[♥]

Any of you watch these shows here in the United States on the Discovery Channel?

Survivorman

Man vs. Wild

Of the two I think that Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls is more believable and Survivorman with Les Stroud always seems to be living off of insects and dead things that he finds whereas Man vs. Wild actually kills things like hares and catches trout to survive. Bear Grylls is in great shape, too, compared to Les Stroud.

But, Bear Grylls or Man vs. Wild has a bit of explaining to do after it was revealed that some nights he was "roughing it" he was actually in a hotel. On the other hand, he scaled Everest at age 23 - quite a feat.

[AKcrab]

Bear Grylls has a support team at his side the whole time.
Les Stroud has a support team "nearby", but he's alone the whole time.

Les wins.

[♥]

Hey, how's AK?

[Jawbone54]

As far as the shows go from an entertainment standpoint, I enjoy Man vs. Wild MUCH more than Survivorman.

[shabbasuraj]

Among the real survival community, it is well known that Les would own Bear.

Les's own words...
A note from Les (Survivorman) - ETS Forums

[stevesnj]

Survivorman wins hands down, this guy is alone trying to survive not having anyone else with him. Seems like the guy with help is sorta cheating IMHO

Man vs Wild small print...lol

Bear Grylls and the crew receive support when they are in potentially life threatening situations, as required by health and safety regulations.

On some occasions, situations are presented to Bear so he can demonstrate survival techniques.

Professional advice should always be sought before entering any dangerous environment.

Survivorman small print from his FAQ's

Q. What is your back up emergency plan?

Les: I'm supposed to be able to pull the plug whenever I need to and so I carry an emergency satellite phone...

Q. Do you really run all the equipment yourself ? Isn't there a crew with you?

Les: I have a crew come in with me for the first introduction day only - then they leave me alone to do my thing for the week. That's the way it has to be or I don't have a show. So I run all the cameras myself - set ups and tear downs...build my shelters and try to catch game...start my fires...all completely alone. Sometimes the crew knows where I am...sometimes they don't...and sometimes there has been no back up crew - I'm out there on my own until the end of the week.

[shabbasuraj]

In a real survival scenario... Bear would find some cliff to jump off of.... or find some cold northern river to float down in.... or eat/drink elephant diarrhea... (all things he has done on tape)...

[stevesnj]

Originally Posted by shabbasuraj 

In a real survival scenario... Bear would find some cliff to jump off of.... or find some cold northern river to float down in.... or eat/drink elephant diarrhea... (all things he has done on tape)...

lol..hey if im with this guy and my only resort is to eat Elephant crap I would be kicking myself sayin ' why the heck didn't I choose Survivorman!!'

[gf10]

Survivorman owns!

I switched from Man Vs. Wild

[Lateralus]

Yeah... this needs to be a poll.

Les owns. I don't doubt the talent of Bear, but Les is in a league of his own. Especially having to deal with the challenge of operating all of his own equipment.

[♥]

Bear has not once had to call for help because the situation is too "life-threatening".

On the contrary, Les has been air-lifted out.

Les has been dropped off in a hot-air balloon which, I might add, he used to nearly catch the Sarangetti on fire. Bear gets dropped off by parachute. Les has driven a snow-mobile to his drop-off points, which he then used the gasoline to make a fire. Bear uses sticks. Les may not have a camera crew, but he has a satellite phone...A SATELLITE PHONE. Okay, Bear has a crew with him - but its not that much of a step down from a satellite phone. Bear has hunted for food (real food) and Les has hunted for ants. Bear has actually created a shelter using natural resources; Les has used a snow-mobile, a parachute and a hot-air balloon cover for shelter. Bear has actually done his own stunts, which require skill Les doesn't have.

Now, how is Les better?

[SSharon]

I watch tv for entertainment and I find man vs. wild to be more entertaining. I know that some of the situations are a bit artificial but I'm ok with that. I'm more interested in learning how he survives (even if he really isn't in any danger) than just being talked to by les in a raft at sea.

[Rev-O]

Survivorman all the way. Man vs. Wild usually comes off as contrived to me. The fact that Les has had to run like hell because he was seriously scared (amazon episode, where he was being stalked by a jaguar) earns points for me. Seems more real than Bear whose support crew would have shot it and told him in the morning when he climbed out of the RV.

