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Billy Berger on Naked and Afraid?

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chief deer:
They should call it    "If we aren't naked I am afraid this won't air very long"

Mohawk13:
I think the point of being naked is to throw another monkey wrench into the survival scenario. In a plane crash or other catastrophic event, clothes may get burned or torn off. Not a big fan of the naked aspect, but if You were suddenly to find Yourself stranded buck naked and with another individual, what would Your priorities be? Food, Shelter, Water, Clothes??? I think a cold wether show would be great, as I live in a very cold climate, and would like to see how someone reacted....

Dharma:
Well, if your clothes were burned off, you'd have second to third degree burns and be in shock pretty quickly. Plus burns to get infected if you survived the burns and the shock. In a cold climate, you'd get hypothermia and frostbite pretty quickly if you were naked. Even the wrong clothes can get you killed in cold climates.

These "survival" shows are not realistic, for a number of reasons. First off, the people in them are not going to die. If the producers of these shows allowed people on them to die, they could be charged with crimes. Negligent homicide, manslaughter, etc. Someone could die in an accident, but the producers could not stand by and let these people die if they failed to perform correct survival skills. People react differently when they know it's do or die as opposed to having a back-up where their survival is ensured. Law enforcement agencies won't allow a show where people would be allowed to die. And they probably take a peek at them from time to time just to see. Back to the do or die issues, I saw a guy who passed a three day Red Cross first aid course with flying colors. But when we had an industrial accident, he froze up and stood there watching an injured man bleed. So, actual reality differs from staged "reality" when it comes to human reactions.

This is just entertainment, such as it is. I'd be leery of anything "as seen on TV". TV exists to sell products, no more, no less. They'll do whatever it takes to get ratings that they can show advertisers, regardless of whether or not what is shown is factually correct. In an actual survival situation, the best and worst comes out in people and you can't film that at all when it happens. Take that plane that crashed in the Andes, for example. They had to resort to cannibalism to survive. Can you put people into that kind of situation and film that? Of course not. That was an anomaly where human flesh was the only food available to them and so they had to resort to that. But first, they had to be desperate enough to break a major human taboo about cannibalism. That is something that cannot be staged. Therefore, a TV show can't show you how far someone will go to survive or what they might have to do in order to accomplish that.

Another example. The Donner Party. Again, they had to resort to cannibalism. But you had to have "the perfect storm", so to speak, for that to happen. Wagon train tried to beat the snows, they didn't listen to experienced guides, they tried a questionable shortcut, they didn't want to wait, and so they got trapped. And the rest is what they ended up having to do to live. If a TV show tried to create this scenario, they'd all be carted off into federal custody and be looking at 20 to life prison sentences. But the Andes plane crash and the Donner Party are two prime examples of what happened in survival situations where people were dropped into them without proper gear and supplies.

Another thing. When you KNOW you are lost, that is far different from being "lost" with a film crew hovering nearby. The fear factor just isn't present when you can get "unlost" quickly by crying uncle and throwing in the towel. In a real survival situation, throwing in the towel means you lay down and die and every turkey vulture and raven in the neighbourhood show up for a free meal. Putting cash as a reward for success isn't realistic, either. It's far different from your own life being the door prize.

And as far as the nudity, need it even be said? It's typical Hollywood. Sex sells. They're trying to evoke something primal, but what they're evoking are the more unpleasant attributes of man's primal nature. Obviously, this is so. Or there would be two 55 year old men with potbellies naked as opposed to a man and a woman. It also involves some rather tiresome fantasies that go along the lines of, "If you were naked in the woods with (insert name of woman you think most attractive here), what would you do?" Indeed, need it even be said?

We are truly at an impasse with television, such as it is.

Dharma:
One more thing while I'm on a roll. An interesting thing I observed about survival was about three weeks ago. It involved this feral dog I saw on Highway 160 here in Arizona between Kayenta and Tuba City early one morning up on the Navajo Nation. There's a lot of feral dogs out there and food is hard to come by. If you've been on the Rez here, you know what the terrain is like. High desert. There was a road-killed coyote in the middle of the road straddling the center line. This dog stood in the middle of this road eating that coyote as tractor trailers and pickup trucks whizzed by only inches away. That is how hungry that dog was. It was willing to risk its life for food. There's a survival situation there for you. Risk your life to eat. The traffic isn't going to stop. Not on Highway 160 it won't. 

nclonghunter:
I will first say I enjoy watching the show because of the mental break downs and mental challenge only. Why 21 days, because you can starve to death around 21 days or more. You have to have water, but food you can get along without...at least that is what they say. I'm starving after one day. As it has been said they can not allow someone to die, unless it is an accident. So how do you create the drama needed. I believe they read the applications and pick average knowledgable survivalists. I know some people could excell in some of the situations presented in the shows. The naked part appeals to viewers and mentally destroys some participants that lose that security blanket of protective clothing. If they wore clothes would it be as interesting, I don't think so. Just imagine yourself in the show given the choice to wear clothes or not, I know what I would pick and be glad. Several of the participants have had complete shut down and laid around in camp doing nothing. If you only had a little water you could lay there for 21 days and survive. To improve your situation and make it better is mental challenge and some do great. As far as learning survival tricks or knowledge I really haven't seen much that impressed me....I can take it or leave it, but it is sometimes interesting at least for a little longer...Attitude is what wins!
On the last show did anyone think it was crazy luck that all those big bamboo poles floated up to the bank, which just happened to be enough for them to make a raft...was that lucky or what?

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