That scene where he bites the head off the snake and then eats its squirming body is pretty nasty. I don’t think they used one of Walt Disney’s animatronic snakes for that scene, so at least some of it’s not faked. The Discovery Channel Show Man vs. Wild is under fire for faking several of the survival techniques used by the host Bear Grylls. A consultant for the show claims that Grylls spends some nights in hotels while supposedly trying to escape from the wilderness. He also said that the crew helps Grylls build rafts and shelters and then makes it look like Grylls did the work himself. The consultant who broke the story is probably freaking out right now. I’m sure he’s terrified that Bear Grylls is tracking him with nothing more than a knife, walking stick, and camera crew to record his death. Â
Oh, by the way. Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping in the Tour de France and his entire team dropped out, but I’m sure everyone saw that one coming.
via Gadling
ByRocky Thompson
This is why Les Stroud (Survivorman) rules. Films it all himself, and gives up when he can’t hack it, like a real person would. Also, he doesn’t do dumb shit like, “We’re at the top of a frozen glacier [pronounced gla-see-ay]. If you fall into one of these pools, you could die in seconds from hypothermia. And now, to demonstrate how lethal it is, and to give my SAS-toned abs some air, let’s dive in. [rips clothes off, jumps in frozen pond].”
Only a douchefactory staying at the Four Seasons after the shoot would do that crap. Les gives you tools you can use (ever see the needle-and-thread aloe plant in Utah?), instead of just biting the heads off snakes.
Long live “Survivorman,” down with “Man vs. Occasional Wilderness.”
A lot of that show seems fake to me. Survivor Man on the other hand seem very real. It is just that dude with a couple camcorders in the middle of no where. Although one time he was on a raft and had to signal a safety boat but at least they kept that part in the show.
Bear Grylls is a freaking idiot.
And Cofidis has also left the tour after failed drug tests.
http://www.velonews.com/tour2007/news/articles/12930.0.html
Say it ain’t so!
I especially love how he always parachutes in and then miraculously has a day pack and camera crew with him……. Oh or when he jumps in the river in the winter and visibly has a life jacket on under his sweat shirt….. AND claims to have ridden the river 20 miles……. If he had been in the river long enough to 20 miles….. Hypothermia would have killed him…… No, that guy is an idiot who shows people a lot of ways to get themselves killed……
He’s still pretty smoking hot.
I have to say that this has been a big concern on my mind as well. The way he stays upbeat and keeps his energy up after a few days of starvation always baffles me. I sometimes wonder if he actually swallows and eats all the raw things he bites into. It seems as though the camera crew often cuts the scene. I’m in such a state of unrest, can’t somebody help me!!!
However I do agree that Survivorman is dope!
Man Vs Wild is produced the way it is so that it can set itself apart from Survivorman. If not and then we’d basically have the same show.
I do not think the show Man Vs Wild ever says that it is trying to be 100% hardcore real a la Survivorman. We should take it for what it is which is mostly idle entertainment (and judging by the above responses some people do.) If we all want to learn some practical and valuable skills watch Survivorman. And even if Lee Stroud took in one or two nights in a hotel that would be no big deal to me since at least he does not coming off like an ass like Bear Grylls does.
The whole route iBear takes is planned out in advance. There are scouts that do that. Everywhere he is walking, climbing, swimming etc is carefully all mapped out.
The production crew has to set up all the camera equipment, tracks, etc..for shooting.
Im sure the crew planted the plastic water bottle floating on the island. Too convenient.
I formerly worked on the Man vs Wild filmcrew. Since I was the new guy, I was more or less Bear’s gopher. He was nuts about steak and cheese grinders, and I had to make sure that I had at least six of them when we went on a shoot. In between takes, he would gobble them down. I still can’t figure out how he could eat half a sandwich, and then in the next scene, eat a live snake! He must have a cast iron stomach. So much of the show was phony, that I quit after three episodes. On any project, he would stay in the best hotels available, after having shot a sad scene of him in some dirty lean-to. What a liar he is.
In case some of you haven’t noticed, the point of the show isn’t to lay claim to having the largest balls on the Discovery network.
