The 'RECORD' button blinked furiously. It sent the color red into the wind, rocketing through the violent swirl of snowflakes and melting the particles midair with its heat as it plunged into the wind. Below-zero conditions threatened to ruin the technology this season. Really, if you looked closely enough at the image on video camera's tiny screen, and if the Camera Guy allowed you to look over his shoulder, you would only be able to make out a mess of static and wind throughout the footage. Daphne Bryan had brown tendrils of hair that soared against the storm and puffed up furiously in this arctic environment. The cold was obviously kicking her butt. With every trudging footstep she took closer, redness was being slapped into her expression, and the wind created two dusty worms out of her lips as she pinched them together to avoid consuming snowflakes. Her eyebrows twitched too frequently. Her relatively small body was all curled and mangled beneath a long, brown marshmallow jacket, and her frantic movement painted a picture reminiscent of an animal struggling toward its habitat.

Camera Guy (his name really was Camera Guy) seemed to be having some problems, and the [REC] button soared about the entire landscape, missing every inch of the shivering Daphne and causing anger to be etched into her bones. Daphne seemed like she was about to cry. Well, she probably would've if her tears weren't at risk of freezing. "Camera Guy! Cam - CAMERA GUY! I'M RIGHT -"

The camera spun in her direction. On the other end of it, Camera Guy's gruff voice could be heard as he rearranged a leaking cigar between his lips and inched his sunglasses subtly up the greasy bridge of his nose. Somewhere around the corner, resting against a mound of powder-white snow, a medic was snoring loud enough to ruin the live recording. Camera Guy yelled at Daphne to get on with the speech she had clenched between her fingers. Daphne's bulbous nose looked on fire in a place where it couldn't have been more likely to freeze and fall to the ground. "Oh! America, get - get ready for the hottest show in the -" Daphne dodged a snowball, and a high-pitched giggle rang off-screen, " - in the WORLD," Daphne continued. Her voice boiled with an anger that she couldn't let loose. A girl named Frieda shrieked with laughter, all tangled in her own cascade of blonde hair.

"This is the day," Daphne went on, "That we release our list of the most EPIC new contestants to have ever been SEEN on Total Drama Island!" Maybe Daphne was talking it up. Just a little. As the air howled on its wild tracks throughout the tundra, somewhere beyond where the snow could be seen by the camera, the fierce roar of an American Black Bear rattled the pine needles and slammed Daphne into a state of fear. The host's whole body ducked low, her hair growing even more frizzy. "The arctic is - is a dangerous place! EVERYONE is at risk here, and -" another roar sent her stifling a scream, "- and TEN new people get to test their luck. Not EVERYONE is up for the challenge. Can - can they survive without being eliminated?"

Camera Guy was starting to feel the cold, too. He'd shed his jacket into the snow an hour earlier, and now it was simply a black heap toasting in the warmth it had soaked up from being on his body. Both Camera Guy and his coat were beginning to become hidden beneath the intensity of the snowflakes. Camera Guy, now clad in blue jeans and an ivory Fruit-of-the-Loom tank top, missed his jacket more than ever. Daphne's speech had degraded into a string of harsh curses. She was now flapping around in the wind like a plucked chicken. "Just cut the tape. Cut it," she shouted at Camera Guy with a red face while she waved her arm like a flag in front of her. "Cut the tape! CUT THE -"

America, from where they sat watching on their couches, heard the show leak into the cheery Total Drama Island theme song. On millions of televisions throughout the Americas, the words 'SEASON 23' spun on an invisible axis over their television screens. Stunning. 'Watch - 8/7 Central, January 20th.'

Woah! Everyone submitted like crazy! Alright, then, let's get this show on the road!

(The next chapter will be about a few of the contestants we'll be seeing in this season, and it will introduce a second round of submissions to this story. In chapter two, you'll be submitting just one character to be a part of the 'backstage' aspect of the show. AKA: medics, substitute hosts, pillow fluffers, set designers, competition organizers... These characters are planned to receive as much attention in the story as the contestants themselves. I don't know why - just to add a bit more variety, I guess? Look out for the second round of submissions in Episode Two!)

1. MALE: Andrew Draco

2. MALE: Simon "Si" Keyari

3. MALE: Corey Walker

4. MALE: John Wooten

5. MALE: Alexei Luka Levi "Lexi; Russian Doll"
_

1. FEMALE: Ashley "Ash" Ryahn

2. FEMALE: Tatiana "Tati" Pagano-Argueta

3. FEMALE: Kimara "Kimmy" Williams

4. FEMALE: Dahlia "Dahl" Williams

5. FEMALE: Bella Adams