15. Each episode takes about one week to ten days
to shoot. Before each show the crew does about
a week of reconnaissance, followed by Bear
Grylls doing a flyover of the terrain. Grylls
then undergoes two days of intensive survival
briefings .
16. He is followed on the program by a cameraman
(SIMON REAY )and a sound engineer (on most
shows Paul Ritz ), also with a safety consultant.
17. The show has been criticized for fabricating
some of the situations in which Grylls finds
himself. In 2006 a Born Survivor crew member
admitted that some scenes in episodes were
misleading, indicating to viewers that Grylls
was stranded in the wild alone when he was
not.
18. In response to these early criticisms, Discovery
and Channel 4 aired re-edited episodes,
removing elements that were too planned, with
a fresh voice-over and a preceding
announcement pointing out that some
situations are "presented to Bear to show the
viewer how to survive".
19. “Episodes take about ten days to tape, explains
Grylls: “The night stuff [shown on camera] is all
done for real. But when I’m not filming I stay with
the crew in some sort of base camp." Episodes now
clarify when Grylls gets support from his crew and
when situations are staged, “We should have done
that from the start,” he says. “The more you see, the
more real it feels.””
20.
21. The program is a runaway hit.
Bear Grylls, above everything else, is
entertaining and informative.
The show is easy to get hooked on, anyway.
Kids love to watch it. The host really is an
entertaining, creative, informed guy.
