Jessi Cruickshank puts your smarts to the test
Host ‘fascinated’ by show’s humour and intelligence
When asked which Jeopardy! category she could go all Ken Jennings on, Jessi Cruickshank doesn’t hesitate.
“Ooh! Leonardo DiCaprio movies. I would dominate.”
Yet when asked how she’d fare on Canada’s Smartest Person, the CBC reality competition that embraces the Theory of Multiple Intelligences — social, visual, musical, logical, linguistic and physical — she’s more generous.
“For me, I feel I must have a certain amount of social intelligence to communicate with TV viewers for eight years, whether they liked it or not. And I got a degree in English literature, so I certainly hope I have linguistic intelligence, or I’d like my money back,” says the 31-year-old Cruickshank, who hosts the show with Jeff Douglas.
“I grew up being told, ‘Oh you’re not good at math,’ so I always believed it. But now, this new series is saying, well it doesn’t matter if you’re not good in a specific area — you’re probably great in other areas.”
Canada’s Smartest Person is a revamped version of CBC’s like-named 2012 special, in which a CFL player beat out a nuclear physicist for the top title. It’s now a nine-part weekly series that debuts on Sunday. The differences between the two incarnations are striking. “You’ll see a lot more contestants, whereas in the first special we only had our handful of contestants. You’ll get to see a lot more variety in people,” Cruickshank says.
“And because there are so many more episodes, we get to do all kinds of different challenges. There’s an electronic dance music challenge with DJs, and there’s a motivational speaking challenge where you have to convince a pee-wee hockey team to get out on the ice.
“We’re forcing our contestants to do everything you can imagine to test their smarts.”
Born in Calgary and raised in Vancouver, Cruickshank is known for her hosting gigs on MTV Canada, among them MTV Live, The Hills After Show and Jerseylicious.
But when the opportunity to host Canada’s Smartest Person came up, she couldn’t say no.
“In my few years of being on TV, I’ve had all these different options in what I get to do. But nothing has crossed my desk quite like this,” Cruickshank says.
“When it aired a couple years ago, I watched it alone in a hotel room in Cold Lake and was fascinated by it.
“I think it’s also a really good combination of intelligence, fun and humour.”