On last Friday's new episode, he was in the Kalahari desert. They gave him 20 liters of water, which was enough for 4 days. But he's there for 7 days. And it's 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

So after he drank the last of his water, he dug a hole in the sand, peed in it, put a plastic container on the sand, put some plastic wrap above the container, and put a little sand on the middle of the plastic wrap to create a depression. The water evaporated, condensed on the plastic wrap, and dripped down into the container. It was pure, distilled water, and he drank it.

But the amount of water wasn't enough, and he was literally dying from dehydration, so he ended up quitting early.

He made two errors here:

1) He peed into the sand, which meant that the vast majority of his urine was absorbed into the ground. If he had peed into a bucket instead (they had given him two buckets, and several jars, cans, and plastic containers) he would have gotten a lot more water.

2) He didn't start collecting his urine until after he had finished drinking all 20 liters of water. If he had started collecting his urine from the very beginning, he would have had more than enough water for the entire 7 days.

However, I do give him credit for pointing out that you shouldn't drink urine, because it's toxic.

Ewwwwwwww!

These shows are great. I like Bear Grylls so much better (his presentation at least), but apparently he's questionable.

I just got hooked on this show over the weekend when I caught an airing of the Canadian Boreal forest ep.

I like!

I just find him too low key and boring. I get it, you hate to kill animals, you don't need to say it everytime you do it.

Quit early?

He made it to day seven, and started hiking out to the rescue camp. How is that quitting early?

I think he does that as a preventative measure from the animal rights activists.

He did say something about having to quit early. Shrug.

I do like the show better because he films himself and so it also seems less staged than the other one.

I thought for sure he quit a day early as well.

urine is toxic? I thought it was sterile. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_urine#Sterility

Urine is sterile? I thought it has what plants crave. I thought it has electrolytes.

I feel shame for getting that

You forgot whiney

I think it's more staged. He has to set up the camera, make sure he's framed himself properly, walk out and talk to it, then walk away. Then he has to come back to the camera, turn it off, pick it up, and walk away again.

Sorta silly.

It is a little silly, but I like that he acknowledges it sometimes. Saying that he's too tired to come back and get the camera and the crew will have to do it and such. He makes no bones about this being a tv show and all.

New fan here and just started catching up on some of the repeats on The Science Channel in the past week or two. I admit that despite the constant reairings of the Discovery shows, it took reading upon the Bear Grylls controversy (and the Man vs Wild vs Survivorman whining) to make me curious & find out what this particular wilderness program was about.

I have to agree with Grundle that Les should have started the urine collection and distillation early on - a few mere couple drops was about all he had from that process on the 6th(?) day. And eating that slab of jelly was just plain stupid! Still, the "Kalahari" episode was entertaining. At least the editors made Les look like he didn't bitch as much about dragging the cameras around compared to the earlier episodes, especially in that heat. He did make it to the seventh day, but no way did he start that trek towards the camp (which was "a few hours away") like he made it out to be at the end.

Wish the new episodes would premiere earlier in the week, or even take the Mythbusters slot on Wednesdays -- though I've learnt that they've supposedly started airing NEW episodes now.

I didn't mean staged in setting up the shot, that has to happen since it is a show. In that way, both shows are the same. The staged part is more in pretending that this is not the case with Bear. Survivorman, the camera work is part of the show.

I meant in terms of Bear putting himself into silly situations, just to get out of them and with some of the camera work, it looks like it is made to seem more dire or scary with Bear. You can see with Bear, that the camera man must be in the water with him, or falling down the cliff beside him. Ohhh.. scary.


I am always aware that some other person holding the camera (and probably boom mic) is standing 10 feet away with Bear...or doing what he is doing.

Seems more real to be on one's own.

bear drank his own urine for a day or so, so it is clearly sterile for a certain amount of time. he said you have to drink it pretty soon after you go because otherwise the bacteria starts to grow.

My biggest problem with this show is Les will come up with something like, acting like he has a broken arm - but then, he abandons the idea half way through the week. He rarely sticks with the original plan and the show just becomes the same ole- same ole. If he is going to do something, don't back out of it.

I thought he didn't finish the seventh day. Maybe I was wrong.

It is sterile.

But is has salt, nitrogen, urea, and other wastes. And your body has to use water to process those things. Drinking urine is like drinking ocean water.

I guess I liked Bear because the show was more of a "if you get screwed, here's what you do" show. Survivorman is more of a "I'm going to test my limits" show. Both are good.

Bear's show is definately entertaining, but in more of a "if you get screwed, and want to go out in style" way.

http://www.daughtersoftiresias.org/b...ecial:Allpages

I rest my case. Sadly.

You know after looking at that page my opinion of Bear's show went from bad to worse. His fictional survival advice is downright negligent. If someone were to watch his show and apply his survival techniques and died I think he would be at fault. Les Stroud may be a bit more boring but his show is far more informative. I am surprised by the amount of people that even compare the two shows after the facts have come out and still like his show better. I think I will start a survival show, after all I did receive the wilderness survival merit badge in Scouting as a kid. But instead of giving sound survival advice I am just going to make things up that are more entertaining. When hiking in bear country rub jelly all over your body to mask your human scent that bears are so obviously attracted to.

I watched it again. I was wrong. He did not leave early.

Normally, in these episodes, he walks out to find civilization on his own; in this one, he walks to the safety camp instead. So, he did make it the seven days, but he did "quit" a little early...