[SpaceMonkey]

Survivorman.

I thought Bear's documentary a few years ago about joining the French Foreign Legion was pretty cool, though.

[MindFad]

Survivor Man wins. I enjoy it much more than Man vs. Wild. Les is the man.

[shabbasuraj]

Originally Posted by ♥ 

.

Now, how is Les better?

ughh... one reason...

.......experiencing solitude in unfamiliar environs for extended periods of time.

Being alone can play a lot of tricks with ones mind.

Often in such scenarios YOU are your worst enemy.

Humans are inherently social beings, and the simple fact that Bear has/knows that others are just beyond that tree, negates all of 'his' stunts he tries to pull for TV, and for most, knowing others are around is a major comfort (whether they are aware of it or not).

The fact that Les films it all by itself, makes far more interesting and nuanced as the program gives us a glimpse of what makes us human, or what can break a human... (at least I think so). (i.e. emotions such as fear, missing loved ones, or something really unexpected happening, and being never found, are all very real things that may/may not cross ones mind when left alone. For such reasons this is why I like SM over MvW, as anything I see Bear do can be virtually seen on Fear Factor or youtube...

0.02......

[Velocity211]

I find survivorman to be a lot more realistic, but I always find myself enjoying man vs. wild a lot more and watching it more often.

[AKcrab]

Originally Posted by ♥ 

Bear has not once had to call for help because the situation is too "life-threatening".

Right. Because when you're a group of 6, it's hard to be in real trouble.

Les has been dropped off in a hot-air balloon which, I might add, he used to nearly catch the Sarangetti on fire. Bear gets dropped off by parachute. Les has driven a snow-mobile to his drop-off points, which he then used the gasoline to make a fire. Bear uses sticks. Les may not have a camera crew, but he has a satellite phone...A SATELLITE PHONE. Okay, Bear has a crew with him - but its not that much of a step down from a satellite phone. Bear has hunted for food (real food) and Les has hunted for ants. Bear has actually created a shelter using natural resources; Les has used a snow-mobile, a parachute and a hot-air balloon cover for shelter. Bear has actually done his own stunts, which require skill Les doesn't have.

Now, how is Les better?

You've obviously not seen very many Survivor Man episodes. All those things you claim Les doesn't do, he most certainly has done.

What sort of "stunts" does Bear do? Stunts like jumping into quicksand or a frozen river are easy when you know full well that there are people right there to pull you out if something goes wrong.

What Les does is one big stunt.

[turtle777]

One more vote for Les.

-t

[irunat2am]

Bear doing the show how Les does it = wins. The end. Period. --> . <-- that's a period.

[EricTheRed]

Les gets the nod.

Originally Posted by ♥ 

Any of you watch these shows here in the United States on the Discovery Channel?

Survivorman

Man vs. Wild

Of the two I think that Man vs. Wild with Bear Grylls is more believable and Survivorman with Les Stroud always seems to be living off of insects and dead things that he finds whereas Man vs. Wild actually kills things like hares and catches trout to survive. Bear Grylls is in great shape, too, compared to Les Stroud.

But, Bear Grylls or Man vs. Wild has a bit of explaining to do after it was revealed that some nights he was "roughing it" he was actually in a hotel. On the other hand, he scaled Everest at age 23 - quite a feat.

[Doofy]

I watched a bit of something with Bear Grylls a while back. He was attempting to tame a "wild horse" somewhere in the Rockies. Said to the chick, "That horse ain't wild. No way".

Turns up in the news a few months later that Grylls had hired the horse from a nearby pony trek centre.

Grylls is a fraud. A big poncey fraud.

For a proper bloke in the wild you need Ray Mears.

[Lancer409]

I prefer survivor man. Man V Wild always goes so smoothly and well paced. Survivorman may be repetitive at times, but it seems more realistic. It's gotta be a pain to keep setting up the camera's, and walking and rewalking, and rewalking every time he shoots a bad take or verbally stumbles. (and then having to go back and tear down the camera's so he can film the next bit. ) That's gotta slow you down a lot when you are going on a big trek.

