Canada’s Worst Handyman‘s first run on Discovery Channel Canada put five contestants to work on remodeling apartment suites and recorded an average AMA of nearly 200,000 viewers. No wonder the net has worked with Toronto-based producer Proper Television to retool the premise and get viewers bidding online for a chance to get on the air.

Canada’s Worst Handyman 2, which fills the 10 p.m. timeslot starting April 16, puts five contestants to work building ‘eco-sheds,’ which will be auctioned off on eBay.ca, along with a sixth constructed by the show’s two experts – a contractor and a carpenter, who are charged with whipping the worst handymen into shape. The six successful bidders will then be featured in the finale in June. All proceeds from the online initiative go to Habitat for Humanity Canada.

As the channel prepares to launch a major campaign to promote the premiere, kicking off two weeks prior on April 2, online interactive elements are also in development. Working with LLG Media, Discovery Channel is building interactive components at Discovery.ca and www.worsthandyman.ca. The show’s online presence will include a ‘Tool School’ feature at the recently renovated DiscoveryChannel.ca, which gets users measuring their tool IQ, along with games testing do-it-yourself knowledge.

The series’ handymen will be featured in ‘Can-Cam’ confessionals alongside the people who nominated them during the show’s casting call. Behind-the-scenes footage and audition reels will also be part of Discovery Channel Canada’s broadband offerings to back up the series.

Discovery Channel Canada VP sales and marketing Sally Basmajian says a contest is in development to get people building eco-sheds at home, although the details of the promotion have not yet been finalized.

The show itself does not have any intended brand integration, but Basmajian says the third season may include such opportunities.

‘It has great promise for the future,’ says Basmajian. ‘Right now, it has been produced, and there’s no clients embedded right in, but for season three, there may be some great opportunities to integrate clients. For Canada’s Worst Driver 3, which will go on air next fall, we are discussing a few opportunities with advertisers, and for Canada’s Worst Handyman 3, the same thing would apply. It’s really important, though, to make it flow into the production itself, so that it doesn’t stand out as a product placement. It’s important both to the producers and to Discovery.’

Canada’s Worst Handyman and Canada’s Worst Driver are both produced for Discovery Channel Canada by Toronto’s Proper Television. The shows’ formats are adaptations of two U.K.-produced shows, Britain’s Worst Driver and Britain’s Worst DIYer.

From Media in Canada