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Hamilton is the workplace background for Canadians getting their first crack in the popular CBS reality show “Tough as Nails.”

The blue collar show, which runs Wednesday night on the U.S. network, opened up its fifth season to competitors from Canada this spring. The program also runs on Global TV in Canada.

The show, hosted, cocreated and produced by Phil Keoghan (Emmy Award winner for “The Amazing Race” in the U.S.) has been doing contestant interviews since the middle of July at the old Cannon Knitting Mills at Cannon Street East and Mary Street.

Other sites in the city — real job sites — have been used to test contestants and determine their strength, life skills, endurance and mental toughness.

Teams share in prize money each episode but the ultimate “Tough as Nails” individual winner takes home $200,000 (U.S.) and a new Ford truck.

The show has visited the Flamborough Quarry on Brock Road, the Corbec Ontario steel galvanizing plant in Glanbrook, Terra Greenhouses in Waterdown, Rona Home and Garden Centre in Waterdown, a warehouse on Industrial Drive in the city’s heavy industry area and farms in Flamborough, including one near Sheffield.

Keoghan, who created the program with his wife Lousie, decided to bring Canadians on board to highlight blue-collar workers here.

“They’re in remote mountain regions or in Saskatchewan or way up north,” he said in an interview on GlobalTV.com. “I wanted to dig into that with Canada because many Canadians are so closely connected with that pioneering spirit that first made this country. It’s about tapping into that culture of Canada.”

He said, in opening up the show to Canadian contestants, he hopes to produce a U.S. versus Canada season to showcase that timeless rivalry.

“I’ve never met a Canadian who hasn’t got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder when it comes to Americans,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ve seen a more passionate group of people in the world of hockey who love any time a Canadian team beats a U.S. team. Part of the reason for opening up the casting to Canadians is we want to foster rivalry between the USA and Canada.”

Keoghan said he hopes that with the inclusion of Canadian workers, the series will also continue to do what it does best.

“When you meet people on ‘Tough as Nails,’ you realize that you really cannot judge a book by its cover,” he said. “You appreciate the value of working class people who literally are the engine of any country. Without them, everything would just come to a grinding halt. So, it’s about that appreciation.”

“Tough as Nails’ was not the only reality show shooting in Hamilton in the last month. “All-Round Champion” was shooting scenes for its new season at the end of July at Bayfront Studios and at the Mohawk 4 Ice Centre on Mountain Brow Boulevard.

The show featuring 10 young athletes from North America is shown on TVO and BYUTV in the United States. The athletes compete in sports that are not their own to earn points. The one who gets the most points is crowned the all-round champion.

In other years, the show has filmed at Heritage Green Sports Park in Stoney Creek and at St. Mary’s Catholic Secondary School.

Kiefer Sutherland and his Paramount Plus spy series “Rabbit Hole” was back in the city last week, following filming in Oakville during the first week of August. The production had its crew and cast base set up at the Film.ca Cinemas on Speers Road and was shooting down the street.

In Hamilton, “Rabbit Hole” filmed at Cannon Knitting Mills and along the Red Hill Valley Trail off Woodward Avenue.

“Five Days at Memorial” is now showing on Apple TV Plus. The Katrina hurricane drama was shot in Hamilton last summer, including at the Hamilton Convention Centre, Flamboro Speedway and the former Hamilton Spectator building on Frid Street.

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