Total Drama Island

Total Drama Island
Premiere	July 8, 2007
Creator	Tom McGillis, Jennifer Pertsch
Network/Provider	Teletoon Cartoon Network (USA)
Style	30-minute animated sitcom
Company	Teletoon, Fresh TV Inc., Camp TV Productions (seasons 2–5), Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (season 5.2)
Seasons	6
Episodes	143 + 2 specials
Status	Currently in limbo, has not yet been renewed or cancelled.
Origin	Canada

Total Drama Island (sometimes abbreviated TDI and has the French title of L'île des Défis Extrêmes) is a Canadian animated sitcom that airs on Teletoon. The show is produced by Fresh TV Inc. and (beginning with the second season) Camp TV Productions in association with Teletoon. For the second half of the show's fifth season, Total Drama: Pahkitew Island, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network also co-produced the series (see Season Five below). Cake Distribution handles international syndication of the series.

Total Drama Island made its debut on July 8, 2007, starting with a 26 episode season. TDI concluded its first season on January 4, 2008. A one-hour special episode reuniting the Season One contestants, titled "Total Drama, Drama, Drama, Drama Island", aired on Teletoon on November 29, 2008. [1] The first season of TDI debuted in the United States on June 5, 2008 on Cartoon Network.

The second season of the show, which aired under the title Total Drama Action, premiered on Teletoon on January 11, 2009 at 6:30 p.m., [2] and then on Cartoon Network on June 11, 2009, [3] with the season concluding on both networks on December 10, 2009.

The third season of the TDI franchise, titled Total Drama World Tour (formerly Total Drama, the Musical), debuted on June 10, 2010 on Teletoon, and aired on June 21 on Cartoon Network. TDWT began its regular run on Teletoon on September 9, 2010, [4] and concluded on April 24, 2011.

Season Four, titled Total Drama: Revenge of the Island (known during its development as Total Drama Reloaded), debuted on January 5, 2012 on Teletoon and concluded on April 12, 2012. It later debuted on Cartoon Network on June 5, 2012 and ran until August 28, 2012. The first part of Season Five, which airs as Total Drama All-Stars, debuted on January 9, 2014 on Teletoon and concluded on March 27, 2014. [5] Part Two of Season Five, airing as Total Drama: Pahkitew Island, debuted on Teletoon on September 4, 2014 and concluded on November 20, 2014.

Season One (Total Drama Island)

Total Drama Island is a parody of reality-based television game shows such as Survivor, Big Brother and Fear Factor. The setting for TDI in the first season is a summer camp near Muskoka, Ontario called Camp Wawanakwa, where 22 teenagers from across Canada (divided into two teams of 11, the Killer Bass and the Screaming Gophers) spend eight weeks during the summer competing for a $100,000 grand prize in a reality TV game show (also called Total Drama Island, a show within a show), engaging in various challenges laid out by TDI host Chris Maclean.

As with Survivor in real life, the team that loses the episode's challenge would vote for a team member they believe has cost them the challenge or is, in any way, a weak link to them (although, in later episodes after the teams are dissolved, they sometimes will also vote out a contestant they believe to be the biggest threat to them). At the end of each episode in most cases during the first season, while the winning team celebrate with rewards, the losing team attends a campfire ceremony where Chris hands out marshmallows to each contestant; the player who does not get a marshmallow has been voted out of the game and must leave the island, departing from the Dock of Shame on the Boat of Losers. The last remaining contestant on the island in Season One wins the $100,000 prize.

In addition to the challenges, intra-team alliances are also formed and dissolved, romances develop between players on one team (or sometimes from opposing teams), and some players scheme and manipulate (and sometimes even cheat) their way to victory. Between challenges, each contestant also discusses their thoughts and feelings about the game in the Confessional Can, a mock outhouse with a TV camera installed inside.

Season Two (Total Drama Action)

The show's second season, which is known as Total Drama Action (TDA) (Défis Extrêmes: Action in the French version), features 14 returning contestants in a new competition set at an abandoned film studio backlot in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, Ontario with a $1,000,000 prize at stake, with Chris and Chef Hatchet also returning. The new competition features movie-themed challenges, all expected to be as tough and just as revolting as the challenges from the first season.

