I have to say, I don’t get it. Who would dream this up? Who would present this to TV executives? Who would say, “Yeah, this sounds great! Let’s do it!” And who watches it? 'Fess up. Who are you and why do you watch it? What in the world is the appeal?
I watched several episodes when it was first on. It was kind of interesting to see people with survival skills trying to survive with the barest of technology. But then the episodes became repetitive in nature, they all have to build a fire, find water, construct a shelter, and find some food, maybe find some food anyway, the smart ones pack on some extra pounds before they start.
The appeal is that it’s something different, somewhat titillating to some, and may hold the attention of the survival type.
Funny, I just finished watching the entire franchise, like every episode of every show of it on Discovery+.
It’s survival and struggle. It’s also soap opera. There’s a lot of hubris and schadenfreude involved. Two strangers, both full of piss and vinegar and they’re the “ultimate survivalists” and they’re going to “conquer” this horrific place, even though nobody else lives there for a very good reason or hundred, and they’re going to find out all of them.
It’s usually pretty predictable what happens: they are okay for a few days building their shelter and making fire and finding and purifying water, but the point where they have to get food is always where things generally fall apart. Every now and then a pairing or group have at least one person with real experience and really knows what they’re doing and they do quite well, but most of the time it’s “survivalists” who’ve mostly “survived” in their own backyards, or with the full support and gear of the United States military, and they just don’t have the practical experience doing it alone to be able to do it naked, with minimal supplies.
One thing I’ve definitely noticed is the really big, buff guys almost always tap out early. They use up all their energy and calories being “strongman” the first couple of days, then they have no food to replenish and they become useless and have to go home. One guy was like, “I eat 6 chicken breasts and 10 eggs for breakfast every day.” No way he’s going to be able to keep that up out in the jungle, and of course he couldn’t. The skinny guys are always the ones who make it to the end.
As the series goes on though, I have a cynical suspicion the producers intentionally select locations and times that are particularly sparse and unpleasant, even for that place.
The naked thing is a bizarre twist, but you oddly stop noticing it very early. It’s definitely a practical issue and serious impairment for them, and honestly even the most attractive people still get dirty, frowny, and ugly really fast.
Do they actually show full nakedity, or is it all blurred out, as it is in the ads that they run during Law and Order or whatever?
Note: I’m never going to watch it. I’m just curious. Because if they blur it, then what’s the point? “Shorts, Sportsbra and Afraid” would be just as much a survival show.
All blurred out. If someone is watching for that, they’re going to be severely disappointed.
I watched some of it. I figured that the nakedness was one more thing they have to contend with. If you don’t wear any clothes, do you get too cold, too sunburned, too insect bitten, etc.? You can maybe weave some leaves together as rudimentary clothing but you’re also tasked with fire, water, shelter, food…you’ve only got so many hours of light, so where do you rank it?
I like the survival aspect of it. How do you know if that water’s safe to drink or if you’re building camp too near a hazard or whether those berries are ok to eat, etc.? You might clear one hurdle—you killed an animal for food? Great but don’t leave the guts etc. near your camp if there are predators around. So there are a lot of details to attend to. Your best chance of survival would be from two people working together, so when they fight etc. it makes the task even harder.
One thing I noticed is how often the macho men get themselves into trouble. They will injure themselves (often with their own weapons), or they will drink un-boiled water and get sick. Then the women have to do double duty.
I remember one episode where the man had excellent survival skills, but emotionally, he was rather brittle. The woman was almost totally dependent on him for material things, but it was her will to endure that enabled them to complete the challenge.
Yep. Severely disappointed.
And the endure it all for the princely sum of $5,000.00
Apparently if you’re invited for one of the “XL” seasons, it ups to $24k. For 40-60 days of your life, that’s not too bad.
I have a feeling that’s a decent amount of money for a lot of these people; many of them self-describe as “homesteaders,” are self-employed, housewives, or have “outdoorsy” occupations like Park Rangers and “survival instructors.”
A lot of ex-military of both genders. It doesn’t seem to make that much difference in their success rate.
Other than Special Forces, I would imagine there’s little, if any, survival(beyond avoiding capture) training.
It was part of training in the 70s according to a friend of mine. It was incorporated with training to avoid capture but they learned basic survival skills, starting fires, finding clean water, basic first aid treatment, but also plenty of work on the avoiding capture part. I don’t know how they are doing it these days, probably a little better survival info, but still not on the level of the highly trained people who do well on the show. And even those with plenty of knowledge often find themselves coming up short on a practical level, fires are hard to start in the rain, clean water may be scarce and the result can be debilitating illness, and food can be much less available then assumed, the contestants are often on the verge of starvation when they complete the ordeal.
What I’ve learned from watching this show is that I’d probably die if I spent the night naked in my own backyard.
I love it to death. One of the shows I actually watch live, because pausing live TV makes it easier to fast forward through commercials than the DVR, which has two second delays on all navigation operations. (eg: Almost three full seconds between hitting pause and the screen actually pausing.)
My favorite part is the shelter building, which is different every shelter. General bushcraft is my second favorite part, where they build smokers or meat storage areas or even a dock for fishing. (That never seems to work, by the way. It’s the new fish basket in terms of wasting time and energy in order to procure no extra fish.)
I also watch Alone for largely the same reasons, though they don’t do as good a job showcasing the shelters as Naked and Afraid does. N&A uses graphics and time lapse and it’s really well done. Alone is all self-shot, so it’s really hit or miss whether or not the shelter gets properly showcased.
Exposure to the elements and lack of materials. “Shorts, Sportsbra and Afraid” would quickly devolve into Naked and Afraid by around day three when they started repurposing their articles of clothing to more practical purposes rather than modesty.
I started watching Alone right after I watched all of Naked and Afraid and I kept forgetting it was a different show; I’d look up and be like, “Where did they get those clothes?” 
I’ve been watching Naked and Afraid since halfway through season 1, though honestly I’ve kind of faded on the main show and mostly just focus on the XL seasons now.
I didn’t start watching Alone until last summer, but then I had signed up for Discovery+ and ended up binging seven seasons in a couple weeks. Then watched last season and this season live.
Alone is really good but the frequent severe fishing and hunting restrictions can be a real bummer. The current season has been awesome in terms of the survivalist being able to feed themselves.
Why is the prize so pathetic? Even low-budget reality shows cough up $100,000 or something for a winner.
There is no prize on Naked and Afraid. It’s all for bragging rights and personal growth. Unless your name is Jeff, in which case it’s only about bragging rights.
You don’t train to do well on Naked and Afraid for money. Instead, you go on Naked and Afraid because primitive survival is in your blood and you want to test your skills.
You do Alone for the money. ($500,000 to whoever stays longest.)
Because they have to cough up $10k every episode for a whole season. Every episode (of the original series) is self-contained, so a different pair of survivalists each time, it’s not a big contest for a big prize at the end. It’s not so much a “prize” as it is just an “appearance fee.”
Thank you. I thought this was a season-long show like Survivor. I saw one(I think it “Alone”) where they just live in the wild until the last person drops out.