I’m not surprised at the news that not 100% of it all is 100% authentic. Bear does a good job at demonstrating survival skills and techniques, which I might add (drum rolls) is the point of the show. Yes, some of you are right about him doing some pretty questionable things. But really, ask yourself; should you someday (God forbid) find yourself lost on a frozen “gla-cee-ay” wandering and trying to survive, are you really going to throw yourself into a frozen pond just because Bear did it? If, on the other hand, you (again, God forbid) trip and FALL into a frozen pond and manage to pull yourself out of it because you remember, for one instant, how Bear did it from that episode at which time you were thinking how much of a douche he was for doing it… well, enough said.
Enjoy the show for what it is and what it has to offer, otherwise quit crying and change the channel.
There was something in my eye…
Like the people who spill hot coffee on themselves and then sue someday someone who is in the running for the Darwin award will jump into a frozen lake just to see if he can get out like Grylls .
Hey, I’m a scorned survival show viewer. I thought this was real until the Sierra Nevada episode, and I’m glad this story broked. I’ve been meaning to write Discovery ever since the Sierra episode.
In the Sierra episode, Bear parachutes to 10k elevation in the Sierra Nevada, then makes a Mi-wuk Indian raft to float down the stream for 2 miles. Anyone who has hiked these mountains knows that at that elevation, the streams are too narrow to float, and if you could float them you’d freeze to death and cut yourself to pieces before you made it two miles. It looks like they film the float at about the 2,000 ft elevation (looks like the Merced River which is a popular inner-tubing spot). The next day, Bear wakes up back in the high country (8,000 ft+) and hikes his way down. On his way, he makes an Indian throwing stick (which looks remarkably like something called a “stick”). He walks into the meadow, where a wild rabbit happens to be sitting and he kills it with the stick. There are rabbits throughout the lower Sierra elevations, but in many years of hiking the high country, I’ve never seen a rabbit. I can’t swear that they don’t exist in the higher elevations, but man if they do, they are elusive. So Bear must have been extremely lucky to find a rabbit in that meadow (or its a fraud). And the final wacky moment of the Sierra episode was when he tried to lasso the “wild” horse. That one has been disputed enough in all of the skeptical reviews I’ve read, but to add my 2 cents, that was a joke.
shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzz, i kind of like the bloke…les stroud is crazy real doing all the filming and i’ve heard he even scores his own music…which is just bizarre if you watch the show listening to the intro and outro music, fade to commercial etc…
But Bear IS tough as nails. I don’t really care that he crashed at a hotel or two…he can still grind shiz out on the regular and if you check out his bio, he’s done some pretty insane things…
it’s better than The Hills, which my wife watches now that naked Bear is no longer on the telly…
and….if you notice after he has been in the “wild” for 3 days he is remarkably clean shaven…..do you think he sky dives in with shaving cream and a razor…or they just want to make him look nice for TV??
I enjoy this show, but I’ve always knew it was staged - to a degree. One show that really shows the “staging” of it, I noticed, was when he was lost in some country area and came upon an empty cabin. Well, he happen to find an old board that was “left there” for a “long time”. But, I noticed the boat was upside down in some very long grass…and when he flipped it over the grass was STILL HALF ALIVE!!! You could easily see the boat was placed there maybe a day or two ago.
Granted some of the stuff he does like climb trees and eats raw stuff and bugs, etc are real. But, I think the fact he talks like he’s totally real makes viewers upset. The other thing I don’t care for is when he says something he’s about to do is so dangerous yet the camera crew has already done it to get the shot!!!
Oh well, I’ll still watch for entertainment reasons.
I don’t care what any of you say, I LOVE Bear!!! I just LOVE watching him run thru the forest, his muscular thighs pumping and his chiselled chest heaving for air! I am even more excited now that I know he stays in 4 star hotels at night. I would give anything to slip into his room after a days shooting and become his lover. I would lick and caress his entire luscious body and then turn my attention to his manhood. I would make it stiffer and longer than ever before! He would mount me and stuff its entire length deep into me. He would pump it in and out, and I would watch as he climaxed in a howling orgasm! I would have his baby, to carry on his show if he gets killed doing a stunt. Perhaps when our son took over the show, I could be featured in it, sort of as the Survival Man’s Mom. I would really like that.
