" When a TV show starts out, it is incredibly competitive: maybe one in a hundred TV ideas goes on to get made into pilot (tester) episodes. Maybe one in twenty of those pilots will go on to have a first series commissioned. And maybe one in ten of those will be asked back for a second season.
It takes a sprinkling of fairy dust and a lot of goodwill.
But do two seasons and you will quite probably go on to do five--or more.
So we got lucky. No doubt. And I never even asked for it. Let alone expected it.
I was simply, and blissfully, unaware.
But on this journey, Man vs. Wild has had to endure a lot of flak from critics and the press. Anything successful inevitably does. (Funny how the praise tends just to bounce off, but small amounts of criticism sting so much. Self-doubt can be a brute, I guess.)
The program has been accused of being set up, staged, faked, and manipulated. One critic even suggested it was all shot in a studio with CGI. If only. "

― Bear Grylls , Mud, Sweat and Tears