Braden Lauer comes out on top in the season finale against seven other finalists for the coveted title of Canada’s Smartest Person
@CanadasSmartest #SmartestPerson
CBC’s CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON, the number one new Canadian series this fall, has crowned Braden Lauer of Vancouver, BC with the coveted title of ‘Canada’s Smartest Person.’ Lauer emerged victorious in tonight’s two-hour season finale, beating out the seven remaining finalists in a series of all-new intelligence tests. The 22 year-old is in his second year of law school at the University of British Columbia.
Lauer has never paid a cent for his education, having received five different academic scholarships. He is on the board of the UBC Law Student’s Society and volunteers at Pro Bono Students Canada, an organization that provides free legal advice to those in need. In his free time, Lauer is an avid tarot card reader, a gift he sees as a marker of strong intuition.
“Being on Canada’s Smartest Person has been the opportunity of a lifetime,” says Lauer. “I hope winning the title inspires students and young people in the country to pursue their goals with passion and determination.”
Over the past nine weeks, Canadians across the country have been able to engage in real-time with the series’ unique intelligence tests and develop their own personal intelligence profile using the ground-breaking Canada’s Smartest Person app, brought to you in part by SUBWAY® Restaurants. The interactive experience has been a momentous success,with over 180,000 downloads, it is CBC’s most downloaded interactive television app.It also boasts over one million individual completed intelligence tests and over 6.6 million page views.
Based on nine weeks of competition on the app, Waterloo, ON has emerged as the country’s smartest city, and P.E.I. takes the title of the Canada’s smartest province.
The digital app generated compelling findings about Canada’s intelligence that were revealed in the finale, including:
• On the app and online, men outperformed women in the linguistic intelligence tests, which contrasts with scientific studies that suggest women have superior language and communication skills.
• Women excelled in social intelligence tests, scoring 6 percentage points higher than men overall with an average score of 62 points versus 56 points for men. Scientific literature has shown women display greater emotional awareness and this may factor into the point difference.
• In musical intelligence, Alberta emerged with the highest musical strength averaging 76 points across all music intelligence tests, while P.E.I. scored the lowest in this category with an average of 65 points.
Based on the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Canada’s Smartest Person, produced by production company Media Headquarters, features unique intelligence tests that redefine what it means to be smart. This original Canadian series, developed by Media Headquarters and CBC, is an international as well as domestic success, with the format being acquired to date in five different countries.
Find CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON:
Website:cbc.ca/smartestperson/
Twitter:@CanadasSmartest#SmartestPerson
Facebook:facebook.com/canadassmartestperson
Instagram:@CanadasSmartest
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About CBC/Radio-Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. The Corporation is a leader in reaching Canadians on new platforms and delivers a comprehensive range of radio, television, internet, and satellite-based services. Deeply rooted in the regions, CBC/Radio-Canada is the only domestic broadcaster to offer diverse regional and cultural perspectives in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages.
A space for us all is CBC/Radio-Canada’s new strategy to modernize the public broadcaster and ensure that it continues to fulfill its mandate for Canadians and for future generations. Through to 2020, it will increase its investment in prime time television programming, and continue to create radio programs of the highest quality, while promoting the development of digital and mobile platforms and content.
For more information including series synopses, press releases, hi-res images, video clips and bios, please visit the CBC Media Centre atcbc.ca/mediacentre. Follow CBC’s publicity team on Twitter@CBC_Publicity.
About Media Headquarters
Media Headquarters is a leading Canadian television and digital media production company founded in 1999 by Executive Producer Robert Cohen. The company is widely recognized for producing popular series and original formats for worldwide markets. Media Headquarters has won numerous Gemini Awards, been nominated for an Emmy® Award and consistently makes the Realscreen ‘Global 100’ List celebrating the world’s best non-fiction producers. Media Headquarters’ slate includes factual entertainment, documentary, dramatic and children’s programing. For more information visitmediahqs.net/.
About Konrad Group
Konrad Group is a global leader in the enterprise and consumer technology space. We provide consulting, design, development and application management services, with an emphasis on building compelling user experiences. Our Design-Driven Technology™ approach has delivered solutions in use by over 20 million people in 50 countries around the globe. For more information visitwww.konradgroup.com
For more information or to request interviews, please contact:
Cathleen Saville, entertainment publicist
Cathleen.saville@cbc.ca
416.205.7976
