Survive This
Survive This is a Canadian reality television show in which eight teenagers with limited survival skills training are taken into a forest and confronted with a number of survival challenges to test their skills and perseverance. The series aired on YTV in Canada and Cartoon Network in the United States. The show is hosted by Les Stroud, who narrates each episode, provides the teens with survival challenges, and assesses their performance. The show premiered on April 7, 2009, in Canada and on June 17, 2009, in the United States. Cartoon Network ceased to air "Survive This" after August  19, 2009, and screened the final three episodes only on the network's website. The series' second season debuted on April 19, 2010. Overview. The series began in 2009 with a single season of 13 episodes. A second season of 13 episodes began airing in April 2010. Each season begins with a fictional accident of some sort (a school bus crash in season one; a floatplane crash in season two) as a narrative hook and to introduce the participants to their first survival challenges. Les Stroud, star and host of the television program "Survivorman", introduces each episode and provides narrative  commentary for the events depicted during the episode. Stroud also appears on camera at the beginning of each episode to meet with the participants, discuss their health and emotional status, and present them with the day's survival challenge. Stroud then departs. Stroud sometimes appears at halfway points in each episode to check on their status. Each challenge concludes with Stroud visiting the participants again, re-assessing their physical and emotional state, and asking whether anyone wishes to leave the show and go home. The second season differed from the first as in the final episode, Les Stroud named one  of the final participants, Colin as the "Ultimate Survivor". The question Stroud asked to the participants if they wanted to leave was also changed from "Who wants out?" to "Who can survive?". Production. Series production. Series creator Les Stroud says that he initially pitched "Survive This," as a children's series similar to "Survivorman" and that several networks turned him down. The success of "Survivorman" enabled Stroud to pitch his original idea again, and this time the series was greenlighted in 2007 by 9 Story Entertainment, a Canadian entertainment company. "Survive This" is produced by 9 Story Entertainment, and two  9 Story executives (Vince Commisso and Steven Jarosz) serve as executive producers for the series. Les Stroud and his "Survivorman" production partner, David Brady, are also executive producers. Craig Baines is the producer. The series was originally titled "Survivorman: Kids Edition". The original concept was to create two teams of teens (age 13 to 17) and pit them against one another, testing their survivalist skills. This concept soon changed, however. In April 2008, 9 Story announced that the show (now called "Survivorman Kids") would feature a single team of six 14- to 16-year-olds surviving in the wilderness for  three weeks. The number of participants expanded to eight by the time filming began in summer 2008. In its final form, unlike other reality television shows, "Survive This" intentionally did not have a cash prize or other reward at the end of the season. Instead, the producers decided that contestants would leave the series with the knowledge that they survived a number of physically and mentally daunting challenges. Stroud refused to allow participants to vote their peers off the show or to win "immunity", arguing that this would change the focus of the series toward "backstabbing social networking" and away  from survival skills and the wilderness experience. Cast members were recruited in a variety of ways: Online, via forms at summer camps, and by several other means. After each person's application was screened by the producers, participants had to pass a telephone interview and a video interview before they were chosen for the show. Stroud was not involved in the actual selection process, but did provide some guidelines for the production company before the process began. Once selected for the show, a camera crew filmed each teenager at home to get footage of them acting naturally in their home  surroundings. The eight teenagers were taught for a week how to survive in a wilderness with limited supplies. They were also constantly filmed during this time, to acclimate them to the ever-present cameras and filmmakers. Season One production. Eight teenagers, all between the ages of 14 and 17, were taken into a forest in Ontario, Canada, and initially asked to "survive" a school bus crash and spend two nights in the woods with limited food and other supplies. The series was filmed on location in the forest north of Huntsville, Ontario, Canada. Filming occurred in the summer of 2008 . Three days were spent on a small island northwest of Sandy Island on Georgian Bay in Lake Huron. Jeff Beitz, owner of the Georgian Bay Marina, acted as a location scout for the show, transported the participants to and from the island, and appeared on screen in Episode 11, "Island Castaways." Many of the challenges presented to the participants were based on situations Stroud himself faced on "Survivorman". A camera crew remained behind to film the participants as they carried out their survival challenges, some of which lasted several days. However, the camera crew was instructed not to interact with  the participants. Several participants were also given hand-held video cameras and permitted to film their actions. A paramedic also was always on-site to provide emergency health care. Participants were forbidden to have any electronic devices with them, and could only speak to the producer or Stroud (who were both on-site). Stroud says that the participants constantly played to the camera, positioned themselves at the right camera angle to achieve the best pose, and—even though they were forbidden to do so—talked to the cinematographers to try to put themselves in a good light. Several of the  participants were upset at the way their videotaped comments appeared on television. Some also expressed shock and surprise at the things others said about them in privately videotaped moments which later aired during the series. For his part, Stroud purposefully adopted a serious demeanor that involved never smiling in front of the participants. He later told "TV Guide Canada" that not providing suggestions, encouragement, or other assistance was difficult for him. The participants were given little in the way of supplies. They had no camp stoves or sleeping bags, and at times water was so scarce that they squeezed liquid  from moss. A one-hour Season One finale featured a search and rescue (SAR) operation to locate and extract the remaining participants. The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Georgian Bay Volunteer Search and Rescue (GBVSAR) participated in the filming of the final episode, which involved a GBVSAR search team and the OPP's K9, marine, and air units. Filming of the finale took a single day. The final scenes were shot at the end of the summer of 2008. Some footage and a trailer for the show were shown at MIPCOM, a market and trade event in the entertainment  industry held in Cannes, France. The first two completed episodes screened to buyers and markets at the MIPTV Media Market in March 2009. Corus Entertainment's YTV picked up the show for broadcast in Canada in April 2008. Time Warner's Cartoon Network agreed to air the show in the U.S. in March 2009. The first season ended with a one-hour finale. 