FAN GRADES
During 11.5 I started creating polls for fans to kind of casually grade the episodes. Because it’s a pain in the butt to sort through all of the polls I’d look at the results after a few days then move on, but after some prodding from fans I’ve compiled the data below for every plot in every episode of Degrassi Showdown.
*Highest-graded plot in Degrassi Showdown: Clare in Sabotage (A – 88%)
*Lowest-graded plot in Degrassi Showdown: Drew in Sabotage (C – 31%)
*Despite more than half (17) of Showdown’s 30 plots receiving a majority grade of an A, only five of them obtained that grade with a percentage of 80 or higher (Clare: Sabotage (88%), Imogen: Never Ever (87%), Cam: Rusty Cage (86%), Clare: Waterfalls (83%), Eli/Becky: Walking On Broken Glass (82%)
*No A plot received a majority grade lower than a “B.”
*Highest-graded B plot: Maya/Cam in Waterfalls (A – 76%)
*Lowest-graded B plot: Drew in Sabotage (C – 31%)
*Highest-graded C plot: Eli/Becky in Walking on Broken Glass (A – 82%)
*Lowest-graded C plot: Drew/Fiona in Rusty Cage (33%)
*No C plot received a majority “A” grade after week one of Showdown.
*Highest graded episode overall: Walking on Broken Glass (Straight A’s – 66%, 74%, 82%)
*Lowest graded episode overall: Closer To Free (Straight B’s – 45%, 41%, 42%)
*Most plots had D and F percentages of 1% – 2%. The highest F percentage was for Becky/Adam’s plot in Never Ever (16% – it still had the least amount of votes for that plot). The highest D percentage was for Jake’s plot in Say It Ain’t So (21% – had the third highest percentage for that plot).
Top 3 Highest Graded Characters (Featured in more than 1 plot)
Clare: A’s in 4 episodes (Come As You Are, Waterfalls, Sabotage, Scream)
Cam: A’s in 4 episodes (Walking On Broken Glass, Say It Ain’t So, Waterfalls, Rusty Cage)
Maya: A’s in 3 episodes (Come As You Are, Walking On Broken Glass, Waterfalls)
*Clare and Drew were the most-featured characters in Showdown, each having 5 plots that were covered over 10 total episodes.
*Drew is the only character to receive A’s, B’s AND C’s throughout Showdown (A – Come As You Are, Walking On Broken Glass | B – Closer To Free | C – Rusty Cage, Sabotage)
*Despite being considered the most popular couple on the show, Eclare’s relationship was the central, primary focus of only one full episode (Come As You Are…A case could be made though for Sabotage Pt. 2).
1201/1202: Come As You Are
Drew: A (60%), B (31%), C (6%), F (1%), D (1%)
Eclare: A (64%), B (26%), C (7%), F (2%), D (1%)
Maya: A (67%), B (22%), C (8%), F (2%), D (1%)
1203/1204: Walking On Broken Glass
Krew: A (66%), B (28%), C (4%), F (2%), D (1%)
Tristan/Maya/Cam: A (74%), B (18%), C (6%), D (1%), F (1%)
Eli/Becky: A (82%), B (14%), C (2%), F (1%), D (less than 1%)
1205/1206: Got Your Money
Zig: A (62%), B (28%), C (7%), F (2%), D (1%)
Dave: A (60%), B (30%), C (8%), F (1%), D (1%)
Fimogen: B (39%), C (24%), A (20%), D (11%), F (6%)
1207/1208: Say It Aint So
Alli: B (46%), A (39%), C (12%), F (2%), D (1%)
Cam: A (68%), B (26%), C (5%), D (1%), F (less than 1%)
Jake: C (36%), F (22%), D (21%), B (16%), A (6%)
1209/1210: Closer To Free
Jenna: B (45%), C (26%), A (19%), F (6%), D (4%)
Clare: B (41%), A (27%), C (25%), D (4%), F (2%)
Drew: B (42%), C (23%), A (22%), D (8%), F (4%)
1211/1212: Waterfalls
Clare: A (83%), B (13%), C (3%), F (2%), D (1%)
Maya/Cam: A (76%), B (18%), C (4%), D (1%), F (1%)
KC: C (41%), B (31%), A (11%), D (9%), F (8%)
1213/1214: Rusty Cage
Cam: A (86%), B (9%), C (2%), F (2%), D (1%)
KC: A (49%), B (36%), C (10%), D (3%), F (2%)
Drew/Fiona: C (33%), B (32%), D (16%), A (11%), F (7%)
1215/1216: Never Ever
