Now that is a disappointment. Just when I thought I'd finally found something halfway decent on TV.

Staying within a mile or two of villages and seaside homes sounds a lot like Bear Grylls... Not quite "real" wilderness survival. That said, some of the critique may be a little unfair. You can see that the four remaining participants have had a pretty rough time. All have lost a lot of weight. Especially Sam, he used to be pretty chubby but is now almost a completely different person. That didn't look staged to me.

I'm not familiar with the terrain, I have no idea what things are like on Vancouver island. Checking out Google Earth though the area does look pretty remote. Note that when Wayne tapped out in the middle of the night it took the rescue team over three hours IIRC to reach him, despite covering much of the distance by road.

I've been under the impression that each participant was equipped with a GPS location beacon to keep track of their movement (and presumably keep them away from the local settlements or other participants). As far as possible contact with third parties such as hunters or hikers, I have no idea how that worked out.



It was made pretty clear that Joe moved a fair distance since Day 1. If you watch the early episodes he was struggling to find a good place to camp until he found that beach. So that in itself didn't look too suspect to me.