Prepping and survival have always found a place in popular culture, and as a result, there are more than a few prepping-related TV shows with a reasonable degree of realism.
I have always been a fan of these shows, and I have compiled a list of five shows I have personally watched and enjoyed.
Alone
Alone is my all-time favorite survival TV show, and I have been a huge fan of it since the first episode.
The premise is that ten participants are dropped off in a remote area with ten survival items. Their task is to survive as long as possible utterly alone while doing all the filming themselves. The last person left wins a half million dollars.
Alone shows a lot of good techniques for shelter building, trapping, fishing, bushcraft, and other survival-related tasks, but where it really shines is the physical and psychological effects of isolation on the body.
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It does not take long before the participants lose a lot of weight which seriously impacts their ability to continue with the day-to-day grind of survival.
As a result, there are times when the show becomes a race to see who will starve themselves into submission first.
The impacts of isolation are a cornerstone of the show, and each participant experiences significant issues coping with the separation from their families and being cut off from the rest of the world.
I believe that Alone is a fantastic look into the gritty realities of survival and the impacts of being forced to gather your own resources.
It is also a wake-up call for the ‘lone wolf’ survivalists who believe they can run off into the woods with a bug-out bag and live happily ever after.
Survivorman
Survivorman follows Les Stroud as he attempts to survive seven days with minimal resources while self-filming the entire adventure.
Like Alone, Survivorman is a gritty no holds barred look into the reality of survival.
Les often spends his whole week consuming little to no food while being on the move, carrying the camera equipment, and filming the entire journey.
I have been an avid watcher of Survivorman since day one, and through the years, I’ve noticed that there has been a definite evolution in his survival skills over time.
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However, throughout the show’s many seasons, Les has demonstrated the harsh reality of surviving solo in the wilderness.
The Colony
Unfortunately, Discovery Channel’s series The Colony, only ran for two seasons.
The show put ten participants in a simulated post-apocalyptic environment where they have to survive by gathering resources, dealing with other survivors, and managing the interpersonal relationships in the group.
Discovery used hundreds of paid actors to act as other survivors or hostile forces.
The area where the show is filmed was a section of Los Angeles cordoned off to provide a realistic representation of a city post-collapse.
Like all reality shows, this was a little bit hokey and was clearly designed for entertainment rather than being a manual for post-apocalyptic survival.
That being said, it was obvious that the showrunners did everything they could to make all the challenges as realistic as possible, and the participants struggled through many of them.
One of the big takeaways is how difficult it would be to survive in a post-apocalyptic urban environment with a group of strangers. Even with a group of like-minded people, dealing with clashing personalities while surviving is going to present a massive challenge.
Jericho
So many movies and TV shows have been made that depict a world after a nuclear attack. Jericho is one of my favorites.
Jericho follows a small town of the same name in the days and months after multiple major cities were destroyed in a nuclear attack.
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Jericho is a pretty standard primetime tv drama with the usual cast of characters and interpersonal dramas that you would expect.
However, I found the plot engaging enough that I genuinely was looking forward to each week’s installment. Later in the show’s run, the plotlines got a bit far-fetched and ridiculous, but overall the show was very entertaining.
From a prepping standpoint, I felt there was a good effort to bring a reasonable degree of realism to the plot.
In the first few days, the residents of Jericho found themselves totally cut off from the rest of the country and the world because of the breakdown of power and communication.
As the show progresses, the citizens of Jericho have to cope with a dwindling food supply, EMP, refugees, crime, and an all-out war with a nearby town.
While the show is definitely made for an audience that is not preparedness minded, the trials and tribulations that the citizens of Jericho face can represent some interesting thought experiments for those of us who are preppers and survivalists.
Doomsday Preppers
Doomsday Preppers is a reality show introducing the audience to people and their families preparing for a disaster or the apocalypse. At the end of each episode, a team of survival experts assesses the participant’s preparations.
Shows like Doomsday Preppers are a bit of a guilty pleasure for me.
The fact that these people are willing to showcase their preps on national television automatically has me wondering why anyone would want all of their neighbors to know the extent of their stockpiles.
However, seeing how other people prepare can give us some ideas for what we could do and, in some cases, what we should not be doing when we assess our preparedness.
I also like to see how people prepare for their unique situations and environments because it gives an insight into how different areas require different priorities in terms of preparedness.
In a lot of ways, Doomsday Preppers is just another reality show in a long linage of reality shows. However, it is worthwhile to watch to get a few ideas or see how other preppers are solving issues that preppers often face.
There are many other prepping-related TV shows that we could spend time with, but these five are the ones I have enjoyed and found to have good prepping content.
