On the reality survival show, Naked and Afraid, nothing is more crucial than a good a partner. While the show is mainly a test of survival skills and endurance, the mental fitness of one’s partner is equally crucial. Many pairings have dissolved into chaos, bitterness, and utter failure because of the flawed character of one or both of the contestants. After binge watching enough episodes of the new season I’ve identified three major warning signs that your Naked and Afraid partner sucks.
Overconfidence
The beginning of each show features clips of contestants in their hometowns sharing training tips, saying goodbye to family members, and then cheerfully boarding planes for parts unknown. Often contestants discuss their survival training and why they feel prepared to take on the challenge. However, the contestants that are brimming with bravado and overconfidence are often the most unprepared and unreliable. Here are a few examples:
The Military Braggart: There have been countless contestants who brag about their military training and resulting resilience because of it. While military training is impressive, it does not always translate to a primitive survival situation. Roughing it in the deserts of Iraq while fully clothed, armed, and surrounded by your unit is quite different from huddling beneath a crude shelter, starved, cold, naked, and eaten alive by bugs. Many hardened vets who have survived tours to Afghanistan and Iraq sadly succumb to the primitive hardships.
The Tough as Nails Single Mom: Being a parent is hard. Being a single parent is even harder. But the difficulties of raising a child in a single parent household have more to do with financial and emotional struggles, not primitive survival. There have been numerous single moms who bank on their maternal fortitude to help them complete the challenge.
A typical example of this “tough as nails single mom” attitude was on display in the “Rumble in the Jungle” episode. Single mom Christina McQueen made a big deal about how her experience as a single mom made her indefatigable. But once the challenge started, she nearly brought down her skillful, positive, and supportive partner with her incessant complaining. She literally would not let the man sleep because she whined every time a bug bit her.
While these women feel “tough as nails” at the start, many quickly realize they are in way over their head. Primitive survival skills, mental toughness, and realistic expectations are the keys to success in this challenge, not super mommy strength.
The Ball of Awesomeness: In the episode “Edge of Madness,” Afften DeShazer, a married mom of a 14-month-old son and self taught survivalist, declared that she was “a ball of awesomeness” and hoped her partner would be the same. The moment I heard that I knew that she was going to be a difficult partner.
Clearly out to prove something to herself or others, Afften was horribly unprepared for the rigors of the Guyanese jungle. Not even an hour into the challenge, she was already complaining about the extreme heat and the water that tasted like fire. At one point she exclaimed that she would “punch a kid in the face for a bottle of water.” What did she expect, a cold bottle of Perrier and a room at the Ritz? Of course water boiled in a crude pot over fire is not going to taste good. Having great self-esteem can do wonders for the ego but is not particularly helpful when trapped in a hellhole for 21 days.
Attitude
As mentioned in a previous post, attitude is everything and an emotionally stable partner can mean the difference between survival and failure. There have been countless examples of contestants with low Primitive Survival Scores (PSRs) who thrive simply because of good mental hygiene. Isolated from family and friends and deprived of basic needs, it can be easy to get sucked into negativity. When a contestant starts off the competition whining, complaining, and sporting a bad attitude, it portends doom for the couple.
On the other hand, a positive, supportive attitude combined with genuine fortitude can save a desperate situation. In “Rumble in the Jungle” episode, the only thing that saved the couple was the cheerful, bordering on saintly, attitude of the male partner.
No Fire Starter
After watching one episode of Naked and Afraid you realize the importance of fire. Fire enables freshly caught meat to be cooked, purifies tainted drinking water, provides heat, and helps to keep bugs away from naked, vulnerable, flesh. When you see a contestant that brings swim goggles instead of a fire starter, that couple will be in for a grim surprise. While many trained survivalists boast of their fire starting skills, it never turns out to be as easy as they think.
There have been several episodes where very highly rated survivalists struggle to get a spark using a bow drill. This is especially true in tropical/humid environments. It took some couples up to 10 days before they got a fire going.
Having a fire starter is so necessary; that I would say every family should have at least one. The one I recommend is the GERBER Bear Grylls Fire Starter. It is well made, easy to use, and it even comes with a waterproof compartment for tinder.
Read More: What Naked and Afraid Taught Me About Weight Loss
21 days rolled into a 42 minute episode. No way did I complain that much. It was a great editing job. I too had a positive attitude along with a GREAT sense of humor. Please contact and interview me. I would love to share my actual story of how things were in the JUNGLE!!
Christina, I’d love to interview you! Follow me on Twitter @MSebastianHD and we can work out the details via Direct Message.
Lmao yes you did complain. The single most irritating survivalist on the show so far.
Were you there with her Pierre? You are probably pretty naive when it comes to reality television.
She did complain, but the editing could have made it seem worse than reality. However, the worst has to be Afften, whom is a liability to all around her,even in every day Life. There’s another almostas bad, but don’t recall her name.
Honora.