Naked and Afraid is a good show but any novelty of being naked around each other wears off in about five seconds as they have to start figuring out how to survive. One group had to walk across African wild land without shoes and the guy’s feet got tore up to shreds.
Also, to correct someone upthread, there are no cash prizes on N&A. The participants do it just to do it as they’re all hardcore survivalists and see it as a huge challenge that they want to accomplish. I’m sure they get a fee for appearing on the show but they’re not competing for anything except pride.
We have a how like this in the Netherlands now: Adam and Eve. It starts with first one of them talking to the host on a boat and then jumping in the water and swimming to the shore (a short distance) of some tropical looking Island. A bit later the second person joins in a similar way (and sometimes a third person as well). It is really bases on the romance part and there is little real “surviving” involved. Honestly, you quickly stop noticing they are nude… if I would ever watch of course ahem.
The episode I saw they were on a beach on an island in Panama. You could at least rinse off every day in salt water, and most days in rain water or a freshwater stream. (This wouldn’t have been true in the African episode, I think, but many of the other episodes probably had some opportunities for rinsing off.)
You wouldn’t have soap, but in my experience (having spent time camping in such circumstances) you don’t end up smelling intolerably bad. What gets funky is your clothes, where the sweat is absorbed and ferments. If you’re not wearing clothes, it’s not such a problem.
Since humans are highly fresh-water dependent, it’s probable that our earliest Cro-Magnon ancestors had lots of access to fresh water, were able to bathe often, and really didn’t stink so bad.