I kept thinking Les was over hyping the dangers by talking about being afraid of scorpions in most of his episodes, but then he actually trapped a few of 'em and ate 'em. Hilarious!

I also love how he talks about how much he hates killing animals, but when it's cooked up (snowshoe hare anyone?) he gets so excited to dig in.

[♥]

Okay, so I didn't type in my last comment about Les Stroud and Survivorman. My kid logged in (14) and made the comment, but I do have to say, I did see a couple of episodes of Survivorman, one where he was out walking around up in Canada and another where he was in Africa and it's true, some of it was a bit unrealistic. While in Africa they show him using the gas burner from his downed hot air balloon demonstrating how he will torch any wildlife should it come too close to him; wasn't impressed because he's in a wildlife park and he's willing to torch the animals? Next, he's up in Canada and was roughing it except at the end two choppers come and chopper him and his snowmobile out of the place - that's not very likely to happen.

I'd say that both men have their positives. I'd like to see the two of them dropped off someplace REALLY hostile and see how they get out.

[design219]

If I were a woman, or gay, these are the kind of guys I would go for.

I would die in the wilderness.

[::maroma::]

I think Discovery Channel should produce a buddy movie with these two guys. A comedy. I'd go see it.

[♥]

Now who's for Ice Truckers?

[cybergoober]

I prefer Survivorman myself. Obviously Bear is more skilled, being a former Special Forces officer and whatnot.
As others have pointed out, I like the fact that Les is truly on his own. The premise of his show seems to be that these are situations people can find themselves in when out in the wilderness. That's why he'll snowmobile into a location or whatever. The setup is that you're snowmobiling in the middle of nowhere and BAM!, you're stranded. What do you do?

[Doofy]

Bear Grylls 'faked Channel 4's Born Survivor' - Telegraph

A former SAS soldier became embroiled in the television faking row yesterday after it was revealed that he stayed in hotels during a series about surviving unaided in the "hellholes of the world".

Viewers saw Bear Grylls biting the head off a snake for breakfast and sucking the fluid from fish eyeballs as he lived "rough" in the Channel 4 series Born Survivor.

But a crew member said yesterday that after the camera stopped Grylls would often stay in hotels - including one with internet access and blueberry pancakes for breakfast - and that many of his daring missions were stage-managed.

Mark Weinert, a "survival consultant" on Born Survivor which attracted audiences of 1.4 million in March and April, said that at one location where Grylls claimed to be a "real-life Robinson Crusoe" he was on an outlying Hawaiian island and spent nights at a motel.

On another occasion in California's Sierra Nevada mountains he slept some nights at the Pines Resort at Bass Lake, advertised as "a cosy getaway for families" with blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

In one episode Grylls, a Daily Telegraph columnist, tried to coax an apparently wild mustang. He told viewers that the area was "one of the few places in the US where horses still roam wild". Weinert said the horses were driven in from a nearby trekking station for the "choreographed" feature.

That's on about the Man vs Wild show you guys are watching. Same show, renamed for the US market.

[turtle777]

Still counts as "wild", since he was in the USofA

-t

[Don Pickett]

There's only one way to settle this: put the two of them on a desert island, with no food, and see who dines on whom.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Don Pickett 

There's only one way to settle this: put the two of them on a desert island, with no food, and see who dines on whom.

Nah, Bear will probably succeed in killing Les, and then starve to death

Classic Lose-Lose !

-t

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

Bear Grylls 'faked Channel 4's Born Survivor' - Telegraph



That's on about the Man vs Wild show you guys are watching. Same show, renamed for the US market.

There's also a hilarious story about a crew member dressing up in a bear costume and rummaging around in the bushes late at night to look scary.

You didn't get a good look at it, but, even so, that segment looked particularly fake, because one minute Grylls is supposedly by himself (as he usually supposedly is at night), with nothing but his handheld camera, listening to the scary noises and talking about how he doesn't like this and deciding to leave, and then supposedly not two minutes later he's leaving the area, but being filmed by a camera crew. As if they appeared out of thin air.

[glideslope]

Les rules. Here is a clip from his early days.

YouTube - Funny Video man fights bear haha.

[MacosNerd]

Les by a long shot, alone in the wilderness.

