Chris McLean

Villain Overview Gallery

Evil-doer
Full Name	Christopher McLean
Alias	The Host with the Most Chris McLean Boss (by Chef Hatchet)
Origin	Total Drama franchise
Occupation	TV Host of Total Drama
Powers / Skills	Coming up with difficult challenges Hosting Oration Good publicity Charisma
Hobby	Admiring his hair. Eating. Harassing others. Endangering contestants.
Goals	Become the most popular reality show host (succeeded). Get away with dumping toxic waste on the island during TDROTI (failed). Turn Dave against Sky (also succeeded). Turn Jasmine against Shawn (initially succeeded but backfired and failed).
Crimes	Manslaughter Abuse (both physical and psychological) Endangerment Torture Pollution Animal cruelty Fraud Terrorism Snuff filming Property damage Slavery Poaching Sabotage Arson Attempted destruction Corruption
Type of Villain	Sadistic Mastermind

“	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.

Christopher "Chris" McLean is the main antagonist of the Total Drama franchise.

As the host of the show, Chris is also in charge of designing the challenges the contestants have to compete in. 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 co-host, employee, best friend, and sidekick is Chef Hatchet, as well as several interns whom he torments for fun. He has since become one of the most beloved yet hated characters of the series.

He was voiced by Christian Potenza.

Personality

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

Besides that, it becomes increasingly clear that he has 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 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. In Up the Creek, Chris claimed that no rules against those carrying lighters when Duncan used it for the fire. In Slap Slap Revolution, he allowed Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot to use Owen to slide down the hill due to him eating raw meat.

Chris will not tolerate contestants who quit his show such as Duncan when he had Chef whip the delinquent with his Olympic towel whenever he talks instead of singing. Chris will also get offended and punish those who made fun of him such as when Sierra revealed of his past and his former boyband, Fame Town, and ordered the stalker to zip her mouth. He is also vengeful to those who cross him such as Scott when he arranged Fang to hurl the injured Scott as payback for flinging him into the "pit of poo".

However, Chris has shown a caring side such as him feeling sorry for Justin when he was eliminated and when he became 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. Nevertheless, 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 he would 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. One could argue that he was always like this, and simply stopped caring about his image because he knew that his wealth would allow him to get away with most if not all of his crimes. While Lightning fell to land on his groin, Chris shown his despair of the groin landing.

On the other hand, he hasn't lost all of his redeeming traits. For example, he does have moments of showing some compassion as when he hugged Harold after Duncan called him "Doris" (although he showed some annoyance when doing so). Furthermore, while he still treats him horribly, he does have a soft spot for Owen and even considers him one of the few contestants he likes when giving him food (even if they are disgusting) and in Total Drama All-Stars finale, he brought back Owen to assist him to fill the eliminated All-Stars in the balloons with his farts. He is also shown his disgust of Harold and his "skills" especially his underwear.

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. Furthermore, because they no longer are making any new seasons of Total Drama, what made Chris so evil will never be revealed. Thus, one might assume that he let his fame get in the way of what little morals he had, or that the whole year he spent in prison after the fourth season might have toughened him.

Throughout the series, Chris mentions how he makes things tedious and deadly for the contestants due to the ratings the show can get. This could be a reason as to why Chris becomes increasingly sadistic in each season of the show as he knows that as long as he brings in viewers, the longer he will get away with everything he's done.

Quotes

“	Okay! Let's get this party started! Duncan's dare: Lick Owen's armpit. Gwen, you can perform the dare yourself. Or dare one of your competitors to do it. (laugh) Either way, someone's licking some armpit in the next minute.	„
	~ Chris to Gwen when landed on Duncan's dare I Triple Dog Dare You.

“	My decision is final, Duncan. (Duncan mumbles) Excuse me? (Duncan: I didn't say anything.) And you won't say anything else until the Olympics are over. Between now and then, you can either zip it or sing it. That'll begin to make up for the songs you missed while you were in breach of your contract. And if you speak instead of singing, you'll earn a lash from Chef's Olympic towel. (Duncan: Ha, ooh, a towel! I'm so scared!) You should be. Exhibit A. (Chef whips Duncan) (Duncan: OW!) Shucks. Really should've sung that "ow", bro. (Chef whips again) (Duncan: (falsetto) OW!) Much better.	„
	~ Chris punishing Duncan in Greece's Pieces for quitting his show.

“	Mike: There seems to be some sort of four-legged shark monster down there! Chris: You mean Fang?	„
	~ Mike and Chris about Fang.

