Naked and Afraid has captivated audiences with its unique premise, where two strangers are dropped into the wilderness without any clothes and must survive for 21 days. The show's official description claims that contestants face extreme challenges with nothing but their wits and a personal item to aid them. However, behind the scenes, many secrets lurk that could change how viewers perceive the reality of this survival series.
Despite the show's focus on survival, numerous leaks and interviews with former contestants have raised questions about the authenticity of their experiences. Some of these revelations are downright shocking, revealing that the show is not as cut-and-dry as it appears. From medical interventions to unexpected assistance, the reality of Naked and Afraid may be more scripted than fans realize.
As we dive deeper into the secrets of the show, you'll discover the hidden truths that the cast has let slip over the years. Get ready for a behind-the-scenes look that may change your perspective on this popular reality series!
Table of Contents
- Naked and Afraid contestants are not quite alone
- Naked and Afraid contestants receive some medical help along the way
- A crew member may be responsible for a contestant's illness
- How much are Naked and Afraid contestants paid?
- Some Naked and Afraid contestants have sticky fingers
- Location. Location. Location.
- The editing of Naked and Afraid is manipulative
- Naked and Afraid contestants are puppets for producers
- Naked and Afraid is more soap opera than survival skills
- Honora Bowen put Naked and Afraid on blast
- What happens during that time of the month?
- No one's getting down on Naked and Afraid – just dirty
- Nudity is one of the scariest parts for Naked and Afraid contestants
- The first day on Naked and Afraid is partially staged
- The food really is as gross as it looks
Naked and Afraid contestants are not quite alone
The psychological impact of isolation is touted as one of the most important aspects of the show. Filming locations vary from episode to episode, and while some are more isolated than others, the contestants are never really alone. They are constantly followed by cameramen, producers, and medics. While the contestants are generally left alone at night, the production camp is within walking distance and earshot. Prior contestants have explained that they are given a radio and a whistle to signal for help if they need it or can't make the walk to the crew's camp. Additionally, contestants occasionally come into contact with local residents. Honora Bowen, a Season 3 participant, revealed that there was a town only a few miles from their filming location, and not only would they hear the local DJ playing club music long into the night, but they would frequently encounter locals playing soccer on the beach or swimming in the lagoon.
Naked and Afraid contestants receive some medical help along the way
There's also a medical team on the set in case of emergencies. While this should be expected of a show that deprives contestants of food, sometimes producers neglect to include footage of medical interventions performed during the course of the 21 days. In one prominent example during the show's premiere, contestant Kim Shelton suffers from severe food poisoning after eating a turtle. She's shown sleeping and vomiting for three days, before miraculously making a recovery on the fourth. What they don't tell you is that her recovery was hastened by the producers providing her with bread, rice, and baby food, as well as medics giving her two intravenous drips of saline to rehydrate her. In the same episode, Kim's partner, Shane, is portrayed as weak and seen constantly complaining about his painful foot. The showrunners chose not to reveal to viewers that Shane had actually broken three toes, causing the excruciating pain.
A crew member may be responsible for a contestant's illness
Even though she returned to the series multiple times, Phaedra Brothers' first experience with Naked and Afraid wasn't great. According to an interview with Channel Guide, Brothers claims her location was switched last minute to "a completely different ecosystem" of which she hadn't trained. Also, her luggage — which contained all of her carefully designed pre-show prep nutrition — was lost, leaving her to rely only on production staff for food. Brothers claims that the night before her first day of shooting, "one of the Indian men who was a part of the crew" prepared her a "really great chicken curry dish," except hours later she became horribly sick to her stomach. And instead of issuing a disclaimer that she'd gotten sick beforehand, the show's narration "claimed that Phaedra's illness was due to drinking untreated water."
How much are Naked and Afraid contestants paid?
For many of us, there's no amount of money in the world that would get us to strip down and sit alone in a jungle for 21 days, eating little more than bugs and potentially tainted water. Some things are simply priceless, and Naked and Afraid knows this. The series attempts to set itself apart from similarly extreme reality shows like Survivor by claiming contestants aren't offered prize money and are rewarded with nothing more than pride. While that's not completely true because the contestants are reportedly paid, they're not offered anywhere near enough of an incentive for money to be the motivation. So, how much are Naked and Afraid contestants paid?
Some Naked and Afraid contestants have sticky fingers
While Naked and Afraid likes to portray contestants as only eating what they can hunt or gather, that's not always the case. On several occasions, stars have later admitted to stealing food from crew members or local residents. One contestant, Honora Bowen, claimed to have scavenged chocolate, salt, and even some Campari from a fishing hut she found before producers forbid her from going back. She did, of course, return to steal a coconut which was enough of a violation that a PA trudged through waist-deep water to find her and yell at her.
Location. Location. Location.
This may seem like a no-brainer, as each remote locale obviously poses its own distinct difficulties, but show producers have admitted that through the careful selection of where they drop off each team of contestants, they're able to direct the kind of content they're looking for. "The location really informed the creative," executive producer Denise Contis told Salon in much more fashionable industry lingo, adding that in certain situations they knew contestants would be able to find water much more quickly than in others. In another situation, she said they knew the ground at the location was "full of burrs," so a lot of the focus of the episode would be on the contestants trying to make shoes, which also resulted in most of the shooting taking place "within maybe a half-mile radius." Any chance that little tidbit helped for scheduling, budgeting, and location crew staffing?
The editing of Naked and Afraid is manipulative
On the original Naked and Afraid series, the 21-day survival experience of the contestants is condensed down to one 44-minute episode, with a new pair of stars appearing each week. As you can imagine, lots of editing is required in order to fit three weeks of footage into less than an hour of television, and sometimes the end result doesn't accurately portray the reality of what happened during filming. As with the medical intervention left out of the series premiere, contestants have revealed that editing sometimes purposefully leaves out interactions and events that change how they are portrayed in the final cut. Like most reality shows, there's usually a "good guy" and a "villain," and it appears Naked and Afraid doesn't mind creating those roles via editing, even if the facts don't quite fit that narrative.
Naked and Afraid contestants are puppets for producers
In a 2013 interview, executive producer Contis told The Wall Street Journal that "There is no manipulation, no element of scripted reality." Despite this claim, it seems that
