We've all heard people claim that the hosts of Dual Survival weren't exactly roughing it as much as they claimed but until now there has only been those claims and no real video proof.  I can only imagine the ass chewing the editing department got once it was aired and everyone saw the "reality" of reality TV.

So I was watching the latest episode of Dual Survival (yes I watch it..deal with it) and saw actual video proof of what we've always suspected but never could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt.  In this episode the current hosts, EJ and Jeff (aka survival experts) are using the scenario of a wildlife biologist who got lost in South Africa.  If you don't watch the show, the premise is that the hosts are put into position of some supposedly real incident where someone was lost out in the wild and the hosts show how the original lost person/s could have survived if they had some survival training.  As I said, in this situation they take over where things went bad for the original "victim/s" who were wildlife biologists studying lions collared with tracking collars.

As with every episode they are given basic materials that the original victims may have had on them at the time.  In this case it's a machete, a canvas backpack, a metal canteen, some sandwich size Ziploc baggies, a Mylar blanket and the radio tracking antenna and control box.  They also have their own knives that they always carry.  The first night they need to start a fire to keep away all the man eating critters so they use a piece of thin wire wrapped into a coil and the batteries from the radio tracking equipment to heat their tinder into flame. No problems there.

The next day they come across a water source and since they haven't had anything to drink except a few swallows of water found in their canteen they need to re-hydrate.  Unfortunately the batteries from their radio antenna control box seem to have died.  EJ heads off to do something while Jeff takes on the task of making fire.  He makes of point of saying, as he digs though their backpack of meager supplies, that they "have no lighter, no matches and no magnifying glass".  What they do have however is the plastic sandwich baggies.  Jeff discusses how to make a lens out of plastic baggie by filling it with water and holding it so it makes a convex lens shape.  He talks about how difficult it will be to make it work in that part of the world at that time and blah blah blah.

Jeff builds a tinder nest and settles in to hold his plastic baggie lens just right to focus the light into a pinpoint in order to ignite his tinder.   He talks about how difficult this is during the process and how the clouds are causing him to have to start over each time.  During this the camera is focused up close showing him holding the plastic baggie just above the tinder pile.  Then it happens.

The camera is focused in tight enough to just show the baggie lens in Jeff's left hand, his face and the tinder nest with the pinpoint light on it.  However, in what was obviously intended to be edited out before being shown, they show just a few seconds of Jeff with the baggie lens in his left hand pinpointing the light on the tinder while his RIGHT hand is above his left with a MAGNIFYING GLASS in it!!  The magnifying glass is held so that it projects it's beam exactly on top of the spot where the baggie lens was pointed to make it look like he started the fire with the baggie.  

I know not a lot of people will be surprised that this happened and, honestly, I'm not either but it is pretty surprising that such a major blunder got past the editing department and made it the show.  Discovery has always defended the fact that their shows are real and that any intervention is strictly limited to maintaining the safety of the hosts which this obviously isn't the case.  It just cracks me up that they made such a huge blunder.   It's going to be difficult to deny this one Discovery....

I'd link the video but it's on my DVR.  I suspect they will cut it out of the show before it's shown again on re-runs but who knows.  If you want to see for yourself it's Episode 14 of Dual Survival.

cable tv's for rich people

Yup, that was the Brown family.  They cut a plea deal so only the dad and the oldest son were convicted.  They managed to get house arrest and community service instead of jail time.  Strange birds those folk.

I never thought much of most reality TV but I did feel really let down when I found out how dishonest Survivorman was. http://outsidebynature.com/main/les-stroud-fake/

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Led Stroud is as real as they come.  In the story you linked it was a lot of opinion but most of it contradicted or explained by Strouds response.  He's the only one that goes out alone and films himself, often trekking the same distances two and three times due to having to return for the cameras filming him walking.  His safety team doesn't follow him filming and keeping him safe but are posted miles away and only interact with Stroud should he call them with an emergency.  This happened during the episode when he was on a raft in the ocean.  The show was supposed to be him surviving out of a raft alone on the ocean but storms built up putting him in danger of drifting out of radio range and actually being lost alone at sea in a raft.  He used his emergency radio to call his safety team that were miles away on a boat.  They almost didn't find him but when they did it was determined to be too dangerous to continue as is so they tethered the raft to the boat with a long line so he could continue the show safely while still in the raft.  IIRC, even tethered to the boat it became too dangerous to stay in the raft so they took him on board and he finished show by moving to a new area.  

No hiding the truth and he has said many times that he does have a safety team that stays within radio range of him because it's required by the network.  He did all the same things videoing it by himself before he ever got a TV show.   It's TV and there are safety rules and regulations he has to abide by now.  It's as close to what he did before his show as he can get and still appease the lawyers.  The rest of those shows.....not so much.

Bear Grylls is a certified badass but his show is nothing like Survivorman.  Bear Grylls has proved himself but his show is more like Dual Survival, a fictional depiction of reality.