Total Drama



Total Drama is a series created by Jennifer Pertsch and Tom McGillis. Total Drama is developed by Fresh TV Inc. and Teletoon. It has the Canadian TV rating of "G" or "c8" (ages 8+). It has the American rating of TV-PG or TV-PG-D (Originally TV-PG-DLS) on Cartoon Network. It also has the Russian rating of 12+. The show premiered in Canada on July 8, 2007 and in the US on June 5, 2008.

Staff
There are sixty-four voice actors, six directors, thirty-five writers, and three song-writers for the series.

Total Drama Island
Total Drama Island (formerly titled "Camp TV") is about twenty-two contestants on an island known as "Camp Wawanakwa" or "Total Drama Island". The contestants were divided into two separate teams, the Screaming Gophers and the Killer Bass. The two teams were given challenges and every three days, the team who lost the challenge votes the contestant they most want off the island off. The contestant who was voted off must walk the Dock of Shame to the Boat of Losers, which will take the loser away. This process continues on until one person remains on the island. The last contestant standing wins $100,000.

Episodes
There are twenty-six episodes, twenty-seven counting the exclusives for each country, plus a special.

Total Drama Action
Total Drama Action, the second season of the show, takes place on an abandoned film lot somewhere in Toronto, Ontario. Fifteen of the original contestants are split up into two teams, the Screaming Gaffers and the Killer Grips. The teams compete in movie-themed challenges until only one contestant is left on the set. That player ultimately wins $1,000,000.

Episodes
Just like Total Drama Island, there are twenty-six episodes, plus a special, which gives way to the next season.

Total Drama World Tour
Total Drama World Tour (formerly titled "Total Drama, the Musical") is the third season of Total Drama. Fifteen of the original contestants, as well as three new ones, compete for another $1,000,000 in various challenges in locations all around the world. This season, there are three teams: Team Amazon, Team Victory, and Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Hot. All the while, the contestants must break into spontaneous musical numbers during each and every episode until the Hawaiian Punch when one player wins it all.

Episodes
Total Drama World Tour consists of twenty-six episodes.

Total Drama: Revenge of the Island
Total Drama: Revenge of the Island (formerly titled "Total Drama Reloaded") is the fourth season of the series. In the official Total Drama Production Blog, Mark Thornton was the first to mention the existence of season four, and later said that as of January 18, 2010, the season was being written. This is significant for being the first season to not feature any of the original cast of twenty-two competing; this season instead features thirteen brand new characters. The season effectively traces the roots of the series back to the setting of the original season: Camp Wawanakwa. The presence of radioactivity is major trait of the season, as both team names are related to nuclear radiation: the Toxic Rats and the Mutant Maggots. Other than that, the season goes back to the same basic format as the original season, with the teams competing for immunity while the losing teams vote a member off. The prize money (once again $1,000,000) goes to the last-standing contestant in the season.

Episodes
Total Drama: Revenge of the Island contains thirteen episodes, exactly half of the usual twenty-six episodes.

Total Drama All-Stars
Total Drama All-Stars is the first half of the fifth season of the series. This season was first announced by Christian Potenza on July 19, 2012 in an interview with Tom McGillis, saying that Season 5 would be very similar to Total Drama Island and Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, due to the high success of the two seasons' "Survivor" style theme.

The season takes place back in Camp Wawanakwa, the location used in Total Drama Island and Total Drama: Revenge of the Island. Total Drama All-Stars features fourteen past all-star contestants over a span of thirteen episodes. Before the merge, the two teams are the Villainous Vultures and the Heroic Hamsters, with the teams competing for immunity, while the losing team votes a member off until the merge. After the merge, the last-standing contestant wins $1,000,000.

Episodes
Total Drama All-Stars contains thirteen episodes, like the fourth season.

Total Drama: Pahkitew Island
Total Drama: Pahkitew Island is the second half of fifth season of the series. It was first confirmed at a Teletoon press release on June 9, 2013. Along with that, this season now takes place at a brand new location, Pahkitew Island, with fourteen new contestants and thirteen episodes. The two teams are Waneyihtam Maskwak (which translates to Confused Bears in English) and Pimâpotew Kinosewak (which translates to Floating Salmon in English). It began airing on Cartoon Network beginning July 7, 2014 and finished its run in two weeks. It later began airing on Teletoon beginning September 4, 2014.

