The new season of Survivorman starts tonight, who plans on waching? Hopefully enough so that his ratings are better than that idiot Bear Grylls. I wish discovery would ditch that poser.
I am courious to see what direction Les takes the show this season. I even have my wife hooked. lol

Good show, good premise -- I'll watch.

What channel is this on? The TV listings at Discovery for tonight's show (and all upcoming shows) are from season one.

Discovery (ch278 direct TV) at 9:00pm.
episode: Kalahari 2007

I'm there!

This is permanently on TiVo for me, so I'll definitely be watching. Best of luck to Les on a great season. I'm really looking forward to it.

I've been going over the archives of this forum, and it was interesting to see posts on by Les, from before he started his first season. I'm almost giddy with excitement for the new season to start. He does a great job with the survival aspects of it all, but another major reason for watching is just to see the amazing film he captures and the beautiful landscapes he spends time in. In fact the only reason I would like Man Vs. Wild to stay of the air is for the landscape pictures. The film from Iceland was breath-taking. Too bad the Bear was in the way...

Good Luck Les!

After you guys watch Survivorman at 9, check out Human Weapon on the history channel at 10. Tonights episode is on Savate Streetfighting also known as French boxing.

I'll definitely be watching. I've been waiting quite a long time for Les Stroud's next season to get going. He does an incredible job creating and filming the show, and produces extremely high-quality entertainment and education as a result! Bravo to Les!

Looks like the solar still (urine still) and the transpiration bag had about the same amount of water output....

Good show.

ive always wanted to learn more about Savate. who needs research when it comes in pre-packaged, hour-long segments! hurrah!

re: Suvivorman (spoiler)

i got off late last night and had to be back at work at 6am. suvivorman was replayed at 1 am...so, thanks to mr.stroud, i only got 2 hours of sleep as opposed to 3. gahhh!

shame that he made it to the 6th day and had to give in. im glad though, that he didnt beat around the bush (no pun intended) and try to sugar-coat his failure. the kalahari was just too much...despite the extra water and scrounged items.

Well, there's a great survival message there, "If you go into the desert, bring water". There's just no way to survive if you don't.

I did think the end was a little ambiguous, almost sounded like he was going to walk that couple hour walk to his safety crew himself. That would just be suicidal after two days with out water. It would have been good to point out that although the safety camp is only a few miles away it would be very easy to die trying to get there. But all in all I really enjoyed the show. Its interesting to see what you can and can't eat, scorpions yes, millipedes no.

Did anyone else think that that whole chocolate/soda can trick was set up?

I liked the part when he was complaining, OH MAN MY FACE IS SUNBURNED.

...And I basically said, NO KIDDING, YOU'RE IN THE KALAHARI!

I did.

Turned up a step-by-step tutorial with pictures on the soda can trick. Looks like it would be fun to try:

Soda Can Firestarter

Was a great start to the second season. Looking forward to the next episode!

Possibly, but I've seen the Mythbusters guys show how its done and seen some reliable internet sources confirm it.

I have to give him a lot of credit for standing up and saying, "That's it." Takes a lot more of a man to admit he's finished after he's tried his best and failed than for someone to fake it (Bear has his 'raft rescue' off the deserted island.)

This was only the second "Survivor Man" episode that I've seen, but I am definitely coming back for more. Loved how he scrounged for useful items off the truck.

ive tried the sodacan trick and had no luck. then again, i am easily frustrated when all i have to do is reach for ye olde bic ya know? but the physics are spot on, and there should be no reason why it wouldnt work. especially when it is something that one can, as the Chicken Rotiseree Info-mercial people are so want to say, "Set it, and forget it!"

when i first saw him pull out the jars of PB and jelly, i was like "Are you serious? Is this how this season is gonna be?". thankfully (sorry Les) the PB was more or less empty and he did indeed suffer. . . i am a sadistic beastie indeed.

overall though, great way to start the season.