Lulabelle, you’re a very lonely person aren’t you?
I thought it was quite obvious that certain parts were fake. Like other people have said, they don’t claim that the show is pure solo survival, as it is in Survivorman. Bear’s simply hosting a show that demonstrates some survival techniques and throws in some extra crazy shit because hey, it gets the ratings and makes the show a hell of a lot more interesting. And above all, he’s still ex-SAS and has climbed Mt. Everest, which makes him an irrefutable badass in my book. No matter how many four-star hotels he stays in.
thats pretty gay, i thought bear was tight
The real issue with “Man vs. Wild” isn’t that it is only a depiction of survival scenarios v. real situations… the real problem is that much of the advice given by Bear is critically dangerous, and could get you killed… It is not practical or informative survival advice.
The show is a farce and sham because of his poor advice that is inaccurate and dangerous…
The link below discusses the “bad survival advice”.
http://www.daughtersoftiresias.org/bearwiki/Bad_Advice_and_Inaccuracies
I believe that he is a phenomenal athlete and fully capable of handling the physical challenges that are depicted on the show… Granted they stage the shots and setup the situations… I suppose it is advisable to eliminate the real danger (why should he kill himself for a show???), and to make the scenes more exciting and entertaining to watch (he is essentially replicating real situations in more a production friendly manner).
The problem: 1) It is a let down to see it is faked when it is billed as REAL SURVIVAL, and 2) It is upsetting to treated like we are all dumb out-in TV land (I for one am not OK with being lied to for the sake of entertainment - refer to the 1950’s game show “Twenty One”).
So, Bear Grylls may be a capable and skilled survivalist, but he is not a genuine all-encompassing survival expert. He uses off screen consultants for the survival techniques that he presents, and the scenes are setup for him to be oh so adventurous… but yet somehow they actually come up with critically BAD survival advice… as in the link above…
1) Drinking your urine - full of toxins
Use coconut oil as a sun block - believe that and you will fry in the sun thinking you are protected
2) Squeezing elephant dung to get moisture - saturated with disease causing bacteria
3) Drifting down stream at high altitudes - The fast track to hypothermia
4) Jumping into a white-water rapid - ticket to drowning
5) Using parachute cord to repell - happy landing
6) Swimming under a log jam not knowing if there is an openning - who needs air anyway???
7) Climbing a tree to get ripe avocados - The ripe ones are on the ground dummy, big waste of energy
9) No discussion on the time, planning and preparation needed to gather enough firewood for an entire night, to build a sturdy raft, to build an adequate shelter, to gather enough food - he just runs, jumps and climbs all day, then settles down to a fire with plenty of wood, has a nicely crafted raft with sawed ends, starts grabbing food on a whim because he is hungry…
Bear Grylls - On this day, he is Rich Santoro’s “Worst Person in the World” (homage to Olbermann)
well first of bear is a great actor i will give him that and to belive i had an argument with a friend over suvivorman and mvw…..i thought bears show was legitamite because it was on the discovery channel i dont mind the fact its fake but the bad advice on things stated above plus some other incidents which are completely off… my beef is this peice of crap decided to fake a show thats on the discovery channel none the less which makes me wonder …..sh*t is planet earth faked? is it all animation? how can anyone have credablitiy for any company when something they support is a fraud? my nephew loves the discovery channel shows….i loved them too because they are educational but now that we realize something they show is fake does that mean other things they show are infact fraudulent aswell? its just frustrating knowing that something you belive to legitimate is wrong…..but i guess thats human nature
We think Les Survivorman Stroud rocks! But we wish he’d do something more goofy than starve himself to death for 5 days at a time…
Bear Grylls is crazy but knows what he’s doing. I’ve tried some of his recipes and they’re not bad, better than my moms cooking.