Imogen: A (87%), B (10%), C (1%), F (1%), D (1%)
Jake/Katie/Dallas: B (48%), A (47%), C (21%), D (2%), F (2%)
Becky/Adam: B (30%), C (28%), A (18%), D (12%), F (12%)
1217/1218: Sabotage
Clare: A (88%), B (8%), C (2%), D (1%), F (1%)
Drew: C (31%), B (30%), D (16%), A (15%), F (7%)
Dave/Alli: B (40%), C (26%), A (21%), D (9%), F (4%)
1219/1220: Scream
Eli/Clare: A (71%), B (21%), C (6%), D (1%), F (1%)
Becky/Adam: A (64%), B (28%), C (7%), D (1%), F (less than 1%)
Tristan: B (35%), A (27%), C (23%), D (9%), F (6%)
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CHARACTER APPEARANCES
I quickly charted out the character appearances throughout Showdown, and you can view them below. It includes any appearances, regardless of whether or not they had a speaking role…if they’re visible in an episode, it counts as an appearance. It only involves characters who are in the opening credits. I already know some fans will use this to continue complaining about how their favorite characters aren’t getting enough screen time, and give the show the old “Why does _______ get all of this development and _______ doesn’t?” By this point fans should know that they can’t give equal time to every character just to appease everyone. Some characters will be more featured than others, and it’s not the end of the world if a character spends most of their time as a secondary/support character. It’s never been “fair,” and it never will be. And if the show does play favorites with characters and ships to the point it’s dictating how they do things then what, should they stop pandering to certain groups just so they can start pandering to you and your favorites?
Degrassi has drastically improved over the years with incorporating main characters into episodes as support or background, something they did masterfully in every episode of Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High. Remember the days during TNG when you wouldn’t see a character at all unless a storyline was about them, one of their friends or their boyfriend/girlfriend?
The number of episodes in which a character appears is not indicative of the weight/value of their appearances. For instance, Luke appeared in 15 episodes during Showdown. Not a single person has or will complain that Degrassi has become “The Luke Show,” because he was in a secondary or support role 95% of the time. On the other hand Drew appeared in only 10 episodes, but he also had 5 plots…the most of any male character during Showdown.
*Most appearances in Showdown: Dallas (16 episodes)
*Luke and Eli appeared in 15 episodes. Maya, Bianca and Clare appeared in 14.
*Least amount of appearances in Showdown: Ms. Oh (5 episodes)
*KC, Zig and Owen only appeared in 6 episodes. KC and Zig still managed to have 3 plots between them.
*Most consecutive appearances: 8 episodes (Maya: 1201-1208, Bianca: 1207-1214, Luke & Dallas: 1213-1220, Alli: 1205-1212)
*Alli appeared in 9 of the first 10 episodes. She only appeared in 4 of the final 10.
*Most consecutive episodes without an appearance: 10 episodes (Zig)
*Most number of characters appearing in an episode: 22 (1201 Come As You Are Pt. 1…Imogen, Fiona, Connor, KC and Ms Oh were the only characters who didn’t appear in that episode)
*Least number of characters appearing in an episode: 10 (1212 Waterfalls Pt. 2…only Clare, Alli, Bianca, KC, Maya, Cam, Eli, Tori, Tristan and Mo appeared)
*At some point during Showdown, every character except for Maya, Drew and Bianca had at least one instance where they appeared in one half of an episode without appearing in the other half (aka they were in Part 1 or Part 2 an ep, but not both).
