Jesse & Holly NOM IN IN NOM IMP NOM NOM NOM OUT Green Team Jake & Nicole NOM NOM NOM IMP IN NOM IN OUT Purple Team Steve & Richelene IMP IN IN IN IN EXPL
WINNER - The team was named the winner of the series, and awarded the $50,000 prize RUNNER-UP - The team finished as runners-up IMP - The team was named the most improved of the episode NOM - The team was nominated as the most improved of the episode OUT - The team was eliminated, and is out of the running for the grand prize EXPL – The team was expelled from the show, and is out of the running for the grand prize
Episodes Episode 1: Let There be Tools! Original airdate: April 13, 2015 The Workbench: After getting into the prefabricated cabins that will serve as the base for each couple, the teams are each tasked with building a workbench, which should ideally be 36 inches tall, sturdy enough to support having heavy tools permanently attached to it, and most importantly, portable enough that it can easily be carried outside and back into the cabin with a minimum of fuss. The Red Team seemingly manage this challenge well despite a lack of communication between Fabian and Luayn, but then realise that they've made a terrible mistake by building the table far away from their cabin, with no consideration as to whether or not it will fit in. As a result, they have to resort to chopping off a large chunk of the legs, resulting in a very low table and ruining what would otherwise have been a respectable performance. On the Pink Team, Danielle insists on going ahead without measuring or even marking the wood, and Tyler's insistence that she do the job properly results in a stormy build, and a table that's of barely passable quality. The Green Team are the only ones who go to the trouble of measuring the example table built by the experts, but Jake's imprecise measurements and troubles with getting to grips to the tools result in a very haphazard-looking table that noticeably sags in the middle. Much to the experts' alarm, Jake gets Nicole to act as a human brace while he screws the top into the frame. The Purple Team's table proves to be by far the worst, as the inexperience of both Steve and Richelene, along with the former's lackadaisical attitude and the latter's nervousness, results in a table so poor that it totally falls apart when being viewed by the experts. The Blue Team perform easily the best, as despite Jesse's somewhat brusque leadership, their table is completed quickly and to a very solid standard. As a result, their table is judged to be clearly the best and they are named the first challenge winners, and co-forepersons for the next challenge. Team Challenge: The Fire Pit and the Swinging Chair: The candidates are split into teams of men and women, with Jesse leading the men, and Holly leading the women. The men are tasked with building a fire pit from bricks, mortar and gravel, while the women have to assemble a flat-packed wooden swinging chair. Construction on the fire pit generally proceeds smoothly thanks to the work of Jake, who had already built a similar fire pit for his home, though he soon finds himself having to do the entire project, with the other men, especially Tyler, taking a backseat. Holly predicts that the chair build will go smoothly because "women follow instructions," but a power struggle soon emerges between her and Danielle, who insists that they don't need the instructions and that they should push on ahead. As a result, Nicole steps in and supervises the project to completion. The following day, the swinging chair is found to be able to hold four people (even though it was only designed for two), while the fire pit easily withstands a lawnmower being driven into it. Though it's noted that both Jesse and Holly did relatively well as leaders, Jake and Nicole are judged to be the standout performers, and so the Green Team are named the second challenge winners, giving them an advantage for the next challenge. Toilet Replacement: For the third and final challenge of the episode, the teams each have an hour (except for the Green Team, who have an extra 10 minutes) to remove the toilets from their cabins, and replace them with new ones. As an added challenge, one member of the team must remove the old toilet, and then the other must install the new toilet with no help from their partner. Whoever completes their installation to an acceptable standard (measured by being able to flush a bowl of popcorn) in the shortest amount of time wins. Despite Jake managing to get the old toilet out even before the 10-minute headstart is up, the Green Team rapidly falls apart among infighting between him and Nicole, who even threatens her husband with physical violence. They end up taking a total of 57 minutes to finish the job, with Jake noting that if not for their headstart, they would have been in serious danger of not finishing the job at all. The Pink Team fare little better, with tensions continuing to run high between Danielle and Tyler. They finish a little faster at 55 minutes, but their toilet doesn't flush quite as well as most of the others (though still does it well enough to be considered a pass). Jesse refuses to trust Holly to install their toilet and so ends up doing both halves of the Blue Team's job, in violation of the challenge rules; they complete it in 43 minutes. Things go very smoothly for the Red Team, who complete their job in 36 minutes thanks to Fabian having done this job before. However, they're pipped to the post by the Purple Team, as Steve's unorthodox approach of fully assembling the toilet before installing it pays off, resulting in them finishing in 33 minutes and being named the challenge winners. Because they each won a challenge, the Blue, Green and Purple Teams are nominated as the best of the episode. In the end, the experts note that the Green Team totally imploded in the episode's final challenge, and decide that Jesse's violation of the rules in the same challenge cannot be ignored. This means that the Purple Team are the first to be named the best of the episode, as they got better and better in every challenge, and the experts were extremely impressed with Richelene in particular, for showing by far the most improvement of any of the contestants. She and Steve are rewarded with a Japanese "Smart Toilet" worth $3,000.
Episode 2: What's Up, Dock? Original airdate: April 20, 2015 Window Installation: In the episode's first challenge, each team is required to remove the old single-pane windows from the kitchen area of their cabin, and install a double-glazed replacement. Since the new windows are larger than the ones they are replacing, each team will have to cut larger holes to fit the windows in. The installations will be tested by the experts spraying the window with a fire hose. The Pink Team prove to be by far the worst performers in this challenge, as uncertainty over how they should proceed and arguments between Danielle and Tyler see the project rapidly descend into total chaos. Matters nearly come to a head when Tyler comes dangerously close to slicing through a live electrical cable, and his carelessness and Danielle's screaming reaction causes an argument between the duo and Hillary. They take so long to cut their hole that the challenge ends before they can even attempt to install the window, and Danielle and Tyler are forced to take the full force of the fire hose through the empty hole as punishment for their failure. The Blue, Green and Purple teams all complete the job to a reasonable standard (albeit with Jake and Nicole on the Green Team continuing to argue fiercely during their project), but their windows leak due to inadequate usage of the expanding spray foam. At first sight the Red Team's window seems badly askew, but the experts are shocked to find that the window itself is actually perfectly level; the rest of their hut is in fact what's not level. The window itself holds up perfectly to the fire hose test, and so the team are named the winners of this challenge.