“	Those ungrateful puppets JUST CROSSED THE LINE! Remember your nasty challenges, Chef? The ones that got the red light? Yeah, the light just turned GREEN!	„
	~ Chris announced to Chef that he will host the challenge after he was flung from Scott's trap in Eat, Puke and Be Wary.

“	You are so eliminated! You're even more eliminated than the rest! Even that beatbox guy! This island is total freakshow!	„
	~ Chris throwing marshmallows at Scarlett.

“	I'm done with evil for now.	„
	~ Chris McLean eliminating Max.

“	Owen is stuffed with meat. I say he's fit for sausage duty.	„
	~ Chris accepted Team Chris to use Owen in Slap, Slap Revolution

“	MY COTTAGE!!!	„
	~ Chris when seeing Playa Des Losers destruction

“	Oooh... You're not gonna like this one. Have your head shaved by Chef.	„
	~ Chris reveal Lindsay's dare to Heather

Relationships

Relatives

• Mr. McLean (father)
• Mrs McLean (mother)
• Jerd McLean (cousin)

Friends/Allies

• Chef Hatchet (best friend and sidekick)
• Owen
• Lindsay
• Fang
• Interns
• Izzy (temporarily assistant)
• Larry
• Sharks
• Animals

Enemies

• Alejandro Burromuerto
• Amy
• Anne Maria
• Blaineley
• Beardo
• Beth
• Chef Hatchet (on occasion)
• Courtney
• Dakota/Dakotazoid
• Dave
• DJ
• Duncan
• Ella
• Eva
• Ezekiel
• Geoff
• Gwen
• Harold
• Heather
• Interns (occasionally)
• Jo
• Leonard
• Lightning
• Mal
• Max
• Sammy/Samey
• Scarlett
• Scott
• Shawn
• Sierra
• Sugar
• Sky
• Topher
• Trent

