Man vs Motel

So the BBC News had this story Grylls series 'to be transparent' about the show Man vs Wild, which is on the Discovery Channel. The show appears to be similar to another Discovery Channel show, Survivorman, in which the host is stranded in some wilderness situation and then left to his own devices to get back to civilization. That is where the similarities end. On Survivorman, Les Stroud carries all his own camera equipment and is completely alone. On Man vs Wild, Bear Grylls clearly has at least one cameraman with him. But that's not the problem that was brought up in the article. As you watch the show, you're led to believe that Bear is actually going through the whole process of survival as Les does on his show. This belief would be supported if read the show's website:

"In each episode of Man vs. Wild Bear strands himself in popular wilderness destinations where tourists often find themselves lost or in danger. As he finds his way back to civilization, he demonstrates local survival techniques..."

But according to the BBC story, sometimes Bear has scenes and survival tools (like rafts) set up for him and he stays in motels during the filming! Also, he's got a whole crew with him, not just the one cameraman. The Discovery Channel apologizes for misleading viewers and says that the show is not a documentary. It's meant to show scenarios of what to do to survive. Aside from the fact that he isn't really surviving, I've seen him take some unnecessary risks that I think the average person wouldn't be able to do or shouldn't do when trying to survive. In just one show, I saw him scale sheer cliffs for about 30 feet up from the ocean's shore, then climb about 15 feet down banyan trees into a ravine and then eat some honey straight from a bee hive. Now the last one doesn't sound that bad, but he slathered honey all around his mouth and it was all over his hands and then in the next scene he was nice and clean. So honey is sticky and attracts a lot of bugs. I'm thinking if you're in a rainforest situation, getting honey all over yourself then sleeping on the ground can't be the best idea. There's no sink in which to wash yourself.

Anyway, Bear's show is totally bogus. If you want to see a true survivor, watch Survivorman. Les is intense, doesn't take crazy risks for the sake of a good photo op and is totally hardcore!