The Island with Bear Grylls
The Island with Bear Grylls is a British reality television programme which premiered on Channel 4 on 5 May 2014. Five series have aired since 2014. Narrated by Bear Grylls, it features participants placed on remote uninhabited Pacific islands as a test of their survival skills. They are left completely alone, filming themselves, and with only the clothes they were wearing and some basic tools and training. Pitched as an assessment of the capabilities of British men in the 21st Century, the first series featured thirteen male participants. Following accusations of sexism, the second series used two islands, with 14 men on one, and 14 women on the other. The third series continued the gender divide theme and featured eight men and eight women abandoned on opposite sides of a single island.
The fourth series, which aired from April 2017, focused primarily on age rather than gender, featuring initially separate tribes of older people vs younger people. The fifth series aired in 2018 involved people from different social classes.
The sixth series, now renamed Treasure Island with Bear Grylls, started airing on 8 September 2019. This series is the first to involve cash prizes but dropped from air to the island for the participants to find.
A celebrity spin off version, Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls, was first broadcast as part of a charity campaign for Stand Up to Cancer UK in September 2016.
On 22 September 2019 Channel 4 confirmed that the Island will return for a seventh series 2020.
Premise
In promoting the first series, the show was pitched as a challenge for modern men to see if they can survive when marooned on a Pacific island armed only with minimal tools and their own initiative. According to Bear Grylls, masculinity is in crisis, and he is interested to see if men can survive stripped of the luxuries of 21st century living, and the show is therefore also a social experiment to see if man can recapture his primeval instincts.In the second series, following complaints about the absence of women in the first series, two groups, 14 men and 14 women, were left on two separate islands. In the third series, two groups of eight men and eight women were left at opposite ends of the same island, with neither group knowing of the other's presence. In the fourth series, there were two sets of participants of different age groups, while in the fifth series, the two groups were of different income levels. The sixth series features money dropped onto the island for participants to find in order to examine the effect of money in a survival situation.
For the first series, the participants had to survive for one month. For the second series, this was extended to six weeks. The participants stayed on the island for five weeks in the fifth series, and cash prize was introduced.
Production
Location
The first series was filmed on an uninhabited Pacific island, Isla Gibraleón, which is one of the Pearl Islands off the coast of Panama. The island has an coastline, five beaches, a mangrove swamp, and is covered with jungle. The mangrove swamp is located on the east coast of the island where the men were dropped off, and the main sandy beach is on the west coast where the men set camp.The second series used two islands in the same archipelago, the women reusing the island from the first series, Isla Gibraleón, while the men were allocated Isla San Telmo. This series was filmed in the rainy season which presented additional challenges. Isla San Telmo was used in the third series. In the fourth series, a larger island, Isla Bayoneta, and a smaller neighbouring island close enough to reach at low tide were used for two sets of participants of different age groups. In the fifth series, the two teams were left to survive again on Isla Gibraleón. Sixth series features the Isla Bayoneta.
Resources and training
According to Channel 4, an island that has the natural resources necessary for the men to survive a month was chosen. Additional yuca plants were planted in order to supplement the existing supply, extra animals indigenous to the islands such as caiman were also added, and a fresh water source was topped up before filming. The participants were given training about animals native to the island that are on the protected species list, and each received one day's survival training, including advice on how to catch and humanely kill caiman. The men were given machetes and knives, head torches, an initial one-day water supply, and an emergency medical kit. In addition, the participants had GPS spot trackers, and access to radio and satellite phone in case of an emergency. The second series participants were given two days survival training.Controversy
Allegations of fakery
The press made claims about fakery in the show, that the water was supplied in the island by adding a rubber-lined pool and two caiman crocodiles were released on the island, and that some of the trained crew had experience of surviving in extreme environments in the wild. Grylls however rejected the claims, and said that it was necessary to make sure that there would be just enough resources to sustain the participants, and that caiman crocodiles were added to the island so that if the men or women were to kill them, the natural eco system would not be damaged.Use of wildlife
The killing of the caiman sparked a number of complaints to Ofcom. A spokesman for PETA said that it showed "a deep ignorance of who animals are and a callous disregard for life", and that the ones who caught and tied up the animal "should be prosecuted". Ofcom however judged that the show did not break the rules.In the second series, there were further criticisms after it was revealed that a crocodile killed by the men was not a caiman but a protected species American crocodile. Channel 4 apologised for the error and said: "The relevant national environment agency are aware of the incident and have granted a licence to replace the animal which has now been done." The second series elicited more than 600 complaints from viewers, most of the complainants accused the show of "killing animals to boost ratings".