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. He also forced the Killer Bass to carry their crates by hand as part of their punishment for losing the challenge.
• 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. He also made them run a marathon and eat a feast, so the challenge would be harder. Finally, he used several methods to make them fall asleep.
• Shot Harold with a paintball gun for fun before introducing the challenge. He also berated Cody for getting mauled by a bear despite showing some concern.
• Doesn't tell Beth about Bony Island causing her to steal a Tiki doll and get her team cursed. After the Gophers lose for the third time in a row, upon finding out that Beth took the Doll from Boney Island, he scolds her for not heeding his warning even though he didn't even try to tell her.
• Allowing Harold to outright cheat by rigging the votes to wrongly eliminate Courtney, which he meant as revenge against Duncan for his pranks. In the same episode, he watched in delight as Chef tormented the contestants; even making fun of them as they helped themselves to a meal.
• Killed dolphins and made "Dolphin Hotdogs" for the contestants to eat in "Brunch of Disgustingness". Which in Canada, (where Total Drama takes place at) is a federal crime. In said episode, he also forces them to eat various foods that were not only disgusting, but also hazardous to one's health.
• 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". He also took joy in bringing back two contestants that the others disliked.
• 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. And he didn't even punish Leshawna or Izzy in any way despite them both not competing in the challenge. Like many other examples, he likely did this to create drama.
• 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. Worse, he likely did this to create more drama.
• In "I Triple Dog Dare You!", Chris created disgusting dares with the assistance of the eliminated contestants and some dares (like Duncan, Tyler and Harold) involves with Owen such as Lick Owen's armpit from Duncan's dare, eat grape jelly out of Owen's belly button from Tyler's dare and lick Owen's toe jam from Harold's dare. He allowed the final three to dare their fellow competitors in hope to eliminate them from the game. He immediately eliminating Heather because she didn't accept Lindsay's dare which is have your head shaved by Chef Hatchet, despite her head was shaved by Chef accidentally when she kicked the electric razor from his hand. He made a bet with Chef if one of them vomits, the loser pay 100 dollars.
• In the Total Drama Island Special called "Total Drama Drama Drama Island", Chris forces Gwen 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 her ending, Chris holds up her contract saying that it doesn't matter if she agrees or not, (in Owen's ending, Owen willingly accepts the extra challenge). It’s implied that this had been his intention from the very beginning, meaning that the entirety of Total Drama Island was completely pointless.
• Doesn't send Chef his paycheck in the episode "Alien Resurr-eggtion" of Total Drama Action.
• According to Chef, he didn't pay for a safer plane because of his cheap way of handling the show's funding.
• He brings Gwen up to his viewing room and makes her watch Trent be eliminated just to make her feel bad in "3:10 to Crazytown".
• He shoved Harold to the ground at the end of one episode of Total Drama Action; breaking his glasses. Worse, he did it right after Duncan pulled down his pants and while he was still mourning his crush's elimination.
• He dresses up as Steve the yeti, and tells Geoff and Bridgette that they stink on international television in Total Drama Action. Later in the finale, he interrupts their Aftermath show and takes over as host.
• Putting itching powder on the cast's pizza, makes them study all night, then he makes them believe they are going to die by a fatal disease in "One Flu Over the Cuckoos".
• In "Masters of Disasters", Owen breaks his jaw due to Chef throwing his manifesto at him, Chris then gives the Killer Grips the win, even though the Screaming Gaffers got their whole team to cross the finish line first, to which he says that "serious injury trumps all". However, in last season's "Paintball Deer Hunter" episode, he doesn't care about Cody's serious injury and gives the win to the Killer Bass. This truly shows that Chris makes up the rules of the game as he goes along. Furthermore, aside of giving the Grips the win, he shows little concern for Owen's injury despite Owen being one of the few contestants he likes.
• In the same episode, when the cast could die from a flooding submarine, he only cares if they survive because, without them, he won't get paid.
• Faked his death and made Courtney look like she "murdered" him. He even declares Lindsay winner of the challenge for "solving the mystery", even though Courtney was the only one who knew that he was still alive.
• Sets each of the stink bombs the contestants have to defuse up differently so they would all get hit by the stink bomb in "Dial M for Merger".
• Hires Owen to cause drama and sabotage the remaining contestants in Total Drama Action. He later fires him for getting caught by Courtney's lawyers. His worst action would be when he had him break up Duncan and Harold's new friendship. Even before letting him go, he threatened to fire him several times if he refused to stoop to new lows.
• It is implied he murders a parrot for biting him in "Top Dog".
• 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's finale (although he may have done this to make the chances fair, as he did show Duncan's nice side as well). This is despite Beth helping him repair his friendship with Chef in the previous episode.
• In the first episode of Total Drama World Tour, he informally "eliminates" Ezekiel for no reason other than him being annoying, which was before he was voted off as the first contestant again and went totally feral.
• Treated his interns like actual slaves in the "Walk Like an Egyptian - Part 2" episode and caused the death of one of the interns by neglecting to help him when he was being eaten alive by scarab beetle, whom Chris laughs at and encourages the scarabs to kill the contestants. He later tried to get Duncan to sing after his team ended up in last place resulting in the latter quitting.
• When Bridgette got her tongue stuck to a flagpole courtesy of Alejandro, Chris refused to help her and even made her sing about it and take the Drop of Shame with her tongue still stuck. Worse, he drinks the water and leaves the empty bottle on the ground, even though Bridgette needed it to free herself from the pole.
• In the World Tour Aftermath according to Blaineley, Chris send out his entire Drama Machines to search for Duncan and return him to the show. But didn't manage to find him.
• In Slap, Slap Revolution, Chris created the sausage stuffing challenge for the teams to slide down to the dangerous cliff and released a dangerous mountain baby goat. He allowed Team Chris is Really, Really, Really, Really Hot to use Owen (due to him stuffed with raw meat). In the final challenge, Chris forced Cody to wear Der Penalty Hosen as a punishment for lost the previous challenge (due to Heather and Sierra). He electrified the competitors to force them of continue to dance.
• Revealing Cody's vote against Sierra during the "Team Amazon"'s elimination voting video that causes Sierra to become devastated at this revelation & sobs at Cody.
• Declaring "Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot" (which 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. The worst example would be when he voted an intern off, so Duncan cheating on Courtney could cause more drama.
• 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.
• Later, he forces Duncan to sing or remain silent as punishment for quitting the show. He also has Chef whip him with his Olympic towel whenever he fails to do so.
• 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. Ironically enough Sierra blowing up the plane was also karma for Chris as well for all of the drama he caused throughout the show.
• 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 and his reputation has been destroyed.
• Dumping toxic waste in Camp Wawanakwa in Total Drama: Revenge of The Island
• 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 original cast are not competing this season and Chris responds by putting an 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 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 them for the sake of a challenge while threatening to have them and their teams submerged underwater and are at risk of being eaten by a mutant shark named Fang in "Truth or Laser Shark".
• 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 despite the fact that Dakota is no longer a contestant and has already been eliminated.
• 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 which, in the words of Mike "is low even by Chris's usual standards".
• In Eat, Puke and Be Wary, when initially giving a safe challenge, until when Scott's traps flings Chris to the toilet. Chris gives a green light for Chef's nasty challenge. After he was successfully removed from the toilet, Chris arranged Fang to the Hurl of Shame with the injured Scott as payback.
• At the end of Season 4's finale, 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 villainous behavior of using Sam as a human shield in "Saving Private Leechball").
• Making Cameron switch to the Villainous Vultures team instead of letting him quit the competition to escape from Sierra's affections in "Moon Madness".
• In "Suckers Punched", he did a "rigged" wheel game and as Gwen spun, he purposely made the wheel land on Courtney so that they would fight each other. Not to mention that Chris (with help from the Producers) showed Courtney videos of Gwen making out with Duncan that was on Sierra's Gwuncan blog, 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 in "Zeek And Ye Shall Find".
• In "Sundae Muddy Sundae", Chris forgets 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. Knowing Chris, the interns were left to expire.
• In the season finale of "Total Drama All-Stars", Chris had the previously eliminated contestants trapped into giant fart balloons with a help from Owen. 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, Fresh TV confirmed that they are alive and unharmed.
• He also allows Chef to sink Camp Wawanakwa into Lake Wawanakwa. To be fair, this was a poor insight on both their parts as both of them didn't know it would sink.
• Using eliminated contestants as human cannonballs in Total Drama: Pahkitew Island.
• Unfairly eliminating Ella simply for singing too much despite her team winning the challenge.
• In "This Is The Pits!" since both teams lose the challenge, he forced 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. Also, he called them out on it out of spite for wasting his time.
• Staged Topher's elimination in "Three Zones and a Baby" by posing as a producer. After Topher stole Chris' phone, he poses as one of the producers and tricks Topher into thinking he is the new host of "Total Drama". In real life, Chris would have been faced with a lawsuit for tampering with the elimination order.
• Put the contestants in a challenge that involved eating Juggy Chunks that expired almost 40 years ago, which caused them to undergo heavy nausea, vomiting and caused all of them except Shawn and Jasmine to undergo a zombie-like trance (instead of throwing it out). 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. On top of this, he showed Jasmine a video of Shawn badmouthing her idea on how they should split the winnings in the confessional. Finally, he indirectly leaves Dave on the island, resulting in him getting mauled by a bear offscreen.

