I just saw a commercial of a new show with Les Stroud

It is called "Survive This" on the Cartoon Network. It seems he instructs a bunch of kids on survival and puts them out in the wild to see how they do.

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/survivethis/index.html

It was (or still is?) on YTV here in Canada. I've seen parts of a couple of episodes and I liked his ability to relate to the youth and to get them thinking. But I have yet to see a complete episode... bummer.

I have watched several episodes of this show and to be honest it is excellent.(even for adults)There are a lot of good little tips to pick up from the show, especially on wild plants to eat.

Adam, Jen and Zack actually appear to have far more skill at doing stuff in the wild than Les himself ever did. Maybe they should start a season 4 of survivorman.

I saw another episode last night where they were given a rubber raft and told to make it to a specific location. Their only challenge was to get there and survive. What they didn't know is that Les specifically chose a river where the water level was down and the possibility of them wrecking on the rocks or projectile hidden branches was very real. Predicatablly the raft deflated, they kids were dumped in the water and everything got wet but they managed by getting to shore, lighting a fire to dry out and hike to the location. And NONE of them quit after the episode.

I remember a show a couple years ago about some at-risk kids (Boot Camp) being taken out in the bush and living out their for 3-4 months with counsellors and psychologists trying to get them straightened out. These kids were all urbanites and just being away from a cell-phone was major PAIN for these kids. I think the majority of them eventually got the life back on track.

The kids in Survive This seems to mostly have their heads on their shoulders, some better screwed on better than others as you have noted but a far cry from these at-risk kids.

Our family loves it, especially my 9, 6 and 5 year olds. They now play "survive this" - indoors and out and are picking up a lot of great stuff - namely of love of the outdoors and thinking about "just in case"!