So I usually avoid reality TV, mainly for just being too tacky and stupid, although I did watch the very first season of Survivor, way back when, and am a bit amazed that it’s still going. It’s hokey and superficial and filled with influencer-types, ugh. But there exists another show in the same vein of outdoorsy challenges that for my money is the best reality TV ever: The History channel’s Alone. Just last week Season 13 debuted, billed as the first international challenge, World Championship. That billing seems kind of cheesy in ways that the show does not.
The setup: Each season 10 contestants get dropped off in some remote, wilderness location. They’re alone, can bring only 10 additional items (besides 65 lbs of camera gear to film themselves), and must fend for themselves. They have a satellite phone and can “tap out” whenever they want. In this season two have already tapped out in the first few days. The last one standing wins $500,000. (Personally I’d say give them a cool million but I don’t run the show.)
Their being alone is perhaps the main reason it’s not cheesy in the way other reality shows are: It’s not a matter of personality conflicts and “conspirators” or alliances. It’s just a person alone, having to make a shelter, find food, and survive in wilderness conditions for up to three months at a time. There are no “immunities” and perks like special food if they win a challenge. There are no “challenges”: The whole setup is a challenge. (Some seasons end in less than two months, and other seasons last beyond three, but not by much.)
For outdoorsy people part of the fun of watching is imagining yourself in their shoes and their predicaments. It’s easy to get caught up in their personalities, have your favorites. Could I make that fire? Could I catch that fish? This season I’m rooting for Poldi and Will, who seem sharp. I like the competent, savvy outdoors people the most. I’m impressed with those who do much better than I can imagine I would. Often a few exit quickly: There’s a psychological condition called Drop Shock, which entails being freaked out soon after they get dropped off, alone in the wilderness, and the isolation sets in.
Fundamentals can be quite challenging: They aren’t allowed to bring tents. Each has only a tarp to use as temporary shelter. They all need to construct shelters to keep them warm and safe from the likes of grizzly bears, cougars, and wolverines. (Many of the seasons have been set in the far northern Canada.) This season is inside the Arctic Circle. (One season was in Africa, and the baboons were spookier than grizzly bears.) The shelters often seem a trap or a mistake: Some contestants have planned and begun elaborate log cabins but don’t spend enough time fishing, foraging, and hunting to feed themselves, so they tap out before the cabin is complete. Others have constructed clever shelters, complete with stone fireplaces inside.
For the typical contestant, nothing seems easy. They have to start their own fires, to boil their water to purify it, for one thing. The first season was set in the very wet forests of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Many of the contestants struggled mightily to get fires going. Black bears were everywhere and one guy tapped out for bear-fear. In this season one contestant tapped out after only a couple days because he burned up his ferro rod—a relatively easy fire-starting device.
They hunt and fish, and if you don’t like seeing squirrels and rabbits get caught in snares and eaten, look away. Mostly they snag small game, but now and then one of the contestants gets something big, like a moose or a musk-ox. They lose a lot of weight. They get stomach problems from not eating enough and/or eating sketchy stuff they find foraging or hunting. (The one who thought eating cactus was a good idea made a mistake.)
The winners almost always seem to deserve it. (One exception: One fellow won the season by basically starving himself effectively. He just sat around his shelter and didn’t eat much, and after a while he was the last one standing. I thought that was unfair: It’s not a show about starving!) And while most or many of the contestants struggle, a few of them seem natural at it. One winner in a season in Canada was a Canadian who seemed completely at ease in the far northern wilderness. It was cold by the end of the season and he was sitting around a fire outside his shelter, acting like it was no big deal.
When they start talking about how much they miss their families, you know they’re soon to tap out.