Trivia

• Chris's birthday is November 18th, making him a Scorpio, and his birth year is 1978. This means that his full birth date is November 18th, 1978, making him 42 years old as of now.
• It should be noted that in Total Drama Island, Chris wasn't as evil as in later seasons. He was mostly social to the contestants when they first arrived at Camp Wawanakwa in the first episode and showed to care about 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. That said, he does become far more sadistic and uncaring during the latter half.
  • Indeed, in later seasons, it's shown that Chris isn't as disrespectful 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. There is also the fact that he does care about some of them, including Owen despite getting annoyed with him.
  • 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 quit 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 to Duncan's arrest). Despite, Chris forced Cameron to go through the Flush of Shame (instead of calling an ambulance) despite his injuries when he decided he was too injured to continue.
  • A running gag after Revenge of the Island is that Chris is regularly called by his lawyer warned him not to go too far with the challenges as he's only out of jail under parole. That said, said gag diminishes after All-Stars.
• Chris is contrasted by Don, the host of Total Drama: The Ridonculous Race. Though Don does put the contestants in dangerous challenges and is a bit of a narcissist (but not as much as Chris), there are mass differences between the two:
  • Don isn't sadistic despite having some moments of mocking the contestants. Chris, on the other hand, is known for his sadism and lack of regard for the contestants' lives.
  • Don shows more concern for the contestants than Chris, who rarely shows any true compassion in the later seasons.
  • Don doesn't break his own rules and sticks to the rules he has planned.
  • Don doesn't tolerate contestants breaking them and punishes them proportionally to their misdeeds. He also only lets things slide when he doesn't have proof that they did cheat or in rare cases, when he considers it not worth his time. Chris does sometimes punish them for breaking them, but only to torment them/in extreme cases.
  • Chris will overrule eliminated contestants while Don doesn't. Also, unlike Chris, Don will never eliminate contestants for petty reasons, although he isn't beyond expressing his glee when contestants he dislikes does get eliminated.
  • Don is never seen mistreating his interns while Chris's treatment of his staff is one of the worst things about him.
• Chris has a physical resemblance to Jeff Probst from Survivor, yet he has the sadistic nature of Joe Rogan from Fear Factor.
• Given that Chris is the host of the show, the only character (along with Chef Hatchet) to appear in every season, and more or less the mascot of the series, one could argue that he's a villain protagonist.
  • If one counts The Ridonculous Race as a Total Drama season (Cartoon Network in the United States referred TDRR as "Season 7"), then Chris is the only Total Drama character to appear in every season.

External Links

• Chris McLean - Total Drama Wiki
• Chris McLean - Fictional Characters Wiki