Sexism claim
The first series was criticised as "sexist" by female survival experts for excluding women from the challenge. Lisa Fenton suggested that it was "sexism and it's deeply rooted", and Ruth England expressed disappointment with Channel 4's decision as it "perpetuates the myth that women need to be taken care of", while Sarah Outen criticised the "male-oriented bias with adventure TV programmes". In response, Bear Grylls denied that the show was sexist, and said that the series was intended as a study of masculinity of modern man and their struggles. He then indicated an interest in doing an all-women version and that he "can't wait to do modern women's struggles."Reception
Reviews
Grace Dent of The Independent thought the show is interesting television as it is "an attempt to form a show around utterly normal, non-fame hungry, not particularly pretty, non-celeb males", but found the first episode to be "an hour of rather plotless bumbling and twig friction." Euan Ferguson of The Observer expressed concern about the "producer selection" of mollycoddled males who might fail to cope with the wilds of the island, but thought that the participants might "make a fist of surviving, and confound a few lazy stereotypes", and that he was "semi-hooked".In the second series, Charlotte Runcie of The Daily Telegraph thought that watching people learning to "cooperate in extreme situations is always strangely compelling", although Rupert Hawksley of the same paper felt that the second series, despite the presence of women, was "every bit as sexist" as the first series. The participants' struggle with survival prompted joking references to Lord of the Flies.
Awards and nominations
The first series was nominated in the Reality & Constructed Factual category in the 2015 British Academy Television Awards and won.| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Results | Ref. |
| 2015 | RTS Programme Awards | Popular, Factual and Features | The Island with Bear Grylls | align="center" | |
| 2015 | BAFTA TV Awards | Reality & Constructed Factual | The Island with Bear Grylls | align="center" |
Ratings
The first series had an average figure of 3.1 million viewers per episode. The average viewing figure for the second series was 2.9 million.Series overview
Episodes
Episode viewing figures below from BARB but do not include Channel 4 +1. Ratings starting 2019 give total viewing figures including all platforms.Series 1 (2014)
The first series was first broadcast on Monday nights.| Total | No. | Title | Original air date | UK viewers |
Series 2 (2015)
On 23 May 2014, it was announced that The Island had been recommissioned for a second series to air in 2015. In the second series, the men and women were featured on separate episodes on consecutive nights each week. Two episodes were broadcast each week – a Wednesday episode focused on the men's island, while the Thursday episode was for the women. Due to the United Kingdom general election on 7 May 2015, only the women's episode was shown that week, and the men's episode was pushed back a week. A final special episode, Surviving the Island, followed on 21 May. The competitors remained on the island for five weeks.| Total | No. | Title | Original air date | UK viewers |
Series 3 (2016)
The third series was broadcast on Monday nights, a return to the scheduling of the first series.| Total | No. | Title | Original air date | UK viewers |
Series 4 (2017)
The fourth series was broadcast from 23 April 2017.| Total | No. | Title | Original air date | UK viewers |
Series 5 (2018)
The fifth series was broadcast from 2 April 2018. It took largely the same format as the fourth series with two different groups of people. However, the groups were made up of high-earning people and low-earning people.| Total | No. | Title | Original air date | UK viewers |
Series 6: Treasure Island with Bear Grylls (2019)
On 1 May 2018, it was confirmed at the end of the fifth series that The Island would return for a sixth series, set to air on 8 September 2019. It was confirmed in February 2019 that for the first time there would be a winners cash prize and that the islanders will be against each other. It was also confirmed that the show will be renamed Treasure Island with Bear Grylls. In the course of series, £100,000 were parachuted from air to the island for the participants to find.| Total | No. | Title | Original air date | UK viewers |
''Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls''
A celebrity version of The Island was first broadcast as part of a charity campaign for Stand Up to Cancer UK in September 2016. It was confirmed on 3 May 2017 that a second series of Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls, which would air later in August 2017 and will be raising money for Stand Up to Cancer as the first series did.As of July 2018 two series have been made with a third in production to air in Autumn 2018.
International adaptations
The American version of the show was announced on 28 January 2015, and it premiered on 25 May 2015 on NBC.The Spanish adaptation of the show, titled La Isla, premiered on 17 May 2017 on laSexta.
The Dutch adaption of the show, simply titled The Island premiered on 21 January 2016 on Net5.
Furthermore there is a and a Danish version.