Who knows what type of "help" Bear gets from his crew.

additionally all of the shots that Les does means he does twice the work. For instance when they show him walking away into the sunset. He then turns back and gets the camera gear and walks back into the sunset. The same goes for some of the great shots of him going down the mountain. How do you think he gets those cameras back. By climbing back up the mountain and getting them.

Bear has a crew that takes his footage, and I presume they also have food, water and shelter. I just don't buy Bear doing it alone when he's followed by his posse.

[cybergoober]

To be fair, if it came to outright survival in the wilderness Bear would probably prevail. I mean the guy was in the British Special Forces fer cryin' out loud.

As far as the shows go, like I said, I prefer Survivorman.

[shabbasuraj]

Originally Posted by glideslope 

Les rules. Here is a clip from his early days.

YouTube - Funny Video man fights bear haha.

vintage

[Rev-O]

Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey 

There's also a hilarious story about a crew member dressing up in a bear costume and rummaging around in the bushes late at night to look scary.

You didn't get a good look at it, but, even so, that segment looked particularly fake, because one minute Grylls is supposedly by himself (as he usually supposedly is at night), with nothing but his handheld camera, listening to the scary noises and talking about how he doesn't like this and deciding to leave, and then supposedly not two minutes later he's leaving the area, but being filmed by a camera crew. As if they appeared out of thin air.

Sounds like the lion fight at the end of the Scott of the Antarctic skit from Monty Python
obligatory Youtube link to a Monty Python skit.

[OpenMyPorts]

Tom Brown beats both of them combined.

[KeyLimePi]

Another vote for Les. Bear's good but it's hard to imagine him as being in a real survival situation when I know there's two camera guys, a grip and a sound man sitting on a cooler behind him in every scene.

[memento]

My vote definitely goes to Les. I watched Bear and was turned off very quickly because he had a camera crew. Someone here talked about being alone. That's a HUGE factor and that's part of why I love watching Les. Bear's show is much more sensationalistic, so I assume it will be more popular. People see the commercial of him catching a salmon and ripping into it with his teeth. yay. What's the basic premise of his show anyway? And after reading about his hotel antics, I like it even less. I don't know or care who can out-survive whom. I like watching Survivorman.

[scaught]

Originally Posted by ♥ 

Okay, so I didn't type in my last comment about Les Stroud and Survivorman. My kid logged in (14) and made the comment,

That should be the one time you're allowed to pull that one out.

I'd like to see the two of them dropped off someplace REALLY hostile and see how they get out.

East side of Detroit with a flask of cheap vodka?

[shabbasuraj]

Originally Posted by scaught 

East side of Detroit with a flask of cheap vodka?

neither makes it out...

[residentEvil]

nah, it would be a bottle of Thunderbird...

[SpaceMonkey]

And a snowmobile...

[iREZ]

man vs wild, no contest

[moonmonkey]

Originally Posted by cybergoober 

To be fair, if it came to outright survival in the wilderness Bear would probably prevail. I mean the guy was in the British Special Forces fer cryin' out loud.

Yes, Bear is a former SAS survival expert, the SAS is well known for their expertise in arctic, desert and jungle warfare and survival skills.

Les, is a former blues musician who played in a David Bowie cover band.

They are different types of people, different styles of show.

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by cybergoober 

To be fair, if it came to outright survival in the wilderness Bear would probably prevail. I mean the guy was in the British Special Forces fer cryin' out loud.

As far as the shows go, like I said, I prefer Survivorman.

That said, a big part of Survivorman is that Les actually learns what he carries out in the show from experienced local survival experts, which is partly why I enjoy it. The "making of" special demonstrates that more in-depth.

[@pplejaxkz]

Well I remember the episode where Les went a drift out in the middle of the ocean. That's my greatest fear so I give that man credit, even if he had a team nearby. I'd watch either, but my vote goes for Bear. He just seems like a badass, if I were to be lost in the amazon or somewhere I'd rather be with him. Bottom line, Discovery Channel owns!

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by @pplejaxkz 

He just seems like a badass, if I were to be lost in the amazon or somewhere I'd rather be with him.

'Cause he eats random sh!t that you shouldn't? That just means you'd be spending the entire time taking care of his diarrhea.