Bear Grylls recounts wild challenges on survival competition show

Let’s be actual: contestants on “I Survived Bear Grylls” couldn’t have been too stunned on the uncommon culinary fare on which they feasted throughout their time on the TBS competitors sequence.

“Numerous bull testicles, fish eyeballs, cow lips, turkey penises — all the standard,” Grylls advised the Put up about “I Survived Bear Grylls,” premiering Could 19 (9 p.m.)

“I Survived” is a mashup of the survival and game-show genres. Hosted by Grylls and comic Jordan Conley, it options eight standalone episodes with new gamers dealing with specifically designed video games amping up Grylls’ adventures documented in his different exhibits, together with the celeb-focused “Into The Wild With Bear Grylls,” and “Running Wild With Bear Grylls.”

“I all the time have the identical focus … to empower different folks and present how the wild can construct us,” mentioned Grylls, 48. “‘Operating Wild’ continues [to do that] and ‘Into The Wild’ is introducing stars to the magic of the outside.

“For this sequence, I needed to carry the outside to common folks, not celebrities, and present that the wild can problem you in methods it’s laborious to search out in on a regular basis life.

“That is an journey survival sport present the place we’re creating eventualities in a managed atmosphere and asking armchair survivalists to point out what they’re actually made from,” he mentioned. “There are such a lot of armchair survivalists … so let’s educate a number of the folks and re-create actually attention-grabbing survivalist catastrophe atmosphere — and see who’s all mouth and who’s all trousers.”

Grylls mentioned the challenges confronted by the contestants had been no stroll within the park — and stretched the boundaries of their tolerance and endurance.

“We did so many challenges and it was actually enjoyable to give you all this stuff, which I’ve been via within the wild many occasions over,” he mentioned. “In a single problem they needed to simulate a damaged leg and splint it; get zapped by 50,000 volts of electrical energy; negotiate a mud pit with a dwell alligator [in it]; attempt to retrieve a damaged cellphone … that is all occurring whereas they’re getting blasted with water they usually’re in ache.

“We all the time have an enormous survival staff there with numerous medics,” he mentioned. “We took folks to the sting bodily and mentally and emotionally — folks had been getting hypothermia and had shut calls with different issues … bows and arrows, axes,” he mentioned.

“It tickles the sting of the risk-survivor profile.”

Grylls mentioned that the contestants who make it via are, greater than the rest, pleased with their accomplishments in overcoming their preliminary fears.

“Lots of people speak sport … and, actually, in the event that they put their heads down and lead with their coronary heart and are environment friendly, they have a tendency to develop,” he mentioned. “It’s an attention-grabbing state of affairs on the finish of every episode the place we see inspirational figures exhibiting nice braveness and infrequently shocking themselves.

“And I really like that,” he mentioned. “Individuals actually wish to show themselves and present me and their households and loves ones that they’ve received what it takes.

“You by no means know who the heroes are in actual life.”