If you’re going to spend time in front of the TV, these are great options to entertain and hopefully educate.
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Alone is probably my favorite. It clearly weeds people out and shows you exactly that lone wolf is impossible.
Jericho is a great show if you pay attention to it.
Doomsday preppere while funny at times. They can clearly show you some ideas. Or what not to do.
The Lone Wolf method is good for traveling, sometimes too many in a group has a thousand ways to do things. Too many cooks spoil the soup.
But the Lone Wolf traveling to a prepper community may have a hard time. As the group may see the Lone Wolf as a disruptor or a point man.
Finding like-minded people is challenging depending on the State we live in. A group does have it’s pros & cons. Just like the 1960’s Hippie Communes usually are not sustainable. Difference of opinions emerge eventually the group dissolves.
Convoys travel ….for a reason a single guy walking or driving can’t do it all
Doomsday Preppers and Survivorman both can get you killed if you do not try out some of the ideas they use. Both ignore the “blending in” you MUST do if you plan to trade with your surviving neighbors. ” Different is DEAD if you appear to be well fed and look clean compared to those you plan to mix with. You must look exactly like the rest to pass their suspicions. Dirty, need a shower, starved and haunted. Otherwise you WILL be noticed and followed home to be plundered by those who have spotted to be different than they are. They will want to know why you are different!
You live to close to people If that’s an issue
It was good when it was a single player, then they went to couples. Same stuff as regular TV. Its all “programming ” and not realistic.
I believe the Lone Wolf may be difficult, but definitely not impossible.
I have seen all of the shows including Bear Gryles. Might have spelled it wrong. I enjoyed the Colony. Just wish it had lasted longer. Jericho was fun and also insightful especially the auto lock othe water towers. However the manual override seemed a bit far fetched. As for preps Jericho kept breaking its copper worm on the still. A plastic 5 gallon water jug a cork and 1 way valve could have stopped that. As for gasoline vehicles if you added Stabil to the alcohol you would have fuel for gas engines. They also had at least a 300Mw generator that had they did some library work could have come up with another way to turn it at speed. Skillsets along with other items are tradeable. I wish that they would bring back similar shows that concentrate on edible plants/herbs. And how to properly prep and cook them. And be less scripted
The only one of those I have seen is of course, Doomsday Preppers. I always like it when the prepper gets butt hurt over their low score! LOL On “Alone”, do the participants get to choose their 10 survival items or are they given to them, and they have to deal with what they’re given? I don’t know if that is complete reality because that is assuming you aren’t prepared. Prepared people would go into the woods with more than just 10 items.
Mo. Prepper, the contestants are given a list of items from which they can choose 10. First Aid and some other things are not part of this list and each participant gets the base items like that. Some of their 10 item choices have really made me think and after seeing them used have changed my mind on a couple of things (folding saws in particular).
There was this guy on Rogan. Glenn Villeneuve. He was a cast member on a show called Life below zero. Guy told stories about how he literally ate the colons and contents of the stomachs of caribou, raw wolf meat, etc.. which Made me check out the show…which is pretty decent. I was always a fan of survivor man. Lol I’m not sure if it was the same show or not but there was like a hippie guy who never wore shoes and he was paired with some ex special forces bro. Made for a comedic duo but staged af
That show was Dual Survival with Cody Lundin aka the hippie guy that didn’t wear shoes and original cast member Dave Canterbury.
Discovery fired Canterbury after they found out he fudged some of his references, skills, history and/or backstory, I can’t recall which.
Dual Survival* was my introduction to the prepper and survival world. Lundin and Canterbury, despite their vastly differing skill set and culture could make it work. They could hum. After Canterbury was fired the show lost it’s magic for me. Piss-drinking Joe Teti was too full of himself and unable to work with anyone but himself.
* Doomsday Preppers was the other show that brought me to the world of survivalists and preppers
Yeah Teti sucked. However the pick up of Matt Graham when Cody left was a nice spot. I’m surprised Teti never got anyone killed.
I thought that Cody was an idiot. I am surprised that he did not have medical problems (at least we did not see any) as even the Indians got frostbite from walking in the snow like Cody did.
Michael Major, GREAT article!!!! I had never heard of The Colony until your article and I am sorry I missed it. I have seen the rest and agree completely with your opinions on those. Alone definitely brings the psychological aspect of prepping to the fore and I believe this is one of the grossly overlooked, and highly important, survival skills that gets little mention.
Another show which has a lot of good information for preppers in my estimation is Homestead Rescue. It delves into a lot of aspects of prepping that, again, do not get a lot of coverage in prepper forums such as shelter siting, protection from predators, and building necessary items.
