Les Stroud – from survival instructor to Survivorman Productions

February 6, 2009 by Kelly Anderson

Les Stroud was an adventurer and survival instructor for years by the time Mark Burnett’s Survivor hit the tube, and his authenticity and way with the wild helped his show Survivorman become the highest-rated show on OLN Canada and the Science Channel U.S., as well as one of the most popular shows on Discovery Channel U.S. Stroud was at the Realscreen Summit this week where he was interviewed by Andy Dehnart, contributor to realscreen and writer and publisher of realityblurred.com. In their engaging conversation, Dehnart and Stroud talked about the end of the Survivorman series.

Stroud admitted up front that he doesn’t want audiences to get tired of the show after three seasons, and stressed the toll the series takes on his body as another reason for moving on; understandable, given that the adventurer ships off to incredible locations and films himself surviving the elements alone. ‘I’ve slept on the rocks, in the mud and I’m not getting any younger,’ he said. However, he will still be in the entertainment space, with books and other media.

When asked if he chose to film the series himself for budgetary reasons, Stroud replied that while budget concerns played a role, it essentially came back to the fact that you don’t want to watch a show about surviving and think about the cameraman eating a Mars bar. Although the crew does come out with him the first day to set get some beauty shots, Stroud is alone during the rest of the shooting. ‘You look at my eyes on day three and you know the guy’s been sleeping on a rock,’ he said.

Hopefully Stroud will have comfier beds to sleep on during his new ventures, whatever they may be.

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