Man vs. Wild is Fake
I'm a big fan of the Discovery Channel and all the other learning-type channels on TV. They are my favorite and pretty much the majority of what I watch on TV since TV went down the crapper. However, even these channels are not immune from the disease of bad TV and now TLC is a horrible reality show fest with useless shows about people selling houses or fighting while trying to fix one.
In spite of the growing number of bad shows on the learning channels I still find comfort in a few of them - one of them being Man vs Wild. I was already a fan of Survivorman - a show about a man surviving alone in the wilderness - and I really got into M-v-W and its charismatic host Bear Grylls. The show departed from Survivorman in that Bear wasn't alone in the wilderness, but instead had a camera crew along for the ride. It seemed fishy at first, but I took Bear and the Discovery Channel at their word and believed that he was really doing the things he said he was. As the show progressed I began to notice strange things like Bear almost mounting a "wild" horse and him supposedly killing a rabbit by throwing a stick and hitting it while moving. I let these things go once again giving them the benefit of the doubt, but now that a scathing expose' on what really happens on the show has come out I feel sad and let down.
According to a UK publication there is little that is genuine about the Man vs Wild show. Apparently Bear doesn't really sleep in the wilderness, but instead likes to go to nearby hotels and spend the night with a warm cup of tea and cookies. He also has specialists that frequently visit him in the "wilderness" to help him do things like build a raft. I guess we now know why Bear always has the energy (even though he constantly complains of being tired), to do stupid things like purposely jump in a freezing lake to show us how to escape.
I'm not outraged. I'm not angry. I'm just disappointed. Disappointed that a guy with such an amazing background as Bear would agree to or engage in such shady TV. If I was a badass ex special forces soldier I would be ashamed to make such a show. In fact, I would be demanding that it be real. However, Bear Grylls' credibility and badass persona have now been completely shot and he will never be able to live this down.
The Discovery Channel doesn't seem to be handling this well either as they have said nothing that I'm aware of. They should at least apologize for not making it clearer that the show was largely staged. Bear should apologize too, but I figure he is too embarrassed to show his face at the moment. Tonight is usually M-v-W night where Discovery plays reruns of the show, but Bear and his antics are no where to be found. Instead we get the real Survivor Man in Les Stroud - a guy who really spends a week in the wilderness alone (please don't be fake too!). A new season of Survivorman is going to hit next month and I can't wait. Too bad about Man vs Wild though. It had a lot of potential.
Bear isn't some "badass ex special forces soldier". They've played fast
and loose with his creds as well. Bear was in the "21 SAS", not the
regular SAS. "21 SAS" is a unit of the TA (Territorial Army) -- basically,
reserves.
Contrary to frequent claims, he was not a member of the French Foreign Legion; he simply made a documentary about it.
He was not the youngest anything to climb Mt. Everest; James Allen was a year younger and several years earlier. Contrary to Bear's "correction", Allen has dual British/Australian citizenship, his passport is British, the British press refers to him as British, Allen refers to himself as British, he was born in Britain, and he lives and works in Britain. Bear climbed everest as part of an expensive (usually ~60k$) paid expedition -- the sort of thing where sherpas carry up all your gear for you. His guide's wife manages Russel Brice from "Everest: Beyond the Limit" (also from Discovery).
Bear was not the first to cross the Atlantic in a RIB. A team of powerboaters beat him to it. Also, he provided scant evidence for actually making the crossing as described.
His claims of parasailing over Everest are basically a laughingstock. His permit was only to fly over the Pheriche plateau (way far away), nobody on Everest saw him (like with previous Everest flyovers), he provided no insturmentation, and just a bunch of pictures of "clouds" -- not even any shots of mountains in the distance. The FAI is not going to ratify it. Check out the unfolding story at mounteverest.net.
That's even more disappointing.
James Allen was actually from Australia. He held duel citizenships in
Australia, Britain, and New Zealand. But he was registered as being
Australian. When Bear Grylls came along and made the claim that he was the
youngest Brit to ever summit Everest…then James Allen changed his story,
and claimed to be British.