I look at Man vs Wild the same way I look at American Chopper, as being a spectacle. As an avid motorcyclist and chopper hobbyist I see American Chopper and realize that those guys wouldent know a real chopper if it ran them over but hey thats tv for you. TV fakes stuff for entertainment value, even The Discovery Network. Big difference is that noones life may one day depend on something they saw on American Chopper. If someone unfortunatly finds themselves in a survival situation and tries to perform one of the circus stunts they saw Bear doing on TV they could wind up seriously injured or dead. I think its irresponsible of Discovery to present this show as “what to to in this situation”. Bear Grylls is a stunt man and he is doing a stunt show, thats how it should be presented. I get tired of horny women and action movie loving guys sticking up for his credability because they think he is cool. I think Stephen Segal is cool, but I’m not going to attempt stunts I saw in his movies and his movies arent presented as being instructional. I have nothing against Bear being a TV action hero, but I do think its horrible that his show is being presented in a way that naive people think they are learning something about survival techniques. The reason Les Strouds show can be boring and seems like he spends a week starving and complaining is that is what a survival situation is like, not the action movie fantasy of Man vs Wild. The only thing Man vs Wild needs to complete it is a scene in each episode where he singlehandedly wipes out an entire prison camp full of enemy troops to save the capured damsel. Then maybe people would see what a spectacle that show really is.
Bear is a true G, every thing he does is legit, it is quite ideal
that guy is a fake!I saw a video on you tube , ether this guy has really bad eye sight or is a fake cause there was road right by him.
a show is a show, both les strout and bear grylls received expert advices prior (even during) the outdoor experience, and when they’re convinced that there is immediate danger, they will pull the plug and call for help, bear has a camera crew, les has radio contact, this has been shown in both shows. not to mention that before the show, they have thoroughly reasearch on the location and evaluate the dangers involve (without this, not only the host will not do it, the insurance companies sure as hell wont take it). there are episodes where les just magically know that there is a highway to the east, or luckily guessed that there is a clean stream for water thataway…
if some of you really think “reality show” equal to “reality” that survivorman and man vs wild are some dumb dudes really put themselves in some dire situations and just rely on their skills and luck to make it out alive, well then i suggest you grow up a little.
OK THIS IS SOME SHIT I MEAN IT LOOKS TO ME LIKE HE IS JUST TALKING ABOUT THINGS THAT HE MIGHT NOW SOME WHAT ABOUT BUT NOT 100% I MEAN WHO IS GOING TO FIND THEM SELVES IN THAT KINDA STIUATION I MEAN MOST PEOPLE THESE DAYS HAVE CELLPHONES AND WILL CALL FOR HELP NOW IF HE WAS DOING LIKE Survivorman AND WAS FILMING IT HIM SELF THEN MAYBE IT WOULD BE BELIEVE ABLE BUT IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT THEN HOW DO WE KNOW THAT HE IS NOT IN A STUDIO FOR SEANS AND THEN JUST ON LOCATION FOR SOME OF THE REST I MEAN ITS NOT THAT LONG OF A SHOW AND I MEAN IT JUST DONT SEEM LIKE HE COULD DO IT ALL AND I MEAN ALL OF IT IS JUST A JOKE AND THERE FOR ENTERTAMENT IF YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW TO SURVIE THEN GO AND READ A BOY SCOUT GUIDE BOOK FOR ASK SOME ONE THAT HAS CROSSED THE BOADER FROM MEXICO THAT HAS WALKED IN THE DESERT AND SURIVED AS FOR THIS MAN VS WILD I THINK THAT HE DONT KNOW THAT MUCH AND NEEDS TO HAVE SOMEONE COME AND GIVE HIM A LESSON ON HOW TO LOOK LIKE HE HAS BEEN IN THE WILD AND NOT BEING PAPERED AND TOOK CARE OF SO IF ITS TRUE WHAT THEY SAY THAT HE IS FAKE THEN HE IS FAKE JUST ENJOY WATCHING HIM MAKE A ASS OF HIM SELF OR TURN THE STATION AND WATCH SOMETHING ELSES AND GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE
i do also think he is fake.
Not only did he travel between High Sierra to foothills and back again, while on a continous descent down the western slopes, he found a large chunk of obsidian on the granitic ridges, not likely unless left there by a Paiute who traded with a Klamath or Modoc from the Medicine Lake country.