Oh Joy of Joys!!!

Enjoyed the show a lot.

My co-workers Friday were so sick of me saying "Survivorman is coming! Survivorman is coming!!"

For me the only thing worth watching Bear for is the scenery and a good laugh.

I have a lot of respect for Les, he demonstrates integrity by showing himself saying "enough" and getting help rather than editing it out to make himself look good.

Wish the Discovery Channel would show him more than Ursus dufus.

I am going to have to watch one of the encore presentations of this episode (which I was going to do many times anyway). I could have sworn that it was day 7 when he decided to walk the few hours to the "safety camp". Then again, I did watch the 1:00 AM – 2:00 AM slot instead of the 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM slot. If it was day 7 though, I don't think his walking out can technically be considered a failure, as day 7 is when he's supposed to either walk out or be rescued.

It probably was prearranged, yes, but he did a good job of showing how it works. Notice how once he polished the aluminum can he just set it in place and left it there to work. It looked like it wasn't until some time later that he noticed smoke coming from the tinder bundle. I appreciated seeing Les light a fire in this manner because, since I first saw this on MythBusters, I have never thought of just leaving the can-mirror in place instead of holding and focusing it.

The set-up to me was not that it worked, it was more that he had the cans and the chocolate on hand. It was still a good show & I think he made it the whole 7 days. I'll have to rewatch it to make sure.

As the show began I was a little disappointed at all the stuff he packed in, especially the four days worth of water and and the ostrich egg.

However, as things developed and I saw how little that most of the stuff helped in the long run, it hit me how harsh the climate of the Kalihari is to survive and I wasn't bothered. Even with water Les was suffering, at one point on the verge of heat stroke.

In the end I enjoyed the show a lot. Great work once again Mr. Stroud!

And yeah, pulling a chunk of chocolate out of nowhere was a little cheesey. Thank goodness it wasn't a melty gooey mess with pocket lint stuck in it. Or was it? LOL

I'm curious, could you use the bottom of a jar as a solar concentrator for starting a fire? Could be lens shaped enough. If not, I think you can use a glass jar full of water to do it. As long as you sealed the jar to keep from losing any water, I think that's as much worth a try as the soda can and chocolate. Anyone else spot ways to start a fire he might have used?

I've wondered how the stuff Les has to scrounge from is picked. I finally decided it's not him, but someone on the production staff that chooses what to give him. Then it's more or less a surprise and he has to figure out how to use it. If anyone knows the definitive answer, I'd appreciate knowing for sure.

One thing I noticed was he had a couple of gallon sized buckets but never saw him use them. He should have used one to pee in and distill from. Pee in the bucket, put a rock in the cup to keep it from floating and put it in the bucket with the plastic on top. Virtually 100 percent recovery. He probably lost 60 or 70 percent by just doing it in the sand. As hot as it was, he probably urinated very little, but if he had been doing that from day one it could have made a big difference.

And buckets are good for digging in the sand too. Half expected some kind of dug out pit under the tree to keep a little cooler.

I thought the show was pretty good. Those were some tough, tough conditions for sure. The thought of running out of water, basically equalling death is just, scarey. I'm on the US east coast, theres water Everywhere.
My wife and I were looking at each other like: "Ok were never going to the Desert". (short of Vegas )
I just can't think of a good reason for me to be there, so in that aspect the show was not really appealing to me, but fun none the less. I am really looking foward to the Alaska episode!

On the bird nest deal, why didn't he find a forked branch, and fashion as "swatter" with the seat cushion from the truck. I bet he could have knocked a few birds down. lol

An entertaining show all around. Surviving that kind of environment is hard to imagine.

I thought he might put a shirt or sweater over on of the openings when he poked the birds' nest so that a fleeing bird(s) might get tangled up. Hard to skewer little birds in flight.

Anyone catch the Amazon show? It was way better the the 1st episode of the season. It looks like he used some Maya Dust in the episode, & it worked pretty well.