Chris McLean

"Last time on Total Drama..."

- Chris McLean's famous catchphrase.

"It's great to be back, surrounded by the people I love ... to hurt! Ha ha ha!"

- Chris McLean's pleasure of hurting the contestants.

Chris McLean is the host and the main antagonist of the Total Drama series. He is the one in charge of designing the challenges the contestants have to face. In-universe, it is confirmed that Chris did not create Total Drama by himself, as he mentions producers multiple times in the series. His most important employee and personal pawn is Chef Hatchet, as well as several interns as well.

He was voiced by Christian Potenza.

Biography
He openly takes pleasure in watching the competitors suffer, and frequently goes out of his way to make things as difficult as possible for his own amusement.

In addition, it becomes increasingly clear that he has absolutely zero concern for fairness and sportsmanship in the competition, and loves to deliberately and abruptly eliminate contestants who don't deserve it in extremely unfair ways, and on more than one occasion he has out–and–outright broken the fundamental rules of the game. Chris thoroughly enjoys it whenever contestants fight with, bully, exploit, betray and cheat against each other, and sometimes tries to exacerbate the conflicts between them.

However, Chris has shown a caring side such as him feeling sorry for Justin when he was eliminated and when he is disgusted with Courtney for knowingly making a sundae that would make the interns ill, though it's more often for him not to care about the campers' safety. Neverthless, when Gwen was nearly attacked by the real Chainsaw Killer, Chris went with the other contestants to save her, yet it's shown that he was worried to be sued if Gwen was killed. Even when he left Duncan, Gwen, Heather and Owen marooned for a challenge, he felt pity for them and asked Chef about his opinion about going after them. This niceness, however, seems to have faded away in later seasons, with Chris descending into a sadistic and sociopathic host.

Christian Potenza, Chris' voice actor, likes to believe that something happened in Chris' life that made him the sadistic host he is today. Unfortunately, the staff hasn't had any time to make a story for that yet.

