Just the other day, my girlfriend and I were watching Bear Grylls on the Discovery Channel’s Man vs. Wild and commenting on how crazy he was — eating spiders, sleeping with snakes, and climbing up and down waterfalls while battling a massive case of diarrhea. Maybe he’s not so crazy?
The New York Post is running an article that questions the reality of Man vs. Wild, saying, “On the program, Grylls appears to camp out in quickly-built shelters deep in the wilderness while battling hypothermia and dehydration. But when the cameras stop rolling, Grylls has actually moved to luxurious hotels.”
Mark Weinert, “an Oregon-based survival consultant,” is claiming that producers for the show hired him as a consultant. “According to Weinert, while filming in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains – an episode in which Grylls, 33, is seen biting off the head of a snake for breakfast – Grylls actually spent some nights with the show’s crew in a lodge outfitted with television, stone fireplaces, hot tubs and Internet access.”
I don’t doubt Grylls’ ability to sever the head of a snake with his teeth for a quick snack — that stuff seems true enough — but what goes on behind the scenes is anyone’s guess. Here’s what Discovery had to say:
“Discovery Communications has learned that isolated elements of the ‘Man vs. Wild’ show in some episodes were not natural to the environment, and that for health and safety concerns the crew and host received some survival assistance while in the field.”
Previously: Gadling writer Erik questions the reality of the show almost a year ago.
Sad really. [via]