*Dallas is the only character to have his appearances equally split over the first and second half of Showdown (8 episodes each).
SHIP APPEARANCES
(NOTE: This is strictly based on the number of times members of ships appeared in the same episode, together or separate, and DOES NOT reflect the number of times their relationship was the actual focus of one of the episode’s plots.)
Drianca: 10 episodes (Bianca appeared in episodes without Drew, but Drew did not appear in any episodes without Bianca)
Eclare: 10 episodes
Bhandurner: 9 episodes
Camaya: 9 episodes
Beckadam: 9 episodes (There are 4 episodes in which both Becky and Adam appeared, but never interacted with each other. Becky confronted Adam in 1201: Come As You Are Pt. 1, but they didn’t interact again until 1215/1216: Never Ever)
Fimogen: 8 episodes
Morisol: 8 episodes
Jatie: 8 episodes (Jatie didn’t officially get together until 1216: Never Ever Pt. 2)
Krew: 5 episodes (In Sabotage Pt. 1 and 2 Katie and Drew both appeared in the episodes, but were part of separate storylines)
Zori: 5 episodes (Tori appeared in episodes without Zig, but Zig did not appear in any episodes without Tori)
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Kary's Degrassi Blog 
nice work
thx
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You’re a true Degrassian. I think Zig actually has 7 appearances, small as some of them are: Part 1 of Come as You Are, 1 and 2 of Count Your Money, part 1 of Rusty Cage, part 1 of Sabotage and parts 1 and 2 of Scream.
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Great work, very informative. I thought Becky and Adam interacted in Come as You Are when Adam tried to burn the uniforms and Becky stopped him? Maybe that doesn’t count?
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Oh that is very true, I forgot about that! I shall change it
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If the writers want to avoid accusations of favoring one character at the expense of another, then they need to do a better job balancing the plots. Otherwise, they should just write that other character out. If an actor is included in the opening titles, it’s only fair that they get an appropriate amount of time, just like everyone else.
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Agreed. Don’t bill main cast characters if they aren’t even going to be “Main Cast” then we have people like Drew and Fiona soaking up unnecessary screen time that could be for characters who actually need more development in their plot (like KC which felt kind of rushed).
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Maybe it’s me, but I have never assumed that just because a character’s in the opening credits that means they’re considered equal to everyone else in the credits…that goes for a lot of TV shows out there, even with shows that only have a handful of cast members. The opening credits don’t tell me how critical the characters are, the contents within the episodes do. Degrassi’s been doing this for God knows how long, so when they have an opening credits with 20+ characters it should be pretty obvious that not all of them are actually “main” characters. Everyone always uses Mo, Owen, etc. as the examples of faux main characters, but people like Adam and Jake aren’t really main characters either.
To be honest I feel like they include so many characters in the opening credits simply because 1) they need them to fill time since the theme song is so long, and 2) they now use the credits to intentionally foreshadow alliances for the season.
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I agree with kary, besides some characters are actually more fun being a supporting member than a main character. Look at zig, though i enjoyed his solo A plot, I loved him a lot more when he’s being silly like shoving a corn dog up his mouth or shrugging when Tori says that 4 people in the room love Tristan. Those scenes to me are just the cherry on top of the cake. I don’t need Mo plots or Marisol plots, Marisol being all bitchy is great fun on it’s own.
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If you think about it like most team sports. Every part of the team is important, but not every position is as important as every other position.
The A-listers (Clare, Eli, Katie, Drew, Dallas. Not a full list, but examples) are holding longer plotlines. With more set-up and backing. Which for a 40 ep season is important. But then we have the C-listers (Bianca, Connor, Imogen. The ones who get flawless scenes without flawless ep plots) and utility (Ms. Oh, Simpson, Marisol, Mo, Adam. Ones that fill roles in an episode, and can move from one plot to the next) that are needed to either keep the plots moving or keep the episode interesting.