Returning contestants for TDA are Gwen, Trent, Owen, Leshawna, DJ, Duncan, Beth, Harold, Geoff, Izzy (who has begun referring to herself in the third person as "Kaleidoscope" or "E-Scope"), Justin, Bridgette, Lindsay and Heather. Courtney, who did not finish as part of the 14-way tie that ended "Total Drama, Drama, Drama, Drama Island" and led up to TDA, was not originally to have been part of the lineup of players for Season Two, but she is allowed to join the game later into the competition anyway after she successfully sues the show's producers for her wrongful elimination in TDI. Katie, Sadie, Cody, Tyler, Ezekiel, Eva and Noah do not return to compete in TDA, but they do appear as panelists in the TDA Aftermath talk show segments.

Some slight changes from the first season are also made in how eliminated contestants are dealt with. Instead of marshmallows, Chris hands out gold-plated award trophies he calls the Gilded Chris (fashioned after himself) to contestants who survive a challenge, while the contestant who is voted out of the game walks down the Red Carpet Walk of Shame and departs the studio lot in the Lame-o-sine (a limousine replacing the Boat of Losers). In two other variations on traditions from the first season, the Confessional Can has been replaced by the Confessional Makeup Trailer as the venue for the contestants to discuss their show experiences in between challenges, and variants on the original team names, now utilizing behind-the-scenes film industry job titles, were used for the teams this season, the Killer Grips (originally captained by Trent, then captained by Justin following Trent's elimination, then by Lindsay and then by Courtney) and the Screaming Gaffers (originally captained by Gwen, then captained by Duncan following Gwen's elimination), up until the team merge later in the season.

In another notable change from the previous season, due to a combination of Teletoon's airing of several weeks of repeats in Canada following each edition of TDA Aftermath and Cartoon Network airing TDA without interruption from the beginning (even though CN began its run of TDA much later than Teletoon), there was a period of several weeks during the fall of 2009 when CN aired each episode of TDA before it aired on Teletoon, its originating channel. This discrepancy was eventually fixed when Teletoon aired two episodes back-to-back two weeks in a row, on November 19 ("Rock n' Rule" and "Crouching Courtney, Hidden Owen") and 26 ("2008: A Space Owen" and "Top Dog"), 2009, along with CN pre-empting TDA on November 26.

Season Three (Total Drama World Tour)

The third season of the show, which is known as Total Drama World Tour (TDWT, formerly Total Drama, the Musical or TDM [6]) (Défis Extrêmes: La Tournée Mondiale! in the French-dubbed version), features 15 returning contestants and 2 newcomers, along with Chris and Chef, traveling around the world by airplane to take part in challenges that also sees them performing some songs.

Returning contestants for TDWT are: Owen, Gwen, Heather, Duncan, Leshawna, Izzy, DJ, Lindsay, Bridgette, Harold, Courtney, Cody, Tyler, Noah and Ezekiel. They are joined by two new contestants, Alejandro and Sierra, and a new Aftermath co-host, Blaineley (who later becomes a contestant herself). Beth, Justin, Trent, Geoff, Katie, Sadie and Eva do not return as contestants for Season Three, although they appear as panelists on the newly-renamed talk show segment TDWT Aftermath.

In more changes from the previous seasons, the biggest change is that instead of two competing teams, there are now three teams competing for a $1,000,000 prize, Team Amazon (comprised of Gwen, Sierra [replacing Izzy], Heather, Courtney and Cody), Team Victory (with Leshawna, Bridgette, Lindsay, DJ, Harold and Ezekiel as members) and the oddly-named Team Chris is Really, Really, Really, Really Hot (named in the season premiere by original member and new contestant Sierra, who later switches teams with Izzy; also includes Alejandro, Owen, Noah and Tyler). Also, contestants have to break into song when Chris rings a chime (a premise included when the third season was first in development as TDM). There are also two new Confessional zones located on the airplane, one in a bathroom and the other in the plane's cockpit. Contestants who are saved from being voted off during the elimination ceremony now receive barf bags, and players who are voted off have to parachute off the plane in the Drop of Shame and land on the Helipad of Losers.