Good article and hope to hear more from you!
Totally agree with the recommendation for ‘Homestead Rescue ‘. The Raney’s have some great creative solutions for all aspects of homesteading & preparedness. The ability to repurpose items that are in the junk pile & turn them into usable necessities is a skill we all need.
Love Marty, very good off grid knowledge.
Are they on the Discovery Chsnnel‽
Discovery & sometimes Animal Planet or History channels.
I have seen them all and Jericho was my favorite and you can see what is happening now, and relate to that show!! I wish it was still on! They took it off really fast because it was letting people know what was to come!! It just left the air with not one explanation, same with others that were giving up info.!! Although the Illuminati does have a creed that they have to let all of us know what they are planning to do, but some people do not realize it, and I am sure that they planned on that as well!!
I really like Alone. If you ever think that you want to go solo, watch that show and then make some like minded friends FAST!
Red Dawn
“a member of an elite paramilitary organization, Eagle Scouts…”
lol, gets me every time.
Those shows are good information. Plans of mice and men are doomed to fail as preppers we plan for about 40-60% of possible scenarios imagined. We can’t plan for a realistic 100%. It’s like in the military, plans go out the window once the bullets start flying.
Most preppers will survive as compared to the urban city slicker types who don’t plan. In today’s society we see an America focused on the smartphone, weak work ethic. Most will try to beg for food or try to aggressively take it from us.
It’s the Marxist educated that try to control us than leave us to our way to live. Most city slickers will die in the first 6 months of a bad situation. They depend on big DC Swamp for their nourishment.
Alone is good reality check for your prepping prioritizing and overall game. It shows that you can be a good forager and shelter builder, but unless you have a skill set for finding larger number of calories and protein, you will not survive long. The show has definitely helped me with my tiraging items that I once thought were a good idea for others that now are clearly indispensable (read FIRE starter is a must and NO not a bow drill, which uses WAY too many calories for the end result).
One that didn’t make your list that although a little gimikly and made for entertainment would be NAKED and AFRAID. If nothing else it shows you just how important good shoes and at least the barest amount of clothing can make all the difference in the world in simply trying to do daily tasks and avoid foot puncture wounds or debilitating sun burn, not to mention hypothermia at night in even the most tropical locations.
Good list, I enjoyed it. I will check out some of the shows you mention, that I haven’t seen yet.
Rob
Spot on!
Cody with bare feet method is great for Summertime, not for most of us in the Winter snow season. Naked and Afraid is ridiculous for survival, try that in the Wintertime, Burr!
N & A is Hollyweed’s version of survival fantasy. Like to see N&A contestants try to outrun a Lion, a Mountain Lion or an Alaskan Wolf, without at least some shoes on.
This is all just entertainment! If you want to learn about survival, go to third world countries and see how they live.
You are correct. If you can’t go to a third world then watch what they do on the news and it will tell you a lot.
I was raised in the country so I know a good bit but I do not claim to know it all.
A country-boy will survive-1, city slickers-0.
Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Mexico Puerto Rico, Somalia, Mississippi. Been there, done that.
Civilian, military or both? You got a great hands on real-world education.
Got the T-shirt too, I hope.
Been to a couple of them back then, now I’d think twice in post covid world.
It’s a shame the military has become a laughing joke
As we age physically bugging in sounds better than bugging out in a changing world. What we did in our 20’s will be different in our present older age. So our preps should reflect that, single, family or a group.
Prefer not to live in a third world environment situation. These are things TV survival shows don’t tell us. They like to show the sizzle.
Bugging out beyond the 1-2 week camping trip, there will be the unprepared out there too. COMPETITION, survival of the fittest, good luck!
Hunting for the same scared few animals with other competitors will be very interesting. Some may shoot each other for the last scrap of food.
The bug-in, Bug-out has many pros & cons to think about.
I recommend you move to your retirement home
Bob – Your right. There’s a lot of bravado on this site. Unfortunately, sometimes it also comes without a lot of common sense.
They just die
Les Stroud is probably the best for me. No crew to film or support, just Les and the great outdoors. He has gone off on a tangent with his search for Bigfoot and maybe has bought into the myth known as man made climate change but his survival skills are top notch
Last I checked a few years ago, him and his family lived in Canada, retired from the show. He was really good and practical in techniques the average person could use.
I am skeptical of cable generated survival shows. We are not given the behind the scenes full scoop of the TV series episodes or participants involved. Just a couple observations.
There was an Alaskan family season 1, dirt poor driving a broken down vehicle and trailer. Later episodes they have gone through several fishing type boats. Or building a cabin in the dead of Wintertime.