Villainous Acts

 * Made all the contestants jump off a huge cliff and into shark infested waters for a challenge and humiliated DJ, Beth, and Courtney by forcing them to wear chicken hats because they refused to jump.
 * Forced both the Screaming Gophers and Killer Bass teams to not get any sleep for over 87 hours for a challenge he called the awake a thon.
 * Doesn't tell Beth about Bony Island causing her to steal a Tiki doll and get her team cursed.
 * Allowing Harold to outright cheat by falsifying his teammates' votes to wrongly eliminate Courtney, which he meant as revenge against Duncan.
 * When Eva and Izzy return to the island after being previously eliminated, Chris says that when he claimed that eliminated contestants could not come back, "EVER", he reveals that he "lied".
 * Sending Lindsay home for being the last person to "cross" the finish line in the bicycle race, when she came in right after Heather and the other people didn't finish the race at all.
 * Forcibly eliminating Leshawna because the other eliminated campers kept saying her name while trying to vote someone else out, not meaning to vote for her, and counting multiple "votes" from a random parrot in the room.
 * In the Total Drama Island ending where Gwen wins the competition, Chris forces her to relinquish her winnings to instigate a scavenger hunt for one million dollars, which ultimately ended up leading to the second season, even when she flat–out refuses the "offer" (in Owen's ending, Owen willingly accepts the extra challenge). It is implied that this had been his intention from the very beginning, meaning that the entirety of Total Drama Island was in fact completely pointless.
 * In the Total Drama: World Tour episode "Walk like an Egyptian Part 2", Chris had sent flesh-eating scarab beetles after the contestants. A few crawled onto an intern serving as a leg stand for Chris and they ate him alive into just a skeleton in less then ten seconds. Chris responded with laughter and apathy, actively encouraging the beetles to kill the contestants.
 * Doesn't send Chef his paycheck on episode two of Total Drama Action.
 * He brings Gwen up to his viewing room and makes her watch Trent be eliminated just to make her feel bad in Total Drama Action.
 * He dresses up as Steve the yeti, and tells Geoff and Bridgette that they stink on LIVE TV in Total Drama Action.
 * Putting itching powder on the cast's pizza, makes them study all night, then he literally makes them believe they are going to die by a fatal disease in Total Drama Action.
 * During the challenge, Owen has broken his jaw due to throwing a book, he gives the Killer Grips the win, even though the Screaming Gaffers got to the finish line first.
 * When the cast could possibly die from a flooding submarine, he only cares if they survive because without them, he won't get paid in Total Drama Action.
 * Sets each of the stink bombs the contestants have to defuse up differently so they would all get hit by the stink bomb in Total Drama Action.
 * Hires Owen to cause drama between the remaining contestants in Total Drama Action.
 * It is implied he murders a parrot for biting him in Total Drama Action.
 * Makes fun of Chef and how bad his cooking is in the finale when Chef wants to leave due to how Chris treats him. However, he does redeem himself, and apologizes to Chef and says how much he needs him.
 * Shows Beth's greedy side to the cast to lessen her chances at winning the million dollars in Total Drama Action (although he may have done this to make the chances fair, as he did show Duncan's nice side as well).
 * In the first episode of World Tour, he informally "eliminates" Ezekiel for no reason other than him being annoying.
 * Treated his interns like actual slaves in the Egypt challenge and caused the death of one of the interns by neglecting to help him when he was being eaten alive by scarab beetles
 * Declaring "Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot" (which it goes without saying was named as such to flatter him) the losers in the London episode even though they successfully found "Jack The Ripper" and had won the challenge as he instructed it to them, just because Team Amazon happened to find Duncan. The result of this was Noah's unfair early elimination.
 * On several occasions during World Tour, he abruptly announces that the episode does not have an elimination after telling the contestants the opposite throughout the challenges and even having them vote. In more than one of these instances it is implied that Chris had not even planned this but is making up the rules as he goes along.
 * Chris deliberately broke the bathroom door's lock at the time of Gwen and Duncan's adulterous kiss, allowing Tyler to witness it and later revealing it to Courtney and everyone else, incurring her recklessly brutal wrath against them. Throughout this entire series of events and the prolonged drama following in its wake, Chris makes it clear through his behavior that he has no empathy for any of the involved parties, and rather enjoys seeing them fight as much as ever for the sake of ratings.
 * Breaking the rules of the contest and declaring Sierra eliminated even though she had won the day's challenge and had "invincibility", due to her accidentally destroying his plane. If Chris had not done this Alejandro would have been eliminated then and there instead.
 * Imprisoning the badly–burned Alejandro in a crude Darth Vader knockoff mechanical body for the sole purpose of having him sign a waiver absolving Chris and the show of responsibility for his injuries, and laughing at Alejandro's despair of being told that the money has been destroyed.
 * In Alejandro's ending, he declares Alejandro the winner of Total Drama World Tour just because Heather accidentally threw the wrong pineapple dummy into the volcano, even though she had clearly defeated him. In Heather's ending, she throws her own dummy in the volcano and wins.
 * Dumping toxic waste in Camp Wawanakwa.
 * Forcing eliminated contestants to ride a catapult in Total Drama: Revenge of the Island.
 * In the first episode of Season 4, Owen appears, oblivious to the fact that he and the rest of the real cast are no longer competing and Chris responds by putting a explosive on his face and detonating it sending him flying away.
 * Gives the Mutant Maggots the win, just because they blew up the Toxic Rat's cabin, even though they clearly won.
 * Caused Staci to lose her hair and suffer minor radiation poisoning after she got voted off because Chris handed her the toxic marshmallow of loserdom.
 * Confiscated Sam and Dakota's electronic devices, putting them in tech withdrawal. Even Scott thought that was harsh.
 * Forced Sam, Brick, and B to admit embarrassing secrets about themselves on international television and had them press poorly wired buttons, electrocuting then for the sake of a challenge while threatening to have them and their teams submerged underwater and be at risk of being eaten by a mutant shark named Fang
 * In "Finders Creepers" at the campfire ceremony after the Mutant Maggots lost the challenge, due to Chef went missing, it was a non-elimination episode and he feels disappointed that no one is going for a catapult ride. After Dakota has done her deed, he hurls Dakota again for the second time since it's not worth it, since she's an intern.
 * He forced Dakota to go into a highly irradiated mine for over 40 minutes, which not only caused her to lose her hair but transform into a mutated monster in the next episode. He also made the contestants go into the mine for the sake of a challenge but gave them special indicators to let them know how long they were in the mine
 * He buries Gwen and Sam alive in a chest.
 * At the end of the fourth season, he attempts to detonate a bomb he planted on the contestants' departure boat for no reason. However, the bomb is removed by Chef and put under the dock right under Chris, blowing himself up and landing him in the water as payback.
 * Forcing eliminated contestants to be flushed down a gigantic toilet in Total Drama: All-Stars.
 * Putting Gwen on the Villainous Vultures and Courtney on the Heroic Hamsters even though Gwen is a hero and Courtney is a villain (although he does switch Courtney to her proper place on the Villainous Vultures after witnessing her behavior in "Saving Private Leechball").
 * Making Sam's team forfeit the pancake eating challenge and caused his unfair early elimination, even though he was being organized for exile duty.
 * Making Cameron switch to the Villainous Vultures team instead of letting him quit the competition to escape from Sierra's affections.
 * In one episode of the fifth season, he did a "rigged" wheel game and as Gwen spinned, he purposely made the wheel land on Courtney so that they would fight each other. Not to mention that Chris showed Courtney videos of Gwen making out with Duncan, causing Courtney to get mad just as their friendship was finally started to work out.
 * Making Cameron take The Flush Of Shame with his injuries instead of taking him to the hospital.
 * Forgot to feed his interns, so he thought of a challenge where the contestants had to make ice cream sundaes by going through hazardous areas. Later, rather than "actually" giving the interns the sundaes, Chris decided to make the contestants eat their sundaes instead, thus not feeding the interns again, though he was appalled when he discovered that Courtney was planning to feed the interns a nasty sundae.
 * In the season finale of "Total Drama All-Stars", Chris had the previously eliminated contestants trapped into giant fart balloons. Zoey was able to free Gwen and Cameron and Mal freed Heather and Alejandro. Chris forgot to tie or pop the balloons, causing Lindsay, Lightning, Jo, Sam, Sierra, Duncan, Courtney and Scott to fly away in the air, however they are confirmed to be alive and unharmed.
 * He also allows Chef to sink Camp Wawanakwa into Lake Wawanakwa.
 * Using eliminated contestants as human cannonballs in Total Drama: Pahkitew Island.
 * Eliminating Amy in "Twinning Isn't Everything" despite Samey getting the most votes. However, this could have just been a mistake, as Amy and Samey are identical in appearance, it was apart of Jasmine and Samey's plan to get rid of the real Amy.
 * Unfairly eliminating Ella simply for singing too much even though her team won the challenge.
 * In "This Is The Pits!" since both teams lose the challenge, he forced for an elimination ceremony which he mostly wants to and it's even not worth it since neither of the teams won.
 * Making Chef burn the reward since neither of the teams completed the challenge properly.
 * Put the contestants in a challenge that involved eating Juggy Chunks that expired almost 40 years ago, which caused them to undergo heavy nausea and vomiting and caused all of them except Shaun and Jasmine to undergo a zombie like trance. In the same episode, he also taunts Dave about being rejected.
 * In the finale, he crosses the Moral Event Horizon by turning Dave against Sky by repeatedly showing him Sky's audition tape, which revealed that she still had a boyfriend back home.