Most notably, although TDWT debuted in Canada on Teletoon on June 10, 2010, 11 days before the third season's American debut on Cartoon Network, the show once again, as with Season Two, broke from the pattern of the first season's broadcast schedule on those respective networks; even though Teletoon is the show's originating channel and co-production company, episodes again aired on CN before airing on Teletoon, as new episodes began running on CN immediately after the third season premiere while TDWT's Teletoon schedule did not begin until September 9, 2010, which put Teletoon at least three months behind CN's schedule for the show in the beginning. The season finale, "Hawaiian Punch", aired in Canada on Teletoon on April 24, 2011, over five months after it aired on CN, due to a combination of repeats and occasional pre-emptions by Teletoon and CN's decision to skip airing TDWT Aftermath episodes on its main channel (instead airing them online on its website).

Season Four (Total Drama: Revenge of the Island)

A fourth season of the series, called Total Drama: Revenge of the Island (TDRI; originally Total Drama Reloaded, or TDR, during development) (Défis Extrêmes: Le Retour à L'île in the French-dubbed version), was announced by the show's production staff on the TDI blog. [7] This season, which is abbreviated with only 13 episodes and debuted on Teletoon on January 5, 2012, returns to its first season setting of Camp Wawanakwa, which has been turned into a toxic nuclear waste dump during the time since Season One. TDRI has only Chris and Chef returning from the previous seasons, while a new cast of contestants, named Lightning, Cameron, Mike, Jo, Scott, Dakota, Zoey, Staci, B, Anne Maria, Dawn, Sam and Brick, [8] compete for a $1,000,000 cash prize as members of two teams, the Toxic Rats (originally the Radioactive Rats, prior to changes noted below) and the Mutant Maggots. None of the contestants from the previous seasons compete in TDRI (and Blaineley does not appear on the show at all this season), though all except for Blaineley appear briefly in the season premiere, and previous contestants Bridgette, Duncan, Ezekiel, Gwen, Harold, Heather, Izzy, Lindsay and Owen make cameo appearances on the show during the season. In another first for the Total Drama series, B is the first character on the show who does not speak at all, thereby negating the need for a voice actor for that character. Due to the abbreviated season, there is no Aftermath segment profiling eliminated contestants this season.

TDRI had originally been scheduled to air first in the US on Cartoon Network in July 2011 before debuting in Canada in September 2011 (following the pattern of Seasons Two and Three, where episodes aired in the US before airing in Canada), but due to the earthquake, the subsequent tsunami and resulting nuclear accidents that struck Tōhoku, Japan on March 11, 2011, the show was delayed by several months for post-production re-editing of dialogue to remove some references to radioactivity out of respect for the victims of that disaster. TDRI was then scheduled to debut in Canada in late-September 2011, but another post-production delay pushed the debut back to January 5. TDRI ended up having its world debut in France, where it aired in an eight-day run from December 21 to December 29, 2011. The American airing of TDRI debuted on June 5, 2012 and concluded with its final two episodes aired back-to-back on August 28, 2012.

Season Five (Total Drama All-Stars/Total Drama: Pahkitew Island)

