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If you are into survival types shows as much as I am, you know about Les Stroud’s Survivor Man and Bear Grylls’ Man Vs Wild. Both are captivating shows that keep our interest and keep us coming back for more in a quest to see just how these men are able to survive against insurmountable obstacles. Both shows are about real survival stories and teaching us how to get ourselves out of tough situations that may face us down. The real question is just who is the better of the two at surviving in the wild.
I think Bear Grylls is all flash. He’s got a pretty face, he talks and he’s full of energy. It seems like he is always running from one thing to another with no breaks in between. It’s like he is trying to shove as much into a single episode as possible. His episodes start with him getting dropped into a location and then trying to make his way back into civilization with no food and very few supplies. It’s about survival, or so we are made to think.
Les Stroud is different. He may not be all flash, but he is into real survival. He tells it like it is and demonstrates how we can survive in a place using the things that are naturally around us. It’s not about running an obstacle course or trying to rush from point A to point B. It’s about showing how ordinary people who own deskjobs and who’s best experience to sports is playing bingo online can survive in a very inhospitable place. It’s not about fake scenarios. Survivor Man has more plausible scenarios than does Man Vs Wild.
Another thing about Bear Grylls and Man vs Wild is that Bear always has a cameraman and crew nearby to help him, if he’s in a life or death situation. It’s nice to think that Bear is doing everything himself, but sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. Remember that episode where he was crossing the big ice crevasse and we were made to believe he was in the middle of nowhere? Look closely and you can see he was next to a highway.
You don’t see that sort of thing with Les Stroud. He’s a real survivor man. All of the Survivor Man episodes are filmed by himself. It’s just Les and the camera when he is surviving in a new place. It makes for a more authentic survival learning experience. In fact, just watch any of the Survivor Man DVDs and you can see just how much it’s about authentic survival living without any of the flash you see from Man vs Wild. Les Stroud and Survivor Man beats out Bear Grylls and Man Vs Wild by a long shot. It’s the kind of show that I enjoy time and time again. I can’t wait to have a DVD for Season 3 because it’s always fun and exciting to watch and there isn’t the scripted shenanigans as found in Man vs Wild.
I think we’ve all had the dream of being a survivor man. There is something alluring about spending time in the wild and experiencing nature up close and personal. There is something that compels us to fight against the odds and conquer the unknown. This is what draws us to men like Survivor Man, Les Stroud. Les Stroud has brought a huge amount of realism to the reality of surviving in the wild. Thinking about what kind of activities we’d like to see him get involved in a popular pastime here on SurvivorFans.com.
For example, I’d love to see Survivor Man head to the jungles of southeast Asia. It could a real survivor quest that is unlike the typical Rambo shoot them up that is so common with tough men who make the trip to the jungles. While wintering in places like Alaska and northern Canada are quite challenging, an entirely different set of challenges exist in the jungles. There are an entirely different group of predators, an entirely different type of climate, and even the needs of lodging and finding water are quite different.
Seeing how Les Stroud could take on a uniquely challenging environment is exactly why we love watching him. I guess that’s just one place I’d like to see him go. I know he went to the Amazon rainforest when during the Ecuador episode. That was a great episode, but it wasn’t nothing like what I think he’d experience in the jungles of Thailand. Speaking about that, what about an episode of Survivor Man in Laos or Cambodia? Dodging the land mines in a place like that is survival enough. All of the other challenges are much more intense combined with the fact that your life or limb could be in peril at any moment. It’d be exciting, but we all know that Les Stroud is a true Survivor Man and would easily make it out in one piece.
Maybe that’s why I really enjoy watching the episodes time and time again and why I have both Season 1 and Season 2 on DVD at home. I just can’t get enough of Survivor Man. Every time you watch an episode, you see something new. You also start thinking about how you would handle the situation. What’s really fun is that how you would handle a situation changes every time you watch an episode. You begin to use your brain on how you could deal with a particular situation if you were there. You begin to come up with your own ideas of how to be a Survivor Man.
Maybe during this season, we will find even more chances to be a Survivor Man. Maybe they can make an episode where he brings in somebody like me and see how I can actually manage in a tough survival situation and then get pointers from him on what I am doing right and what I am doing miserably wrong. Who knows? All I know is that I enjoy watching Survivor Man Les Stroud and his book Survive! is the must read book of the year.
My day job is to make websites for businesses. I don’t do the web design work, I do the marketing. I find new ways to market peoples products on the internet. Now because of my job I do a lot of thinking. Because of this I don’t think like normal people, every time I watch a TV commercial I think of how that TV commercial affects the customer they are marketing too. Every time I see an advertisement I think of how it will help the product sell. I think like that about everything.
Now you are probably wondering, “Sean, what does this have to do with Survivorman”?. We’ll I’ll be happy to let you know. Every time I watch survivorman I think of what he can do to increase his viewers and better ways he could market himself. And every time I watch Survivorman I realize how down to earth Les Stroud is.
Right now there are two survival shows on TV, which both are on the great Discovery Channel. Les Strouds Survivorman show is about him surviving in the wilderness alone for 7 days. Bears show is also about surviving in the wilderness, however his show is fictional and the knowledge he gives is off and would hardly ever in a real survival situation (that is my own option).
Ok so were am I getting at? Well, even though Survivorman is a real show and gives real information about surviving in the wilderness, sadly the show by Bear grylls is more popular. The reason is because the show adds certain parts to make the show more watchable to the public.
If I was marketing Les Strouds show I would give him a few tips to increase his viewers. Such as faking a injury such as a broken arm. Les did put on the split in the first episode to act like he had a broken arm, but the viewers knew what he was doing and that wouldn’t be as attending grabbing as an actual clip of him faking himself breaking his arm. If he was to fake an injury then he would start some word of mouth marketing, just like he kinda did when he had the survival team go look for him in the Sierra Nevada’s. But him faking an actual injury while surviving would get him way more attention.
I have many other examples I can give you all about how he could increase his viewers and… well, make more money. BUT, he never did any attention grabbing stunts. His show is all about knowledge and skill on how to survive in the wilderness. And that is why I respect him so much. He is a real entertainer. Its sad that their wont be a 4th season :(
