SmartAsk

SmartAsk is a Canadian quiz show which ran for three seasons (2001-02 through 2003-04) on CBC Television. The show was taped in front of a live audience, with the players sitting on a tiered set (one team on top and the other on the bottom). The SmartAsk tournament was described by Ralph Benmergui, the show's executive producer, on TSN's Off The Record as being "Reach for the Top on acid," although in practice this largely involved crude humour, especially as the show went on and ratings sagged.

The show was hosted in its first season by Justin Landry and rapper Michie Mee. Brothers Nobu and Mio Adilman replaced Landry for the second season, and Sabrina Jalees replaced Michie for the final season.

During the show's first two seasons, "Judge Lucci" (Luciano Casimiri) had a semi-recurring role as the show's on-air judge. The show also brought in numerous celebrity judges" for Season 2 including such celebrities as Colin Mochrie from Whose Line Is It Anyway, Olympic gold medallist Sami Jo Small, MLB star Chris Woodward, environmentalist David Suzuki, and German folk singer Heino. The judging panel was moved off-camera in Season 3, with the title of "Celebrity Judge" given to a random audience member for each episode.

"Superfan" Andy Saunders also made guest appearances during the show's second and final seasons, to give analysis, predictions, and statistics. Saunders also handed out "Andy Awards" to the show's top players and funnier moments.

Schools wishing to compete for the championship first submitted a written, audio or video entry to the CBC on a topic announced on the CBC's SmartAsk page. A major grievance against the selection process, however, was the subjectivity of evaluation of entries, with no clear criteria for judging. Nevertheless, 124 schools were chosen from these entries from across the nation (the defending champion received an automatic berth into the next season). 122 of these 125 schools then competed with another school in their province or region on CBC Radio for a berth in the television round. The 3 teams chosen from the territories received a bye into the television round. Teams then competed in a 64-team single-elimination tournament, culminating in the championships. The championship games were not taped until all of the first 60 games, to determine the four teams in the championships, had been aired. Schools fielded teams of up to 4 players for the competition, 3 players playing on-air, and up to 1 alternate.

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