Photo: Discovery ChannelIn 12 seasons, Naked and Afraid has gone to 35 countries on six continents. Survivalists have faced everything fromrelentless rainto hungry gators to bug bites in delicate places. Over the years, we’ve watched contestants survive everything fromflesh eating bacteriatofood comas.So where was the harshest locale for the show? The Amazon rain forest? The Madagascar desert? The jungles of Thailand?Cast members of the upcoming season say that those places are child’s play compared to the other places they’ve survived.Want to get the biggest stories fromPEOPLEevery weekday?Subscribe to our new podcast,PEOPLE Every Day,to get the essential celebrity, entertainment and human interest news stories Monday through Friday.Discovery Channel"The bayou of Louisiana was harder than any of the other locations I went to," saysNaked and AfraidlegendMatt Wright. “Everything about it was tough.““Everything in Louisiana wants to kill you,” adds fellow legend Steven Lee Hall Jr. “It was the hardest challenge of all of them that I faced.” (That’s saying a lot, considering that Hall didNaked and Afraidin thefrozen Alaska tundra.)Wright, Hall and 10 other of the show’s biggest survivalists went to the Louisiana Bayou to participate inNaked and Afraid XL: Legends, the newest season of the show. Everything remains the same: they are stripped of their clothes dropped into the middle of nowhere with very few survival items.Set across a massive 7,000 acres in Louisiana’s infamous Atchafalaya Basin, the murky waters and impenetrable brush were lurking with predators — including territorial 10-foot alligators and North America’s only venomous water snake, the cottonmouth. In addition to the threats they could see, survivalists had to contend with water was teeming with microscopic parasites that could burrow under the skin and create painful infections.And unlike previous seasons where the participans must survive for 21 or 40 days, this crew has to survive 60 days in the brutal heat. And cast members tell PEOPLE that each one of those days was a challenge for their very survival.“There were times where I thought the mosquitos were going to carry me off,” laughs Wright, who has done fiveNaked and Afraidchallenges. “The bugs there were worse than anything I’ve ever encountered.“Suzanne and EJ working.Discovery ChannelHall says that there is a mistaken perception among Americans that all the harsh locations will be in other countries, not here in the United States.“There are a lot of remote parts of America where the conditions are really rough,” he says. “It’s a big country. Yeah, we’re relatively close to home, but there’s no way to get to civilization on foot. If we had tried, we’d have to cross gator-invested tributaries and all sorts of swamp. We’d never make it to a McDonald’s.“Naked and Afraid XLreturns Sunday, April 25 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery and will also stream on Discovery+.
Photo: Discovery Channel
In 12 seasons, Naked and Afraid has gone to 35 countries on six continents. Survivalists have faced everything fromrelentless rainto hungry gators to bug bites in delicate places. Over the years, we’ve watched contestants survive everything fromflesh eating bacteriatofood comas.So where was the harshest locale for the show? The Amazon rain forest? The Madagascar desert? The jungles of Thailand?Cast members of the upcoming season say that those places are child’s play compared to the other places they’ve survived.Want to get the biggest stories fromPEOPLEevery weekday?Subscribe to our new podcast,PEOPLE Every Day,to get the essential celebrity, entertainment and human interest news stories Monday through Friday.Discovery Channel"The bayou of Louisiana was harder than any of the other locations I went to,” saysNaked and AfraidlegendMatt Wright. “Everything about it was tough.““Everything in Louisiana wants to kill you,” adds fellow legend Steven Lee Hall Jr. “It was the hardest challenge of all of them that I faced.” (That’s saying a lot, considering that Hall didNaked and Afraidin thefrozen Alaska tundra.)Wright, Hall and 10 other of the show’s biggest survivalists went to the Louisiana Bayou to participate inNaked and Afraid XL: Legends, the newest season of the show. Everything remains the same: they are stripped of their clothes dropped into the middle of nowhere with very few survival items.Set across a massive 7,000 acres in Louisiana’s infamous Atchafalaya Basin, the murky waters and impenetrable brush were lurking with predators — including territorial 10-foot alligators and North America’s only venomous water snake, the cottonmouth. In addition to the threats they could see, survivalists had to contend with water was teeming with microscopic parasites that could burrow under the skin and create painful infections.And unlike previous seasons where the participans must survive for 21 or 40 days, this crew has to survive 60 days in the brutal heat. And cast members tell PEOPLE that each one of those days was a challenge for their very survival.“There were times where I thought the mosquitos were going to carry me off,” laughs Wright, who has done fiveNaked and Afraidchallenges. “The bugs there were worse than anything I’ve ever encountered.“Suzanne and EJ working.Discovery ChannelHall says that there is a mistaken perception among Americans that all the harsh locations will be in other countries, not here in the United States.“There are a lot of remote parts of America where the conditions are really rough,” he says. “It’s a big country. Yeah, we’re relatively close to home, but there’s no way to get to civilization on foot. If we had tried, we’d have to cross gator-invested tributaries and all sorts of swamp. We’d never make it to a McDonald’s.“Naked and Afraid XLreturns Sunday, April 25 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery and will also stream on Discovery+.
In 12 seasons, Naked and Afraid has gone to 35 countries on six continents. Survivalists have faced everything fromrelentless rainto hungry gators to bug bites in delicate places. Over the years, we’ve watched contestants survive everything fromflesh eating bacteriatofood comas.
So where was the harshest locale for the show? The Amazon rain forest? The Madagascar desert? The jungles of Thailand?
Cast members of the upcoming season say that those places are child’s play compared to the other places they’ve survived.
Want to get the biggest stories fromPEOPLEevery weekday?Subscribe to our new podcast,PEOPLE Every Day,to get the essential celebrity, entertainment and human interest news stories Monday through Friday.
Discovery Channel
“The bayou of Louisiana was harder than any of the other locations I went to,” saysNaked and AfraidlegendMatt Wright. “Everything about it was tough.”
“Everything in Louisiana wants to kill you,” adds fellow legend Steven Lee Hall Jr. “It was the hardest challenge of all of them that I faced.” (That’s saying a lot, considering that Hall didNaked and Afraidin thefrozen Alaska tundra.)
Wright, Hall and 10 other of the show’s biggest survivalists went to the Louisiana Bayou to participate inNaked and Afraid XL: Legends, the newest season of the show. Everything remains the same: they are stripped of their clothes dropped into the middle of nowhere with very few survival items.
Set across a massive 7,000 acres in Louisiana’s infamous Atchafalaya Basin, the murky waters and impenetrable brush were lurking with predators — including territorial 10-foot alligators and North America’s only venomous water snake, the cottonmouth. In addition to the threats they could see, survivalists had to contend with water was teeming with microscopic parasites that could burrow under the skin and create painful infections.
And unlike previous seasons where the participans must survive for 21 or 40 days, this crew has to survive 60 days in the brutal heat. And cast members tell PEOPLE that each one of those days was a challenge for their very survival.
“There were times where I thought the mosquitos were going to carry me off,” laughs Wright, who has done fiveNaked and Afraidchallenges. “The bugs there were worse than anything I’ve ever encountered.”
Suzanne and EJ working.Discovery Channel
Hall says that there is a mistaken perception among Americans that all the harsh locations will be in other countries, not here in the United States.
“There are a lot of remote parts of America where the conditions are really rough,” he says. “It’s a big country. Yeah, we’re relatively close to home, but there’s no way to get to civilization on foot. If we had tried, we’d have to cross gator-invested tributaries and all sorts of swamp. We’d never make it to a McDonald’s.”
Naked and Afraid XLreturns Sunday, April 25 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery and will also stream on Discovery+.
source: people.com
