Reality survival shows took a unique turn in the last year when Discovery Channel launched its new series Naked and Afraid. The series takes prospective Les Strouds in a pair of one male and one female and sends them out into the wild to survive for 21 days. The hook of the program, is that the male and female are completely and utterly naked. Since this is Discovery and not Cinemax, the participants are covered with blurred lines when patches of leaves fall short of FCC standards.
Why send two crazy people out into the wilderness completely naked? Well, nudity equals ratings and interest. And, there are people that are just insane enough to want to do it. For the new season in December, three of those insane people will be NFL veterans – Ravens WR Torrey Smith, Titans KR Leon Washington, and Patriots DE Andre Carter. The series announced the NFL episodes on its Twitter page.
.@TorreySmithWR , @Leon_Washington & @mr_carter93 are you ready for a Dec. special? @NakedAndAfraid meets the #NFL pic.twitter.com/53tGByIZSU
— Naked and Afraid (@NakedAndAfraid) December 2, 2013
The new season of Naked and Afraid debuts December 8th with a special couples edition. What a great idea for potential honeymooners or folks looking to revitalize their marriage.
My first question (and trust me, there are several) is how in the world these players were able to get this idea approved by their front offices. Players get hurt playing offseason pickup basketball or walking down the stairs, how could these franchises be comfortable with their players going on wilderness treks for 3 weeks? Can you imagine the conversation between Andre Carter and Bill Belichick when the defensive end told his coach he was going to spend three weeks with a stranger completely naked in a jungle somewhere where any sort of bite, infection, or ravenous beast could end his career and/or life??? I'm sure Belichick was completely on board with this idea.
One of the foundations of Naked and Afraid (I don't know whether to be ashamed, proud, or disturbed that I've actually seen the show) is tough guys who curl into the fetal position when surviving in the wild. Will these NFL players react in the same way? More importantly, how will their survival ratings positively or negatively impact their Madden rankings?
UPDATE: The idea of active NFL players taking time out of their offseason to film a bizarre reality show sounds crazy, right? Especially considering how it didn't leak until now and the notion that teams would actually go along with it. Well, according to CBS's Jason La Canfora, the whole thing is "total BS." Furthermore, Discovery PR reached out to La Canfora to say it was a "joke" featuring three players who were merely fans. That's… that's not funny at all. "Naked and Afraid meets the NFL" along with their likenesses naked in a jungle scene would seem to me to advertise these three players appearing on the show, but what do I know?
I'm still trying to figure out the punchline of the joke, just like I'm still trying to figure out the concept of Naked and Afraid.
(H/T Sports Kings)
