Canada’s Worst Driver from producer Proper Television will return for a sixth season on Discovery Channel after it became the first non-sports Canadian specialty series to draw one million viewers.

Guy O’Sullivan, executive producer at Proper TV, said the fifth season of the British format drew an average 792,000 viewers on Monday nights, and the Dec. 14 finale drew 1,050,000 to witness Angelina Marcantognini overcome panic attacks and left turns to be named as Canada’s worst driver.

That rating success shouldn’t surprise, considering O’Sullivan, a former BBC and Mentorn producer/director before he founded Proper in 2004, directed the original Britain’s Worst Driver series, whose template is now a global format.

Beginning this year, Proper has also hired a new creative director and in-house counsel to secure more rest-of-the-world financing to offset shrinking license fees from cash-strapped Canadian broadcasters.

‘They [Canadian broadcasters] will spend money on a proven hit. But they’re more risk averse than ever,’ O’Sullivan explained.

Besides returning series like Canada’s Worst Handyman, also for Discovery Canada, and Newlywed Nearly Dead for Slice, O’Sullivan has two pilots in the works: the makeover show Dress Your Age for Slice, and for Food Network Canada The Best Damn Takeout, which pits competing Toronto burger joints against one another to find who’s king of the hill.

Proper TV has also sold the format rights for Discovery Canada’s Junk Raiders to Spain as it looks to leverage an output deal with ITV Worldwide into increased foreign sales.

It’s not alone. Peace Arch Entertainment this week saw Frantic Films acquire the international rights to around 150 hours of reality fare from its subsidiary The Eyes Television Production, including titles like The Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp and Bulging Brides.