Eaten Alive (TV program)

***Eaten Alive*** is an American nature documentary special focusing on wildlife author and entertainer Paul Rosolie on an expedition to locate a green anaconda named "Chumana," which he believes to be the world's longest, in a remote location of the Amazon rainforest in the Puerto Maldonado, Peru. It premiered on the Discovery Channel on December 7, 2014.

## Synopsis

The program focused primarily on Paul Rosolie's expedition to the Floating Forest, a remote area of the Amazon rainforest, to search for and capture a large green anaconda named "Chumana", which he believes to be longer than 24 feet (7.3 meters), the length of the world's longest known anaconda. His eventual goal is to be "eaten" by the snake in an effort to promote wildlife conservation.

Rosalie and his crew were unable to find Chumana, but he continues his goal of being "eaten" by an anaconda, and was supplied with a captive, 20-foot (6.1 meter) specimen for use in the stunt, and he equipped himself with a specially designed protective suit which was doused in pig blood as bait. Rosalie removed some of the padding from the suit that protected his arms, as it had affected his range of motion. While the snake constricted him and tries to bite his head, Rosolie halted the stunt after an hour as he was concerned of the snake's wrap would break his arm.

## Reception

*Eaten Alive* premiered as a way to kick off "Mega Week," a special week of programming which the network promoted as a "weeklong celebration of Discovery." The special was seen by 4.1 million viewers, making it Discovery Channel's highest-rated nature program since *Life* in 2010, and the second most popular program of the night on social media behind *Sunday Night Football*.

Following its broadcast, *Eaten Alive* was widely criticized by viewers and the media for false advertising, as the majority of the special dealt with the search for Chumana, and as the anaconda did not swallow Rosolie as was advertised, although promotional material on Discovery Channel's website stated that it was only possible that he would enter the snake. Reactions on social media were negative, with comparisons being drawn to the practice of online clickbait. Along with concerns of the snake's well-being, Laura Bradley of *Slate* argued that *Eaten Alive* was a further example of Discovery Channel's recent use of sensationalism and pseudoscience to attract viewers as opposed to airing legitimately educational content. She compared the special to *Shark Week* (which she described as the network's biggest piece of viewer bait and capitalizing on the public's fear of sharks), the Nik Wallenda specials, and Animal Planet's *Mermaids: The Body Found*. Brian Moylan compared the special to *The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults*, an infamous live television special featuring the 1986 opening of a secret vault owned by Al Capone, which was purported to contain valuable items but ended up only containing debris, making for an equally disappointing ending. However, he did praise the remainder of the special, comparing it to a horror movie and describing it as being "much more dramatic and much better than it needed to be, which is a considerable accomplishment."

The program proved to be controversial even before its premiere, with animal rights groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) arguing that Rosolie's stunt was an example of animal cruelty, while an online petition at Change.org urging Discovery Channel to pull the special reached 25,000 signatures. PETA objected to the use of an animal as "entertainment" and went on to say "making this snake use up energy by swallowing this fool and possibly regurgitating him would have left the poor animal exhausted and deprived of the energy he or she needs to survive. Shame on this pseudo 'wildlife expert' for tormenting this animal, and shame on the Discovery Channel for giving him the incentive to do so." Discovery has since pulled the special from airing.