Episode 1
Ready, Set, Go!
Original Airdate: 26 October 2015
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The Drive to Rehab: Starting from the Cayuga Speedway racing track, the nine drivers are required to drive themselves to the show's regular home at the Dunnville Airport. As part of this season's emphasis on high-speed challenges, the contestants will begin their journey by driving down the track, before joining the public roads.
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Renee is the first to take the drive, and proves incredibly nervous whenever there's so much as one other car on the road with her. During the course of her drive, she also makes a vow that has been made by an increasing number of contestants in recent seasons; namely that if she's named Canada's Worst Driver, she will destroy her driving licence and give up driving for good. Jordan is second to take the journey, and his self-confessed lack of attention is demonstrated when he's so busy giving his hair a last-minute styling that he fails to notice Andrew signalling him to start his drive. He subsequently spends nearly the entire drive staring at his cellphone. Tina is next, and spends most of the journey driving well above the speed limit, sometimes even double the limit. It's also revealed that during her introductory video, she stopped at a friend's house for 5 minutes to down a vodka cooler and knocked back a shot of liquor before going back on the road. Cameron also speeds a lot during his drive, though does follow Andrew's advice not to use his phone at the wheel, a common problem in his everyday driving. Alex is the third driver in a row who spends most of the journey speeding, and he also eats and drinks during the course of the drive, much to Elysha's concern. Despite the age gap, Polly shows much the same set of issues as Alex, not being quite so reckless, but speeding, lighting cigarettes and using her phone while driving. Jillian proves even more nervous than Renee, and it's also revealed that she has made the same vow to give up driving, should she be named the worst. Shmuel and Sholom are the last to leave the Speedway, and since they only have one car between them, Sholom drives the first half of the journey to rehab, and Shmuel the second half. When they arrive, they are provided with a second car so that they can both park up, and while Shmuel does this with no trouble at all, Sholom has major difficulties.
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Charger Challenge: Basic Assessment: For this season, the drivers will have a brand new Dodge Charger as their recurring challenge car, the most powerful example of such a car seen so far on the show. The first challenge for the drivers is the basic assessment, which has stayed the same with minor variations since Canada's Worst Driver 8; in order, they have to reverse the Charger through a corridor of wheel rims, turn it around in a section made up of concrete traffic barriers and blocks, and then drive it in a slalom around five foam people at 60 km/h. During his demonstration, Andrew realises that the barriers are a little too narrow, and so has the crew widen them – only for a downpour to then follow, which will make the slalom much harder.
Sholom is the first to take the challenge, and spends most of it arguing with his brother, along with continuing to show his complete lack of reversing skills. Bizarrely, he decides to take the slalom at an even faster speed than recommended, though comes surprisingly close to passing it, only failing because he went too fast to drive between the final pair of people. Shmuel doesn't fare any better, doing just as badly when reversing, causing just as much damage when turning the car around, and then failing the slalom because he took it far too slowly. Polly spends most of the first section with her foot on the gas and brake at the same time, and ends up rupturing a tire on the wheel rims. She then badly damages the Charger's front bumper in the concrete barriers, and comes close to passing the slalom, but hits the second-last foam person. Tina becomes the first driver to pass part of the assessment, flawlessly turning the car around, but still knocks over a lot of wheel rims and then tries to take the slalom at 80 km/h, resulting in her spinning out of control. Alex's reverse is the best so far, only knocking down one set of wheel rims, but he does poorly while turning the car around, and then narrowly fails the slalom when he smashes the Charger's wing mirror on a foam person. During her attempt, Renee reveals that she watched previous seasons of the show to brush up on how to do the challenges; this does not seem to help her much however, as she has major problems with front-end swing throughout her reverse, then rips off the Charger's already-damaged front bumper while turning it around in the concrete maze. A thick fog then descends on the course, and Andrew gives her the option of skipping the slalom, but she insists on doing it anyway, only to fail by smashing the second-last figure. For Jillian's run, Andrew makes Mitchell step out of the car so that she can do it alone; she then has massive trouble getting through the course, breaking down in tears on multiple occasions and needing much prompting just to get the Charger to the required speed on the slalom. Cameron has the best performance of the day, not hitting the car once in the first two sections; his slalom run actually proves the "worst" however, as he completely loses control and destroys every single foam person before spinning out at the end of the course. Jordan, by contrast, is by far the worst performer at this challenge, as he takes 45 minutes just to get halfway through the wheel rims before giving up, and refuses to even attempt to turn the car around in the maze – and while he actually attempts the slalom (which isn't shown), it's indicated that he failed it at the end of his run.
During their first meetings with the experts, all nine contestants deny the possibility that they might be Canada's Worst Driver. As per usual, no-one graduates in the first episode.
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Web Extra: The Road to Rehab: The nine nominees each share their experiences during their drive to rehab. Jordan, Renee and Jillian each blame their nominators for providing bad directions, though Cameron admits that his repeatedly getting lost was his own fault. Tina and Ashley blame each other for their trouble getting to rehab, while Shmuel and Sholom both admit to being equally at fault. Alex accuses Elysha of not doing her job of reading the directions, and Elysha in turn accuses Alex of speeding so much that she was never able to give him the directions in time. Polly also blames her nominator, albeit more reluctantly, and Jeff does admit to being responsible for at least one instance of them getting lost. Jacque raises concerns about Renee's eyesight and suggests that she use glasses or contacts, but Renee laughs this off.
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