Of the ones I'm familiar with, I'd rate them:Originally Posted by Sarge47
1) Tom Brown - since he trained many of the instructors I've spoken to and his books seem to indicate he has a great deal of all-around knowledge
2) Les Stroud - closer to reality than most others so his tactics seem to be more plausible. While I love his show, I don't necessarily agree with some things, even as a novice (like, how do you use a multitool if you have lost the use of an arm or have severely reduced manual dexterity (extreme cold/borderline hypothermia, etc)?).
3) Cody Lundin - due to his terrain specialty, there have been several situations on the show where he has to defer because he just doesn't have the knowledge required. His primitive skilled are unmatched though. Looking forward to studying under him next year. His first book was awesome too.
4) Dave Canterbury - I saw his YouTube videos before I even knew what Dual Survival was. Not sure why he got kicked off the show (something about embellishing his credentials?) but he worked well with Cody ("When you come to the swamp, you better leave your skirt at home") in a push-pull fashion that was entertaining.
5) Mykel Hawke - Besides the show, I know of him from a few people who worked with him. He was a consultant on a season of Road Rules and the people at Bunim-Murray loved him. He apparently has a very effective way of teaching/demonstrating complex techniques to utter novices. On the show, I am amazed at how he's able to deal with his wife when she goes into (what I call) 'shrill mode'. Taming of the Shrew indeed!
6) Bear Grylls - even though his show introduced me to wilderness survival, I am SO thankful that I chose to look deeper. What many people don't realize is that his stunts aren't really stunts. He has people on the crew whose jobs involve making those "stunts" as safe as possible. He has a rope technician, for example. That's like having a gastroentrologist on crew to make eating bugs as safe as possible. Do you honestly think someone like Will Ferrell would subject himself to Bear's typical antics?
I'll have to look up the others.
For your first point, it's not as true as you might think (no ratings = cancellation). There are shows on TV (Cable specifically) with audiences rated in the tens of thousands (for comparison, the high water mark is Duck Dynasty at 12 million). They're not outright canceled as much anymore because you need hits to show reruns and they're so darn cheap to produce, they don't require huge audiences to recoup. Bear Grylls could poop in sand and wring the water out to drink and he'd be middle of the pack, ratings wise. It just doesn't take much to be considered 'good enough' now. By contrast, because it's so cheap to produce these shows, conglomerates can sell additional channels to carriers to make more money (History, H2; Food Network, Fine Living/Cooking Channel; examples abound) and a hit show becomes an entire franchise as soon as the returns are in (there are nine planned series/spinoffs for Storage Wars. NINE! 3 are being aired now. And there are almost a dozen similar shows on other networks). 'Life Below Zero' is considered successful so you can expect to see clones of that show. The same can be said for 'Buying Alaska' (which has already spawned 'Buying the Bayou').
Problem is, if the bar for the lead of survival shows is a 'presenter', then none of the shows will actually have any (for lack of a better term) "street cred" (i.e. credibility amongst the people in the viewing audience who know better). The problem with Bear, as Sarge pointed out, is that until very recently, there were no disclaimers telling people that this was essentially for entertainment purposes only. Okay, maybe it is technically possible to wring water out of elephant dung but aren't there better (less extreme) methods of acquiring it? Even if the method is following the elephants to where they're getting water? It's not zero sum choice between elephant dung wringing and drinking your own unfiltered pee, is it? But those alternatives are rarely (if ever) shown so a person is only given one part of the equation. Compare him to Les Stroud who is constantly saying "Don't do what I'm doing unless...." ("The only way to be sure of what plants are good to eat, is to spend time with a teacher who is knowledgeable about the local plant life" The 'Mountains' episode when he ate a shaggy mane mushroom is one example of many. The episode surviving in Colorado? with the two horses is another).
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Well, since you mentioned it...
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