A C-47, owned by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, was used for a challenge in the reality show “Canada’s Ultimate Challenge.” Host Brandon Gonez is seen here in front of the museum’s Beechcraft Expeditor. The show filmed in Hamilton last fall. It is now on CBC Sunday nights and also on CBC Gem.
CBC photo
Members of Team Yellow at a challenge for the reality show “Canada’s Ultimate Challenge” on Signal Hill in St. John’s, N.L. last fall. The four are, from left, Shannon Torgerson, Quinton Maclean, Chassidy Sule and Paul Kabilke. Maclean is from Oakville.
CBC photo
Brandon Gonez, host of “Canada’s Ultimate Challenge,” beside the HMCS Haida, which was used as a backdrop for one of the show’s challenges.
CBC photo
The Pham family take part in a community rummage sale in “Run The Burbs.” CBC is not renewing the program, which shot locally.
A C-47, owned by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, was used for a challenge in the reality show “Canada's Ultimate Challenge.” Host Brandon Gonez is seen here in front of the museum's Beechcraft Expeditor. The show filmed in Hamilton last fall. It is now on CBC Sunday nights and also on CBC Gem.
CBC photo
A C-47, owned by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, was used for a challenge in the reality show “Canada's Ultimate Challenge.” Host Brandon Gonez is seen here in front of the museum's Beechcraft Expeditor. The show filmed in Hamilton last fall. It is now on CBC Sunday nights and also on CBC Gem.
CBC photo
Members of Team Yellow at a challenge for the reality show “Canada's Ultimate Challenge” on Signal Hill in St. John's, N.L. last fall. The four are, from left, Shannon Torgerson, Quinton Maclean, Chassidy Sule and Paul Kabilke. Maclean is from Oakville.
CBC photo
Brandon Gonez, host of “Canada's Ultimate Challenge,” beside the HMCS Haida, which was used as a backdrop for one of the show's challenges.
The C-47 owned by the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is used to challenges.
In the Second World War, these flew British paratroopers into Normandy on D-Day. For the second season of CBC’s reality show “Canada’s Ultimate Challenge,” this aircraft took contestants into the air for a game of horseshoes. Contestants had to drop a bag from the plane and land it near a target.
It wasn’t the only wartime Hamilton item employed in the show, which premiered last Sunday on CBC (8 p.m.) and CBC Gem. The show, during filming here last October, used the HMCS Haida as part of a challenge that saw contestants build a boat that would be as sturdy as the vessel that saw action on D-Day.
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Host Brandon Gonez said this season’s show tied challenges into Canada’s history in order for viewers to learn something about the country’s history, “including Hamilton as well.” The Hamilton episode will be broadcast May 19.
“We wanted to showcase the Haida,” Gonez said. “A lot of Canadians don’t know that one of the interesting things is how it was built.”
The Haida was built in England between 1941 and 1942 and commissioned in 1943. The last of 27 Tribal-class destroyers, it was equipped with the latest radar, sonar detection, communications and thicker hull plates. Known as Canada’s “most fightingest ship” it also saw service in the Korean War and served in the Royal Canadian Navy until 1963.
“It was a difficult one,” said Gonez, a former TV reporter and CP 24 anchor who joined the show for the new season. “There was a lot of running, hiding and seeking and paddling.”
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He said the plane challenge had its challenges, too. It was “pretty fast” and “pretty loud.” He said, however, some contestants said their time in the C-47 “was a life-changing experience.”
“If you’re afraid of heights, you get butterflies from the toe to your head,” Gonez said.
Not for him, though. “I like my two feet on the ground.”
“Canada’s Ultimate Challenge” turns the country into one big obstacle course. Other communities visited for challenges were St. John’s, N.L., Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Que., Ottawa, Canmore, Alta., Revelstoke, B.C., and Vancouver Island.
Twenty contestants in five teams took part in 16 challenges. The show filmed over seven weeks last fall. Winners receive a VIP trip to the Paris Olympics.
The closest competitors to Hamilton include Quintin Maclean, 29, from Oakville, Brandon Rodwell, 35, from Woodstock and Harvin Sangha, 27, from Brampton. Other contestants hail from such places as Saint John, N.B., Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Innisfil near Barrie.
Gonez said viewers won’t be disappointed if they turn in to see something special.
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“Oh my goodness,” he said. “There are so many cool challenges that were made for the show. There’s going to be a lot more reality. There’s going to be a lot more drama. You get to interact and follow these 20 contestants from across the country. They brought the heat. They didn’t hold back.”
Gonez said things got pretty hot between competitors in Hamilton and that it got close to a fight, but it remained verbal.
The Pham family take part in a community rummage sale in “Run The Burbs.” CBC is not renewing the program, which shot locally.
CBC photo
The CBC sitcom “Run The Burbs” won’t be filming in Hamilton anymore.
The network is not renewing the program that filmed for three seasons on Leadale Place on the west Mountain, near Buchanan Park. The program starred comedian Andrew Phung as the father of the Pham family in the suburb of Rockridge. The Phams got into situations like drag racing, matching Halloween costumes, a tussle with a bylaw officer and fights with raccoons.
Phung shared the news on X and about filming in the city.
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“I love Hamilton so much,” he said. “Gonna miss going there for sure.”
Fans reacted with sadness. One launched #SaveRunTheBurbsPetition. A farewell is set for May 16 at 7 p.m. at CBC’s Barbara Frum Atrium in Toronto. Two episodes will be screened and a Q&A will follow with cast members.
NOTE: This story has been updated to indicate the correct type of aircraft used in the show. A caption has also been updated to properly identify the aircraft in the photo.
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