Chris McLean

Evil-doer
Full Name	Christopher McLean
Alias	The Host with the Most Chris McLean Chris McLean Jerk (by Gwen) Pretty boy (by Chef Hatchet) Chris the Creep (by Beth) Chris McLame (by Jo) Crazy Man (by Shawn) Boss (by Chef Hatchet)
Origin	Total Drama
Occupation	Host of Total Drama
Powers / Skills	Coming up with difficult challenges Hosting Master of oratory Good publicity Charisma
Hobby	Admiring his hair. Endangering contestants.
Goals	To become the most popular reality show host (succeeded) To get away with dumping toxic waste on the island during TDROTI (failed) To turn Dave against Sky (also succeeded)
Crimes	Multiple attempted murders Manslaughter (his interns) Abuse (psychical and psychological) Endangerment Torture Pollution Animal cruelty Negligence Fraud Privacy violation Terrorism Snuff filming Destruction of property Food poisoning Slavery Gaoling Sabotage Innumerable other offenses
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.

Chris McLean is the main antagonist of the Total Drama series. He is the host and 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 who he torments for fun. He has since become one of the most beloved yet hatable characters of the series.

He was voiced by Christian Potenza.

Personality

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 amusement.

Besides, 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 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 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 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. One could argue that he was always like this, and simply stopped caring about his image.

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.

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.

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 even though this was likely part of his job.
• 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. During the next episode, he even scolded her for not heeding his warning even though he didn't even try to tell her.
• Allowing Harold to outright cheat by falsifying his teammates' votes to wrongly eliminate Courtney, which he meant as revenge against Duncan. 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.
• 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.
• 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 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 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 than 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.
• 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 Total Drama Action.
• 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 LIVE TV in Total Drama Action.
• 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 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. He also showed little concern for Owen outside of this.
• When the cast could die from a flooding submarine, he only cares if they survive because, without them, he won't get paid in Total Drama Action.
• 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 Total Drama Action.
• Hires Owen to cause drama between 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 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). This is despite Beth helping him repair his friendship with Chef in the previous episode.
• In the first episode of World Tour, he informally "eliminates" Ezekiel for no reason other than him being annoying.
• 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. 
• 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. He later tried to get Duncan to sing after his team ended up in last place resulting in the latter quitting.
• Declaring "Team Chris is 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 as punishment for quitting the show. He also has Chef whip him 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.
• 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 defeated him. In Heather's ending, she throws her 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 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 then 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 "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. On the other hand, he did cheat during the challenge.
• 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 spun, 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. 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.
• 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 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 despite him usually not caring.
• 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. On top of this, he showed Jasmine a video of Shawn badmouthing her idea on how they should split the winnings.

Gallery

Images

Chris McLean's Sadistic Laugh.

Chris McLean's Sadistic Smile.

Chris as cop and Chef as a soldier.

Chef punches Chris in the face for irritating him.

Chris appears in Skatoony in the episode Pop Video.

I'm you Host, Chris McLean

Videos

Preview - Riot on Set

TOTAL DRAMA ACTION The power hurl (S2 Ep.7)

TOTAL DRAMA WORLD TOUR Chris's dark past (S3 Ep.5)

TOTAL DRAMA REVENGE OF THE ISLAND Trivia Game Challenge (S4 Ep.2)

Preview - A Blast from the Past

Preview - Hurl and Go Seek

Trivia

• 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 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 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. 
  • 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 to Duncan's arrest). Despite, Chris forced Cameron to go through the Flush of Shame despite his injuries when he decided he was too injured to continue.
  • A running gag after Revenge of the Island is that Chris is often called by his lawyer warned 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 a narcissist (but not as much as Chris), he has differences:
  • Don is not sadistic despite having some moments of mocking the contestants.
  • Don shows more concern for the contestants than Chris.
  • Don does not break his own rules.
  • Don does not 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 will overrule eliminated contestants while Don does not. 
  • 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.

External links

• Total Drama Wiki: Chris.