Episodes
Total Drama: Pahkitew Island contains thirteen episodes, like the two previous seasons.

Total Drama: Season 6
On May 3, 2017, a sixth season for the Total Drama series was announced via a YouTube video by Christian Potenza and Christine Thompson. According to Christine on Facebook, the series will air on Cartoon Network in late 2018/early 2019. Nothing else is known about it and it is currently unnamed; however, Christine mentioned some fan favorites from Total Drama Island are set to reappear.

Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race
Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race is a spin-off series of Total Drama. It is the first season of the series. This spin-off was first announced by Fresh TV on July 1, 2014. While the main series remains a parody of Survivor, the spin-off is a parody of The Amazing Race. Along with that, this season takes place in various locations around the world, with eighteen pairs competing. Four Total Drama contestants; Owen, Noah, Geoff, and Leonard return to compete in this spin-off. On September 4, 2015, Cartoon Network released the first six episodes on their website. On September 7, 2015, the season began airing live in the United States. It later began airing on Teletoon beginning January 4, 2016.

Episodes
Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race contains twenty-six episodes, like the first three seasons.

Future plans
Co-creator Tom McGillis has stated that his personal goal is for Total Drama to go up to ten seasons. 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.

On May 3rd, 2017, the series was confirmed to officially have a sixth season. Currently, nothing is known to be in production besides that.

Censorship in United States
Although it was originally rated TV-PG DLS, Total Drama episodes are usually rated TV-PG in the United States, for suggestive dialogue and aggressive language. Sometimes an episode will be rated TV-PG D for mild flirtatious dialogue.

In earlier episodes of the series, much of the dialogue was edited due to the differences in what is considered to be TV-PG in Canada and the United States. Strangely, these changes would be made despite other shows on the network having similar content. The number of edits decreased drastically in Total Drama Action and Total Drama World Tour, though occasionally dialogue and sometimes even scenes will still be cut. In Total Drama: Revenge of the Island and onward, there are almost no edits or censorship.

Opening sequences
I Wanna Be Famous, by Graeme Cornies and Dawna Toews

Seasons 1-4
''Dear Mom and Dad, I'm doing fine, You guys are on my mind. You asked me what I wanted to be And now I think the answer is plain to see. 'Cause I wanna be famous.''

''I wanna live close to the sun Well, pack your bags 'cause I've already won Everything to prove, nothing in my way I'll get there one day 'Cause I wanna be famous!''

''na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na I wanna be I wanna be I wanna be famous I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!''

(Whistling: I wanna be...I wanna be famous)

Season 5-present
''na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na I wanna be I wanna be I wanna be famous I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!''

(Whistling: I wanna be famous)

Reception
The Total Drama series has garnered very successful ratings over the years. Carole Bonneau, the Vice President of programming of Teletoon Canada, stated that Total Drama Island, along with Fresh TV's 6Teen, were "consistently top performers" for audiences of ages 6-11, and also helped to bring in older viewers as well. When Total Drama Island aired on the American Cartoon Network, it performed very well; The Toronto Star reported that, "in some age groups, Total Drama Island showed a 500 percent ratings increase in its time slot". On December 11, 2008, Total Drama Island garnered 3.5 million viewers. That year, the series was the top "regularly-scheduled Thursday night program at 9 p.m. on all television throughout third quarter among boys 2-11, 6-11 and 9-14", according to the Animation World Network. On Memorial Day weekend of 2009, a marathon of Total Drama Island increased viewership in age groups 2-11, 6-11, and 9-14, each by 20% or more compared to the same week in 2008.