9 Story Entertainment sold distribution rights to Cartoon Network's Boomerang Channel Latin America, YLE in Finland, and Teleview International in the Middle East in April 2009. Producer 9 Story Entertainment began to license the show in  May 2009, seeking to put the "Survive This" logo and images from the show on board games, books, video games, role-playing games, and clothing. Season Two production. Second season casting opened on June 5, 2009, and closed on July 10, 2009. Applicants were invited to a television production studio in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where they met with the producers and had a screen test to determine how they came across on television. Participants were selected for the show, in part, based on their strong personalities. The final eight participants were told in early September 2009 that they were selected  for the show. The eight teens who appear in the second season were required to sign a confidentiality agreement prior to the commencement of filming. All the participants were required to take a three-day survival program with David Arama, a wilderness survival expert and close friend of Les Stroud's. Training including how to build a shelter, fire-starting, edible plants, and using a compass. Principal cinematography for the second season occurred in September 2009 (which meant some of the contestants missed the opening of school in order to finish the show). Most of the second season was filmed  around the Georgian Bay area of Lake Huron and Algonquin Provincial Park. None of the teens knew the location of the series, but were aware that they were not close to any cities or towns. The teens were always watched by an adult and were provided warm clothes at night. Initially, many of the contestants did not take the show or host Les Stroud seriously. According to contestant Patricia Robins, "We were calling him Les Stroodle. ...at first we all thought he was kind of a jerk, just because of his attitude. <nowiki>[But]</nowiki> toward the end we kind  of adopted him as a father figure. He's really protective. We found that out later on." As in the first series, the teenaged contestants are introduced into the wilderness via an accident—in the second season, it is a floatplane crash. Two contestants were separated from the rest of the group and forced to spend a night alone. As in the previous season, the search for food is a major element of the show. In the first season, teenager Adam Deganis killed a pheasant (in the episode "Food") and a porcupine (in the episode "Deep Woods, Part I"). In  the third episode of the second season, the participants decapitate and kill a snake for food. The show's format remains much the same, with a different challenge in each episode and Stroud asking the teens if they can survive at the end of each installment. An article about one of the contestants states that only one of the teens "survives" until the final episode, however this is incorrect. The actual number is determined by who drops out, and is mentioned on the official website's 'Synopsis page'. The second season of "Survive This" consists of 13 episodes, with a  one-hour finale. The second season debuted on the YTV cable TV channel on Monday, April 19, 2010. Participants. Season One. In the first season, eight teenagers were given a week's survival training before being taken into the wilderness. The Season One cast included: Season Two. In the first season, eight teenagers were given a week's survival training before being taken into the wilderness. The Season Two cast included: Critical reception. Season One critical reception. At least one psychologist warned that "Survive This" risked being exploitative and might damage the mental health of the participants. "You're putting  kids into real emotional situations for other people's enjoyment," said Jennifer Kolari, a child and family therapist and author. "It's okay to have some competition, it's okay to try out for things," she says. "Those are okay lessons for kids. But doing it on national television, to be watched and judged, that's where I feel it's a little bit exploitive, and I think we need to consider the mental health of the kids that are on that show." But other mental health experts declared the show safe, concluding that the participants merely displayed strong competitiveness  and that social ostracization was largely avoided. Several reviewers have strongly criticized "Survive This". For example, the "New Bedford Standard-Times" was dismissive of the show's lack of originality, noting: "...a gruff, gritty, macho mountain man takes a group of high-school kids and dumps them in the deep woods where they must learn to put aside their 'drama' and adapt. Gee, where haven't we seen that before?" "Variety" was equally critical of the show's lack of originality, observing that the show "play<nowiki>[ed]</nowiki> like junior editions of somebody else's reality franchise. The publication  was also critical of the way the show pigeonholed and labeled each of the teenagers, eliminating the diversity of the racially and ethnically diverse cast. The "Los Angeles Times" also concluded that the show was vapid, but that it had slightly more "depth" than other Cartoon Network live-action programs. Some critics have also blasted Cartoon Network for showing live-action programs rather than cartoons. However, the "Sudbury Star" called the show "compelling". Season One ratings. Television ratings information on the show is difficult to come by. However, at least one newspaper said the show was not "catching on with  viewers" on "Cartoon Network," and that the show had never been among that network's top 10 series. Season Two critical reception. In March 2010, Toronto resident Richard Code, a fan of Stroud's show "Survivorman", was found dead from hypothermia near his campsite at the north end of Horn Lake (near McMurrich/Monteith, Ontario). Code was on a winter camping trip with few supplies, similar to summer trips he'd taken before in admiration of the adventures he had seen on "Survivorman". Learning of Code's death, Stroud said, "It's a terrible tragedy and I feel absolutely terrible  for the families involved"—but did not know Code or the situation he was in, and refused to comment further on his death. At least one reviewer has criticized "Survive This" for not mentioning Code's death or warning kids not to imitate what they see on the show. "The Globe and Mail" reviewer Catherine Dawson March wrote, "You'd think, just seven weeks after Code's headline-making death, that "Survive This" would make a passing nod to the tragedy. ... Some kind of 'don't try this on your own' advice. But no." Dawson praised the show as "captivating" with  lots of emotional drama, but concluded: "It's great stuff, but YTV should acknowledge Code's death with a warning of their own." YTV replied, "As "Survive This" does not follow the same premise as "Survivorman", there will not be a disclaimer before each episode."