Bear Grylls + Viral Apocalypse = The Colony

[Great Rumbler]

What would you do in the wake of a global catastrophe? How would you find food? Water? Shelter?

The Colony is a controlled experiment to see exactly what it would take to survive and rebuild under these circumstances. For 10 weeks, a group of 10 volunteers, whose backgrounds and expertise represent a cross-section of modern society, are isolated in an urban environment outside Los Angeles and tasked with creating a livable society.

With no electricity from the grid, no running water and no communication with the outside world, all the volunteers have to work with are their skills and whatever tools and supplies they can scavenge from their surroundings.

Experts from the fields of homeland security, engineering and psychology have helped design the world of The Colony to reflect elements from both real-life disasters and models of what the future could look like after a global viral outbreak.

Over the course of the 10-week experiment, the Colonists must work together to build the necessities of survival, such as a water-filtration system, a battery bank that powered their electricity, a solar cooker, a shower system and a greenhouse – and even some niceties (a coffee maker!).

Tune in Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 10 p.m. ET/PT to see who thrives and who fails to survive

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/colony/colony.html

Discovery Channel

[fistfulofmetal]

this sounds fucking awesome.

[muckhole]

Yeah, I think I'd watch this. I tend to avoid reality TV like the plague, but this sounds really interesting.

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah, I think I'd watch this. I tend to avoid reality TV like the plague, but this sounds really interesting.

Well, most "reality TV" is geared more towards tossing a bunch of whiny drama-queens in a room together and watching them bounce off of each other as they play out their own self-important lives as they vie for their fifteen seconds of television fame.

On the other hand, most of Discovery Channel's forays into the genre are really good because they actually focus on REAL people living their REAL lives: Deadliest Catch, Pitchmen, and so on. Even though this show isn't about these people's real life, it seems like it's going to focus on showing the science of survival in this situation and how it effects those who find themselves in it. I expect it to be much more like DC's own The Alaska Experiment than Survivor.

[Yeti]

Sounds like a pretty good show, and yeah, I pretty much hate reality tv.

[fistfulofmetal]

this reminds me

where Les Strouds new show at?

[Cormacaroni]

They REALLY need to fake a zombie outbreak around episode 5.

[Great Rumbler]

this reminds me

where Les Strouds new show at?

He's got some show on Cartoon Network right now where he takes teenage kids into the woods and teaches them survival tips and stuff. I haven't seen it myself, though.