TDI cast member Christian Potenza, who voices Chris Maclean, first mentioned a fifth season for the TDI franchise on June 28, 2011. [9] Corey Doran, who voices Mike on the show, also mentioned that a possible theme for Season Five would be "Heroes vs. Villains", [10] similar to the 20th season of Survivor. On December 19, 2012, series co-creator Tom McGillis confirmed in an interview with Australian network ABC3 that "Heroes vs. Villains" will be the theme for the first part of the fifth season. [11] This season went into production for airing in November 2013 in Canada [12][13] and was planned to bring back its traditional full season length of 26 episodes. [14][15] It was later announced by McGillis that the Season Five premiere was moved back to September 10, 2013 on Cartoon Network and January 2014 on Teletoon [16] (thus returning to the format in Seasons Two and Three where episodes air in the United States before airing in its originating country, Canada) and would be split into two 13-episode parts. Past contestants confirmed to compete in the first half of Season Five include Alejandro, Cameron, Courtney, Duncan, Gwen, Heather, Jo, Lightning, Lindsay, Mike, Sam, Scott, Sierra and Zoey, [17][18] and Alejandro was recast for the fifth season with a new voice actor, Alex House. [19] As part of the new season, past characters will compete in Season Five's first part in an "all-star" format, with a team of heroes (good-guy characters), the Heroic Hamsters (consisting of Cameron, Mike, Sam, Sierra, Zoey, Lindsay and a misplaced Courtney, who was deliberately placed on the Heroes team by Chris despite being a villain) taking on a team of villainous characters, the Villainous Vultures (led by Alejandro and also made up of Duncan, Heather, Jo, Lightning, Scott and a misplaced Gwen, who Chris deliberately put on the Villains team despite being a hero). On January 28, 2013, the fifth season's first half title, Total Drama All-Stars (TDAS) (Défis Extrêmes All-Stars in the French version), was revealed by Cartoon Network. [20]

On June 11, 2013, Teletoon announced the second part of the fifth season, Total Drama: Pahkitew Island (TDPI) (Défis extrêmes: L'Île de Pahkitew in the Canadian French version, Défis extrêmes: L'Île de secours in the European French version) [21], with an announced premiere date of September 4, 2014. New contestant characters, named Beardo, Dave, Ella, Jasmine, Leonard, Max, Rodney, Scarlett, Shawn, Sky, Sugar, Topher and twin sisters Amy and Samey [22] (the first sibling contestants in the show's history), were introduced into the mix in this part of the season, which takes place at a new location somewhere in western Canada, Pahkitew Island (the title island of the second half of Season Five). According to Fresh TV, none of the original contestants or the TDRI contestants will be appearing at all in TDPI. [23] Also in this part of the season, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, a Canadian TV network devoted to programming about Canada's Aboriginal population, assisted with co-production of TDPI, providing the Cree language translations for the team names, the Pimâpotew Kinosewak (Floating Salmons, consisting of Amy, Jasmine, Max, Rodney, Samey, Scarlett, and Topher) and the Waneyihtam Maskwak (Confused Bears, comprised of Beardo, Dave, Ella, Leonard, Shawn, Sky, and Sugar), and various season references. [24]

Spinoff series

On July 1, 2014, Fresh TV announced on its blog that it was working on a TDI spinoff series, Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race (TDRR) (Défis extrêmes: L'absurdicourse in the Canadian French version, Défis extrêmes: Péchaouchnok Express in the European French version), to air between Seasons Five and Six of TDI. [25] Following the same pattern as parent series TDI, TDRR debuted in the United States first on Cartoon Network on September 7, 2015 and concluded its first season on October 9. In a departure from TDI's previous seasons in Canada (when it aired on Teletoon, the parent show's originating channel), it debuted on January 4, 2016 on the Canadian version of Cartoon Network, with the first season concluding on February 15, 2016.

Alternate Universe Spinoff

On May 3, 2017, Christian Potenza and Christine Thompson announced that "a new Total Drama was in the making". However, on December 19, 2017, a promotional image for Total DramaRama was released. The spinoff set in the alternate universe was originally known as Total Drama Daycare. Not wanting to be a show about daycare, it was renamed Total DramaRama (Garderie extrême in the French Canadian version, and Défis extrêmes : Retour à la maternelle in European French) on June 4, 2018. After two episodes (Venthalla and Duck Duck Juice) were previewed on July 30 and August 13, respectively, the show premiered on Cartoon Network on September 1, 2018. The show premiered on Teletoon in Canada a month later on October 4, 2018. The French Canadian version premiered on the French version of Teletoon on January 5, 2019, marking the first time in the franchise where the English and French dubs were not simulcast at the same time.

Future

On February 17, 2021, it was announced that Total Drama Island would get two new seasons. They are set to air on HBO Max and Cartoon Network [26].

