Total Drama Island

Total Drama Island

Country of Origin	Canada
Genre	Reality TV/Comedy/Animation
Television channel	Canada: Teletoon United States: Cartoon Network
First Premiered	Teletoon: July 8, 2007 Cartoon Network: June 5, 2008
Created by	Jennifer Pertsch Tom McGillis
Developed by	Fresh TV Inc./Teletoon
Directed by	Todd Kauffman Mark Thornton

Total Drama Island is the first season of the Total Drama series. Total Drama Island premiered in the Canadian television channel, Teletoon on July 8, 2007. It is rated TV-PG or TV-PG-D for Cartoon Network. Total Drama Island is a show that is similar to Survivor, taking place at Camp Wawanakwa in Muskoka, Ontario.

Overview[]

The show involves about twenty-two teenage contestants who signed up for a reality show on an island known as Camp Wawanakwa or Total Drama Island. The teens were originally under the impression that they were going to be on a show called I Wanna Be Famous, where they live in a luxurious mansion and "play guitars and have a great time." According to Chris, to be on the show, you had to be at least sixteen years old, and "kooky, obnoxious, stuck-up, dense, loud, annoying, filthy, or anywhere remotely in between."

The twenty-two teens are divided into two separate teams, the Screaming Gophers and the Killer Bass. The two teams were given challenges every three days which they must compete in. The losing team would then vote one of their members off. The losing contestant must walk the Dock of Shame and board the Boat of Losers, which will then take the losing camper away. This process perpetuates on and on until only two people are left and then they compete in a final challenge until only one person remains on the island. The last contestant standing wins $100,000 in prize money.

Characters[]

Twenty-two teenagers, plus Chris McLean, the host, and Chef Hatchet, the camp's cook. The twenty-two teenagers are competing, while the host and cook aren't.

Participant	Team	Status	Placing
Ezekiel	Killer Bass	1st Voted Out in Not So Happy Campers - Part 2	24th Place	Non-Merged
Eva	Killer Bass	Returns in No Pain, No Game 2nd Voted Out in The Big Sleep
Noah	Screaming Gophers	3rd Voted Out in Dodgebrawl	22nd Place
Justin	Screaming Gophers	4th Voted Out in Not Quite Famous	21st Place
Katie	Killer Bass	5th Voted Out in The Sucky Outdoors	20th Place
Tyler	Killer Bass	6th Voted Out in Phobia Factor	19th Place
Izzy	Screaming Gophers	Returns in No Pain, No Game 7th Left in Up The Creek
Cody	Screaming Gophers	8th Voted Out in Paintball Deer Hunter	17th Place
Beth	Screaming Gophers	9th Voted Out in If You Can't Take The Heat...	16th Place
Sadie	Killer Bass	10th Voted Out in Who Can You Trust?	15th Place
Courtney	Killer Bass	11th Eliminated in Basic Straining	14th Place
Harold	Killer Bass	12th Voted Out in X-Treme Torture	13th Place
Eva	Killer Bass	13th Voted Out in No Pain, No Game	12th Place	Merged
Trent	Screaming Gophers	14th Voted Out in Search and Do Not Destroy	11th Place
Bridgette	Killer Bass	15th Voted Out in Hide and Be Sneaky	10th Place
Lindsay	Screaming Gophers	16th Eliminated in That's Off the Chain!	9th Place
DJ	Killer Bass	17th Eliminated in Hook, Line, and Screamer	8th Place
Izzy	Screaming Gophers	18th Voted Out in Wawanakwa Gone Wild!	7th Place
Geoff	Killer Bass	19th Voted Out in Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon	6th Place
LeShawna	Screaming Gophers	20th Voted Out in Haute Camp-ture	5th Place
Duncan	Killer Bass	21st Voted Out in Are We There Yeti?	4th Place
Heather	Screaming Gophers	22nd Eliminated in I Triple Dog Dare You!	3rd Place
Gwen	Screaming Gophers	Runner-Up in The Very Last Episode, Really!
Owen	Screaming Gophers	Winner in The Very Last Episode, Really!

Elimination[]

This is the process in Total Drama Island in which a camper is eliminated; initially, the team that lost the most recent challenge, unless the last challenge happened to be a reward challenge, would vote for a camper and the one with the most votes against them would be voted off the island. Since the teams eventually merged, all the campers began to vote for each other and only the challenge winner received immunity. In certain challenges, a camper would be automatically eliminated without any votes if they lost a challenge after the merge.

Episodes[]

See: Episodes

There are twenty-six episodes, twenty-seven counting the exclusives. TDI Rundown and Total Drama Island Recap are exclusive episodes, only being aired on Cartoon Network and Teletoon in the United States and Canada respectively.

Production[]

Total Drama Island, originally developed as "Camp TV"; was created by Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsh. It was developed and produced by Fresh TV on a budget of $8 million and animated at Elliott Animation using the Flash program. All of the episodes were directed by Todd Kauffman and Mark Thornton of Neptoon Studios with Kauffman also designing all of the characters.

Reception[]

Total Drama Island became a big success both in Canada on Teletoon and in the United States on Cartoon Network and, along with fellow Fresh TV show 6TEEN, was a consistently top performer for an audience of ages 6-11 and helped bring in older viewers along the way. The December 11, 2008 airing of the show on Cartoon Network reportedly garnered 3.5 million viewers. A marathong of the show on the Memorial Day weekend of 2009 increased viewership in the age groups 2-11, 6-11, and 9-14, each by 20% or more compared to the same week in 2008.

The show was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Animated Program or Series with Tom McGillis, Jennifer Pertsch, George Elliott, and Brian Irving to have been the recipients had the shown won the award.

Total Drama Island has since spawned three sequel shows, Total Drama Action, Total Drama World Tour, and Total Drama: Revenge of the Island. For the purpose of continuity with Total Drama Academy, all three shows are not recognized. However, Lord Akiyama has noted that elements from the shows would be used to his liking.