Celebrity reality competitions can often be annoying because the celebs competing in these shows really don’t have anything at stake but pride. There is no life-changing money to win, so they have to be fueled by their relative competitiveness alone. But we also get a bit of a sense that in these shows, the celebrities aren’t under as much strain — or subject to as much danger — as the show wants us to think they are. In a new competition series, 12 mostly British celebrities try to get through the challenges in the Costa Rican jungle, with the added challenge that they’re being “hunted” by celebrity survivalist Bear Grylls.
Opening Shot: Lush scenes of Costa Rican rainforest, plus snakes, hawks and crocs. A huge gate is shown, with the description, “COSTA RICA, GUANACASTE PROVINCE.”
The Gist: In Celebrity Bear Hunt, 12 celebrities — most of whom you’ll be familiar with if you follow British television — are greeted in the Costa Rican rainforest by host Holly Willoughby, who tells them that they’ll be tested for their problem solving skills in some pretty rough conditions.
The celebrities: Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Lottie Moss, Danny Cipriani, Leomie Anderson, Boris Becker, Una Healy, Kola Bokinni, Joe Thomas, Big Zuu, Mel B, Steph McGovern and Shirley Ballas.
The first instruction they’re given is to find four different types of transportation to get them to their base camp for the next 18 days. But there are issues once they find each mode of transport: The boats have holes where they need to find plugs, the tires of a jeep are locked up and they need to find keys, a chopper needs to be called by flares that are hidden. In the meantime, Bear Grylls has parachuted in, and tries to “capture” four of the celebrities.
The four he captures are sent through the “Bear Pit” the next day, which is what is behind that gate. It’s rough, steep terrain that’s full of wildlife. They get a head start to look for one of three exits, and the tools they need to access those exits. Once Grylls lands in the “Bear Pit,” though, he is looking to either “capture” a celeb or have them trip a booby trap. At that point, they have an hour to get out or evade capture. The celebs that are captured by Grylls or a booby trap are subject to elimination.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Celebrity Bear Hunt is sort of like another celebrity survival show, Beyond The Edge, but the celebrities there didn’t have Bear Grylls chasing after them.
Our Take: Even if you’re not familiar with most of the celebrities on Celebrity Bear Hunt, you’ll likely recognize Mel B and Boris Becker at the very least; Lottie Moss is familiar because of her last name (she’s the much-younger half-sister of Kate Moss), and Joe Thomas might be familiar to fans of Taskmaster or The Inbetweeners. But not knowing why these people are celebrities probably doesn’t matter all that much, because the show is more about the challenges these celebs face and how they avoid getting caught by Grylls during the challenges and Bear Pit.
We’ve always felt our BS meters go off when watching Grylls in his various shows; not that we’re questioning his outdoor survival skills, but we sometimes wonder if the people that are in the woods with him on his shows are actually facing as much immediate danger as the show makes it seem. And our BS meter went to red while watching Celebrity Bear Hunt.
There seems to be a lot of “crocodile infested” waters and other dangerous wildlife around the celebs during their challenges and in the Bear Pit. We see closeups of these dangerous animals, but then we see wider shots of the celebs and none of those animals are around. We’re not saying they’re not there, but we’d imagine there are experts there to keep them at bay and nowhere near, say, Mel B rowing in a boat that hasn’t been plugged up.
We’re also not sure if the segments where Grylls is whispering to the camera while he hunts for celebs are real-time either. You’d think these celebs in the Bear Pit would notice someone 100 feet away whispering to a trailing camera operator and sound person.
The other part of this show that really made us scratch our heads was seeing people being really concerned in the side interviews that they’re going to be eliminated right away. We hear this a lot on these kinds of shows and most of the time we get it; but in a celebrity-focused show where nothing monetarily is at stake? It makes no sense. Are these people’s prides and senses of self-worth that inextricably linked to being eliminated early from a reality show?
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Someone in the Bear Trap trips a booby trap. Grylls says, “There’s someone in the shovel catch.”
Sleeper Star: It goes without saying that Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen is the most glib and self-deprecating of the group. But he is also tougher than he seems.
Most Pilot-y Line: We’ve already talked about the phony-seeming shots of dangerous wildlife. But we also think the pacing of the show is way off, likely slowed down by scenes of Grylls whispering to the camera as he supposedly tracks celebrities.
Our Call: SKIP IT. Celebrity Bear Hunt‘s gameplay is a bit confusing, and it would be just fine as a celebrity survival competition without the presence of Bear Grylls, who just seems to slow things down.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