Cartoon Network censorship controversy

When TDI began airing on Cartoon Network in 2008, the network made a number of dialogue edits to nearly every first season episode for perceived issues with language and/or cultural references which network censors believed would not be easily understood by American viewers due to cultural differences from the show's country of origin, Canada. When CN viewers compared the version of TDI aired on that network with the original Canadian version, however, there were complaints by those viewers that the edits ruined many jokes and puns used in the original dialogue, and words that were edited for language (such as "crap", "frickin'", "stupid" and "suck") are actually much milder in comparison to more offensive language used in more mature movies and cable TV programs, where language standards are less stringent. [27][28]. The Cartoon Network TDI viewers' criticism of CN's censorship of the show is bolstered by the fact that 6teen, another Canadian import from Fresh TV which also aired on CN (and which has themes and dialogue similar to TDI), was left mostly untouched by the network censors, even though 6teen aired in the afternoon and TDI aired in prime time, prior to the start of CN's late-night Adult Swim block. Another argument against what the viewers regard as unnecessary censorship of TDI by Cartoon Network is the fact that many CN-produced shows, all of which have targeted similar or younger viewer age demographics to those of TDI, have used the type of words censored from the American airings of TDI. [29]

Among the common edits made to the dialogue by Cartoon Network in the first season episodes:

• All use of the word "suck" is replaced with the common word "stink" or "stank", except in "Not Quite Famous" where Chris says it
• The word "crap" is replaced with a variety of words, but Bridgette uses the word in "Not Quite Famous" and Trent also uses the word during his audition tape in the Season Recap
• The word "stupid" is usually changed to "foolish", "silly", "lame-o", or some other variation, except in "I Triple Dog Dare You!" where "stupid" is used to replace "frickin'" in Gwen's dialogue when she demands her freebie after winning it in a dare
• "Shut up!" was often censored to become "Shut it!" in earlier episodes, and "Zip it!" to substitute for Chef saying it in "Are We There, Yeti?"
• The word "freak" is often changed to "weirdo" whenever it comes up in most cases
• The word "frickin'" (or "freakin'") is replaced with a different word as well, with the substituted word depending on the dialogue and its context
• During the rare occurence of a censor beep in the original version, it is either replaced with PG-rated dialogue or is removed entirely
• The word "gitch" (as a reference to men's underwear, always as either briefs or boxer shorts) is infrequently mentioned, but is always replaced by "drawers", as "gitch" is not a common term used in the US

Notably, censorship of episodes of TDA and TDWT on Cartoon Network has been much less frequent than it was with episodes of TDI because, thanks to apparent influence from CN, Fresh TV made much less use in subsequent seasons of the words and phrases which CN assumed to be objectionable, while Canadian cultural references made by the characters have also been infrequent on TDA for the same reason (although they would return in episodes of TDWT that took place in Canada).

Cast

B, who appears in Season Four, is also a character on the show, but he is not listed with the voice cast because he is not a speaking character, therefore no voice actor was cast for him.

Seasons

Season	Premiere	Finale				#
Teletoon
Season One	July 8, 2007	January 4, 2008				26 + 2
Season Two: Total Drama Action	January 11, 2009	June 10, 2010				26 + 1
Season Three: Total Drama World Tour	June 10, 2010	April 24, 2011				26
Season Four: Total Drama: Revenge of the Island	January 5, 2012	April 12, 2012				13
Season Five: Total Drama All-Stars/Total Drama: Pahkitew Island	January 9, 2014	November 20, 2014				26
Season Six	October 21, 2023	April 14, 2024				26

In-Depth

• At a Glance: Additional information about the series
• Characters: A listing of characters in the series

DVD Releases

Title			Release			Discs
Season Sets  (Region 1)
Total Drama Island: The Complete Season Season One			August 18, 2009	purchase		4

The DVD release listed above, released in the United States by Warner Home Video (the DVD distributor for shows aired on Cartoon Network in the US), is the only release of a season of TDI to date in North America. There have been no releases of any seasons of TDI in Canada, its originating country, and no releases have as yet been announced or even planned by Fresh TV

External Sites

• Total Drama Island on IMDb