This genre of 'reality T.V./ nature competitions' helped pioneer reality T.V. itself with the debut of the Survivor series on prime time. I think Alone (Season 4), airing Thursday nights, tests the true character of people in the most entertaining way for us spectating from our comfy couches. Being a backpacker myself, you don't really know what a person can tolerate until they spend some time in remote wilderness areas.
For most seasons, 10 people were placed in separate campsites on Vancouver Island. This season, they innovated and 7 pairs are dropped AWAY from each other. One person is hiking toward the bearing of his partner's stationary campsite. The last one/pair standing wins the $500,000 prize. Vancouver Island is a rain forest, in frigid Canada, and has some of the highest concentrations of wild animals like cougars and black bears in the country.
People quit for all kinds of drama. Some get injured badly, punch their tap-out devices at the sign of predators, hallucinate, take a dump in freezing water, cry for their loved ones, medical interventions, and just plain can't take the solitude. So far, the three winners are not survivalist experts by trade--the reason for the suspense.
My balcony and I tend to root for the 'regular Joes' as the underdogs stumping the nature degree holders, rangers, and survival teachers. We do this with anticipation and it makes for clean family T.V. time. I really learn a lot from people's decisions and MacGyver-like ingenuity, so I will give this a FIELD GOAL.
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