Chris MacLean

Chris MacLean is the host of the program and one of the main characters of the series. He speaks with a "skater" accent. Easy-going and somewhat sadistic, he enjoys making the campers suffer and views them with little to no empathy, saying his trademark phrase "Awwwee-some!!!" whenever a challenge is particularly life-threatening. He clearly has no regard for their well-being, remarking that he doesn't care what happens on the show so long as he still gets paid. His talents include speaking and figure skating. According to the season finale, aside from being the show's host, Chris is also the show's writer, background designer, director, executive producer, and assassin (the latter being his task of killing anyone who tries to enter or escape the island). He frequently mentions that he hired interns in the pre-production phase of the show, most of whom died setting up the challenges; like the challengers, he shows no regard or regret for their demise. He also states the interns act as test subjects for his challenges. It's frequently mentioned that Chris does have superiors who insist that he tests his challenges first. Despite this order however it was shown in the finale (the episode between Gwen and Owen) that Chris deems his challenges safe even if the intern dies as demonstrated when the final intern (credited as Chasserocks) falls to his death whilst testing Chris' challenge to cross a gorge with sharks in them he says, "Well, that's safe enough." He also isn't above doing illegal actions to terrify the campers as demonstrated in "X-Treme Torture" and "Brunch of Disgustingness". In the first episode Chris nearly runs over a couple of campers with an airplane and then remarks that he doesn't have a pilot's license. In the Brunch of Disgustingness he also mentions that he made hot dogs out of dolphins which he poached himself despite the fact that killing and eating dolphins is considered illegal in most countries (including Canada). One of the things that frequently makes him angry is when his poorly-made, budget-priced sets are described as poorly-made, budget-priced sets (or the like). Chris is also extremely egotistical if not outright narcissistic his most beloved trait of himself being his hair. A good example of this is in "X-Treme Torture" when he froze the camera and asked if he could get an increase of make-up saying, "I look like I just fell out of bed," despite the fact he's obviously rather groomed. The campers are aware of this trait as they don't believe that there's an "Escaped Psycho Killer With A Chainsaw And A Hook" trapped on the island with them until they realize that Chris in a hurry to leave left behind his hair gel.
It should to be noted that despite having these personality flaws, Chris nonetheless has shown that he has standards, no matter how low they may seem. In fact, Chris is frequently disgusted by Heather's underhandedness, going so far as to chastise her for reading Gwen's diary on live TV, stating that it was "really messed-up." Most of the campers have a large amount of contempt for Chris since his inhumane challenges affect them both physically and emotionally, although Chris actually befriended (and remains relatively friendly with) a few campers who were relatively unfazed by the danger, specifically Owen, Geoff (due to their cheerful, energetic, and easy-going personalities), Duncan (his time in Juvenile Hall has made him used to the kind of mistreatment) and Trent (who has an incredible stroke of bad luck and copes with the danger). In the final episode, a lynch mob of the campers made up of Chris' aforementioned friends, Owen, Geoff, and Duncan get back at Chris and throw him into the lake for making them do all the dangerous challenges of season one. (It was revealed in the following episode that Owen, Geoff, Duncan and Trent are still friends with Chris and actually dissuaded the other campers from doing anything worse than simply dunking him.) Chris will appear in the second season with upgraded facial expressions and a beard.[2]
Chris is most likely based on the host of the show Survivor, Jeff Probst. The outfit Chris wears throughout most of the first season is similar to the one Probst wore during the first season of Survivor.