Also there’s usually a hand-off between the two halves of the season. Not a perfect hand-off, but the focus for the second half will probably be on a different selection of cast. And there probably won’t be as much cast restructure this time (maybe a new face to replace K.C.’s leaving).
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I think since this is supposedly an ensemble show, it’s fair to assume that. I think sometimes the writers let fan reaction dictate who gets more attention.
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Quite honestly, some characters didn’t even deserve to have “main character status” during Showdown. I’m looking at Marisol, Mo, and Owen. And to a lesser extent, Connor and Ms. Oh…
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I can’t believe you did this. You are amazing. Even I wouldn’t try doing this and I love information like this. Thanks, Kary.
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This was great Kary! Thanks so much, I can only imagine the time this took so thanks for working so hard for us!
I still think that the writers shouldn’t include at 20+ cast members as main characters because then we don’t actually get to see enough of anyone. No plot would develop as nicely as they have done these season AND we would only see each cast member like 2 or 3 times maybe. So yeah even though I don’t care about some REAL main characters (see: Fiona, Imogen, sometimes Alli) i love how this season is going so no complains.
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Whoa, really impressed that you actually did this Kary. Major kudos to you! Just wondering, but are we gonna get your closing thoughts on Showdown overall? I’d love that, either way thanks for this.
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Whoops, wasn’t meant to be a reply.
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Eventually! The issue right now is I can think of Good and Bad stuff, but nothing “Ugly.” So I’ve gotta rewatch Showdown to make sure that is indeed accurate lol
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You can make a case for Eclare being a part of the plots of Sabotage (Part 2) and Scream (Off and on in both parts). In Sabotage it was the focus of Part 2 with Eli finally being told. Scream it was part of the conflict for Eli’s plot between “Doing what is right” and “Doing what she wants.” But overall it was just a support structure for Eli and Clare to be a balance to the other (Clare’s role in the Eli/Becky plot, Eli’s role in StuffClareSays).
Honestly underplaying the couple for Part 1 was probably one of the best writing calls they made.
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…I mean Part 1 of the Season. Keeping the couple drama to a minimum until the Fall/Spring half. Which I figure they have to crank up a bit.
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Primo: thank you so much, Kary! I’ve always loved you and your blog, but this? you must really care about all that stuff. I’m SO impressed.
Secundo: I actually enjoy not-main characters being in the credits next to main ones. it’s far better than showing only the most important characters, especially in a show like Degrassi, about school, with many students involved. on the other hand, in Season 2 we didn’t even have Ellie or Marco in credits, but they had more screen time than Owen, Mo or Marisol right now. Degrassi is changing, thats how it is, deal with it. opening credits with a very small amount of characters (e.i. Pretty Little Liars) tends to be boring and I skip it everytime. but I really, really enjoy watching Degrassi opening credits. I agree, I’d like to see some more Owen or Adam, but not Mar. Connor is perfect as a supporting character. and Jake got a solo plot this season – it was boring, and only needed to bond him more with Katie, that’s my opinion. and you have to know that I absolutely adore Jake. anyway, I think it’s ok to have some supporting characters and background, but they are important enough to appear in opening credits.
I’m so, so SORRY for all the mistakes, I’m from Poland.
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Kary, for “The Ugly” of Degrassi Showdown I say it was Fimogen. They still have no chemistry together.
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Yes, I love Fiona and Imogen is decent, but I couldn’t care less about them together.
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I agree that all characters aren’t created equal, but I wish they would give some of the subplots to minor characters instead of giving them to characters whom already have enough screen time.
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Out of everyone, I think Adam & Dave should get more screen time because Adam can carry a good plot but havent been given anything decent to work with. & Dave can also carry a plot but hasnt really had one NOT dealing with a relationship. If they could give him a dramatic one without it being relationship drama, it would be interesting. Why does Drew get so much screentime? Is it because he looks like Taylor Lautner?lol
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[…] Degrassi: Showdown was finished this past summer, I put together a blog post that took a look at the “attendance statistics” for the characters on Degrassi. All throughout Season 12 I’ve been keeping track of character appearances because I […]
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