Trivia

 * It should be noted that in Total Drama Island, Chris wasn't as evil like in later seasons. In fact, he was mostly social to the contestants when they first arrived to Camp Wawanakwa in the first episode and showed to care for them, at least a little, in some episodes and even giving recommendations, such as when he felt that Ezekiel would be voted off immediately due his poor social skills.
 * Indeed, in later seasons, it's shown that Chris isn't as disrespectul with contestants of the original cast like he is with contestants of the new casts, suggesting that he may have developed a familiar connection to most of the original cast as they were the first contestants he ever had in Total Drama.
 * Even so, Chris also takes some sort of liking to the second generation cast, especially Cameron at the very least for example. In the fifth season, he spared Cameron two times from being voted off (the first time was when Cameron tried to resign to escape from Sierra's stalking, switching him to the Villainous Vultures and the second time was when Mal sabotaged the votes but was allowed to remain due Duncan's arrest). Anyway, Chris forced Cameron to go through the Flush of Shame in spite of his injuries when he was finally voted off.
 * A running gag after Revenge of the Island is that Chris is often called by his lawyer warning him not to go too far with the challenges as he's only out of jail under parole.
 * Chris is contrasted by the host of The Ridonculous Race, Don. Though Don DOES put the contestants in dangerous challenges and is a bit of narcissistic (but not as Chris), he has differences:
 * Don is not sadistic.
 * Don shows more concern for the contestants than Chris.
 * Don does not break own rules.
 * Don does not tolerate contestants breaking them and punishes them proportionally to their misdeeds.
 * Chrs has a physical resemblance to Jeff Probst from Survivor, yet he has the sadistic nature of Joe Rogan from Fear Factor.