What real support do the cable TV series show lend support in the form of money or tools and equipment to make it through a season of shows.
What type of money did these people have before the show. Did they sell all their possessions to move. Did they liquidate their retirement funds, sign a contract with TV show.
You don’t show up trading furs, skins or other things an in a few episodes they have expensive equipment operating backhoes digging up stuff. If according to the show we do not see what was traded to have those trucks, snowmobiles to explore or store huge amounts of gas. When we see what the TV survival shows want us to see.
A couple survival shows with families, one in Montana, another somewhere in Tennessee or Kentucky, one guy has an honest to goodness survival school an sawmill to support his lifestyle.
Are the TV survival shows really showing the survival of the participants involved. Maybe two like the one survival-man with his own cameras taping his survival. Alone series with their cameras.
Usually behind the scenes, there are camera crews taping each episode and editing the final product.
Like dual survival had camera crew. Depending on the country they are in, had security to protect them.
Bear G. had a camera crew to film the show. And also the TV shows have medical support & transportation just in case.
Would not be surprised if they hang out at a nice resort somewhere in Honolulu during the off season after filming wraps up.
Your spot on!
When we see the TV camera scenes in the third person, we know these actors are just following a script. Some of the actors are couched by qualified experts.
Very few survival schools actually teach survival by true outdoors-man qualified.
The survival cottage industry has been motivated by profit than to teach real skills needed. Some schools charge expensive tuition for stuff you can read in the books. And try the skills on your own time.
Alaskan family was a joke. Squatters and wannabe survivors calling themselves bush people.
The after the nuke survival shows.
Are just guesstimates of what may happen. In real life historical evidence we have are WWII Japan and Chernobyl, to glean limited survival information. The public is still in the dark. Some agencies are still keeping some information classified.
Those underground civilian nuke facilities/shelters are vulnerable to attack by ruthless gangs. Or can be starved out eventually. They will need to come up to resupply. If there is anything left. They may have to abandoned their shelter eventually too.
A Fantasy pipe-dream or a practical survival method? They’re expensive to build.
Recently, I watched a BBC Program online “ Britain’s Underground Christmas during the Blitz”. During the war, old mines just outside of the city of London, where they actually mined the stone to build the city, were used as a place of refuge for 15,000+ people who were bombed out, and left homeless. Adds new meaning to reuse recycle, In any event, resupply is always an issue that must be given top priority even today. Just ask the Russians.
Aside from nuclear disaster, don’t hold your breath waiting to put your skills to use in an actual long term survival situation. Surviving tyranny is more likely our future. Becoming invisible in the woods is the skill we need first. Who is telling us to dig in like an Alabama tick, only make small fires at night, NOT using a rifle to kill your food every time…shit like that? Everything I’ve seen about survival is good info, but if we’re rounded up or shot on site, it’s all useless.
Gilligan’s Island. True survivalists.
Ha, Ha, the true classical Island Survivalist of their day.
In the major city environment, who will ultimately survive better. Urban Campers or the urban homeowner with some stored food?
There are plus and minuses of the two sides. One begs for food, the other can buy food. What happens when the food chain supply totally fails both, who will survive?
“Like Minded” is an interesting term. In a societal disruption, who will you consider “like minded”? Extended family and friends? Members of your faith? Only fellow preppers?
Great question to ponder on.
Like-minded may work for awhile until heads butt together on differences in opinions. Kinda like when a married couple have differences in their opinions who should be in charge or be equal.
Like-minded is a modern catch all term we use today.
Do not own a TV and do not want one. I’ll look for these on the computer. Happy New Year! niio
so you own a tv then
About three years ago now, I cut the cord too. I simply got tired of paying so much money for 999 channels none of which I enjoyed watching, many programs of which were either trying to indoctrinate me into things I don’t believe in, expose me to things I choose not to have in my home, or deliver fake news. Once I came to the realization that my hard earned salary was paying all these over paid tv executives to do this to me, I cut them off and couldn’t be happier.
Did the same, except use an OTA antenna to watch the older movies an TV series. That aren’t as F-up like the modern TV series, full of garbage WOKE nonsense.
Folks, I know this article is about prepped TV series, but there is good book out there that is a must-read IMO. It is One Second After by William R. Forstchen. Though it is fictional, the plot line could easily play out in real life. It could even serve as pseudo reference material for how to survive in a post-EMP world. What struck me, and it’s obvious, was that a strong leader with foresight, common sense, and the right amount of support could really make a difference in a community. It would make for a great movie! I’d go see it! Have a blessed day.