Discovery Channel Kills Bear
'Man vs. Wild' adventurer Grylls fired in contract dispute
Apparently, they couldn't bear negotiating with him. "Man vs. Wild" starring Bear Grylls -- the British wilderness adventurer who eats bugs and drinks his own urine -- has been dropped by the Discovery Channel in a contract dispute, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
"Unfortunately, Bear and Discovery have not been able to come to mutual agreement on new programming," a Grylls rep told the trade magazine, "and he disagrees with Discovery's decision to terminate current productions. Bear has loved the 'Man vs. Wild' journey and looks forward to producing further cutting-edge content again soon for his loyal audience."
Bing: More about Bear Grylls | Video: Watch clips of 'Man vs. Wild'
The dispute, according to the report, involved Grylls' participation in two unannounced projects Discovery had been promised.
The show -- which wrapped its sixth season in August -- averaged 1.1 million viewers and earned admirers including Jake Gyllenhaal, Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller, who guested on previous adventures.
He is upfront about things being staged & having a camera crew Now. But only after the story came out about he and his crew staying in hotels. They were only honest about it after they were caught and if I'm not mistaken, they tried to deny it for a while then finally admitted it.
Here's the statement issued by Discovery at the time he was "outed"
"Discovery Communications has learned that isolated elements of the 'Man vs. Wild' show in some episodes were not natural to the environment, and that for health and safety concerns the crew and host received some survival assistance while in the field," a spokeswoman for the network said. Moving forward the program will be 100 percent transparent and all elements of the filming will be explained up-front to our viewers. In addition, shows that are to be repeated will be edited appropriately."
"According to his Discovery Channel biography, Grylls lives on a converted barge on the River Thames in London with his wife Shara and their sons Jesse, Marmaduke and Huckleberry."
WHAT???? Jesse, Marmaduke and Huckleberry? I like Bear, and I get it that he might be pissed for having been given the name Bear, although I think it's a very cool name. But to then turn and **** with your own kids by giving them totally doofus names like that? That's ***ked up.
Gonna miss the show though, even if I have seen each episode about a half a dozen times each.
Probably going to name his next kid Cindarella.
Long time coming... pretty much tells the story of how a guy from the UK can so easily get over on the American television viewer by making them think all his antics are for real while in fact, it's pretty much staged. But let's wow them just like in Disney land! Let's also not forget the handy dandy film crew that works along side him all the way. As for admirer's Ferrell and Stiller, let's not forget they're also comedians so maybe they're looking at some comedic material they can use in their acts. Points is it's about time the Discovery channel started getting real about survival and get away from Hollywood.
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Deanna Barnert | Los Angeles, Calif.
Entertainment journalist Deanna "TVDeeva" Barnert visits sets, interviews industry players and critiques the final product. Buzz's daytime TV queen covers it all for MSN TV, but loves her sitcoms, soaps and any juicy drama that doesn't call itself Reality TV.
