All-Round Champion Returns for Season Five

The fifth season of marblemedia’s All-Round Champion is slated to debut on BYUtv in the U.S. on January 15, followed by a February 8 premiere on TVOkids in Canada.

For the first time in series history, season five features a cast fully comprised of para-athletes. They will compete in each other’s sports to find out how proficient they can become in a new sport in a short period of time.

Olympian and World Champion Perdita Felicien hosts the series, which crowns the athlete with the most points at the end of the season. The athletes featured in season five are Brayden Butler (climbing), Bradley Pedrick (sailing), Dominic Demaio (rowing), Gurnoor Chouhan (goalball), Jackson Atwood (wheelchair basketball), Lily Brook (adaptive boxing), Maggie Manning (sledge hockey), Momo Sutton (swimming) and Samantha Fraser (track).

Weekly sports stars will join to coach and encourage the participants through their respective sports. This season, this includes Britain’s most successful Paralympic sailor, Helena Lucas; four-time Paralympic swimming gold medalist, McKenzie Coan; 31-time Canadian track champion, Josh Cassidy; and Matt Scott, a two-time Paralympic champion in wheelchair basketball and the first disabled athlete featured in a Nike commercial.

All-Round Champion is adapted from the Norwegian series Best i mest (NRK), which won an International Emmy Kids Award for non-scripted entertainment, as well as a Prix Jeunesse. marblemedia was granted North American format rights from Beta Film.

“At its ethos, the series has always been about determination, excellence and passion,” said Matt Hornburg, executive producer and co-CEO of marblemedia. “There is no one better to showcase this than the tremendous cohort of para-athletes we have lined up. This is an exceptional season of All-Round Champion, and we are confident audiences will be as excited about it as we are.”

“Although All-Round Champion is an intense competition show at its core, it shines a light on the resilience of the human spirit and the strengthening of bonds between teammates and mentors,” said Andra Johnson Duke, head of content at BYUtv. “All-Round Champion has captured the imaginations of young people and their parents over the course of many seasons, and there’s no question that this exciting new iteration will continue to engage and inspire viewers to want to push harder, do better and be better.”

Kirsten Hurd, executive producer at TVOkids, added, “We love All-Round Champion because of how it celebrates developing a growth mindset, which is a critical skill set for children and youth of all ages. Through each moment of competition, our viewers witness young people taking on unfamiliar challenges and strategizing how to win. With its focus on para-athletes, season five will be a landmark moment for the series.”