The show's critical reception has been generally positive. Commonsense Media gave the show four out of five stars, calling it a "clever cartoon reality show spoof OK for older tweens". In reviewing the DVD for the first season, Matthew Price of The Oklahoman wrote that while the show started out "unbelievably slowly", the series became more interesting as campers began getting voted off. Price also praised the parody of reality shows. In another review of the DVD, Jeffrey Kauffman of DVD Talk wrote that the character development was compelling and that the parody of reality shows were very funny. Mac McEntire of DVD Verdict praised the character development as well, but noted that the show sometimes sinks to "lowbrow gross-outs". Both Kauffman and McEntire recommended the season DVD. However, not all reviews have been positive. Debi Enker of The Age gave a negative review of the season's last episode, calling the art, the design, and the writing "lamentable".

Merchandise

 * The DVD of the first season, Total Drama Island: The Complete First Season, came out on August 18, 2009.
 * Kauffman and Thornton have both confirmed that, as of this point, DVD releases of Total Drama Action, Total Drama World Tour, Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, Total Drama All-Stars, and Total Drama: Pahkitew Island have not yet been scheduled. They might be released sometime in the future.
 * Australia is the only country to receive a Total Drama Action DVD, and be releasing a Total Drama World Tour DVD, as collection 1 has been released on April 3, 2013, as well as a Total Drama: Revenge of the Island DVD set and a Total Drama: Pahkitew Island DVD set.
 * A blue Total Drama Action t-shirt with a Gilded Chris Award on it was released on the Cartoon Network Shop website. Also, a t-shirt with the entire Total Drama Island cast was released by Hot Topic.
 * A black Total Drama World Tour t-shirt with all the locations on it (and the Total Drama World Tour logo) was released for Gossip Mongers on Total Drama Online.
 * Another variation of the shirt includes the skull from Duncan's shirt.
 * A t-shirt that can be both blue and black features the question about Total Drama from the popular game show Jeopardy!

Awards

 * Total Drama Island was nominated for The Gemini Awards, in 2008.
 * In 2010, the 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.
 * 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 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.

Trivia

 * Three seasons so far have had their original titles changed shortly before premiering:
 * Camp TV was changed to Total Drama Island.
 * Total Drama, the Musical was changed to Total Drama World Tour.
 * Total Drama Comedy was changed to Total Drama Reloaded, and later to Total Drama: Revenge of the Island.
 * In the first three seasons, at least two contestants have joined or rejoined the game about halfway through.
 * In Total Drama Island, Izzy and Eva returned after the teams merged.
 * In Total Drama Action, Izzy and Owen both returned to the competition, while Courtney later debuted.
 * In Total Drama World Tour, Duncan returned after quitting, and Blaineley debuted at the merge.
 * Thus, Izzy is the only contestant to return to the competition more than once.
 * Also, the only two contestants who have ever joined a season that they were not originally supposed to be on were females.
 * Coincidentally, both were eliminated via double elimination with each other in Total Drama World Tour.
 * However, in Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, only one contestant returned.
 * In Total Drama All-Stars and Total Drama: Pahkitew Island, no contestants returned to the competition.
 * There are fifty-two participants in Total Drama so far.
 * There are four contestants who have qualified for four seasons: Heather, Gwen, Lindsay, and Duncan.
 * However, Courtney, who qualified for Total Drama Island, Total Drama World Tour, and Total Drama All-Stars, did not originally qualify for Total Drama Action, but competed on the season after suing the show.
 * There are six contestants who have qualified for three seasons: Owen, DJ, Harold, Bridgette, Leshawna, and Izzy.
 * There are sixteen contestants who have competed in only two seasons: Geoff, Trent, Beth, Cody, Tyler, Ezekiel, Justin, Noah, Cameron, Lightning, Zoey, Scott, Jo, Mike, Sierra, and Sam.
 * However, Alejandro, who qualified for Total Drama World Tour, did not originally qualify for Total Drama All-Stars, but competed on the season after his robotic body was destroyed.
 * There are currently twenty-three contestants who have competed in only one season: Katie, Sadie, Eva, Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dakota, Dawn, and Staci, as well as the fourteen contestants who debuted in Total Drama: Pahkitew Island.
 * However, Blaineley, who did not originally qualify for Total Drama World Tour, competed on the season after winning the second chance challenge.