Aye, I didn't dared to disturb that arguing though I got quite some good info on the matter at hand and a lot more then I asked for.
Awesome, BF is worth visiting all the time
Glad you think so Short. Most people recognize that these shows do provide a valuable function of tweaking the interest of a much broader interest in the outdoors than normal. Even if the information presented isn't quite spot on, it may get you thinking about something and spurn you to research the proper way or perhaps better yet think about how you could avoid that situation in the first place. Again, if you stay away from taking the information presented literally and think about the ideas presented as ways to jury-rig solutions then the information presented in most of these shows can be quite valuable.
Do realize that some shows are very much geared towards drama and social group interactions while others are presented to provide more information. Ray Mear's programs is more on the education value and presented much like a nature documentation but demonstrating survival skills. Ray's program emphasis showing the method and application from a historical and pratical standpoint. Ray doesn't pretend that his is in some kind of survival situation. Its more of a standard documentary style.
Suvivorman was a revolutionary idea when it first came out. Les Stroud would generate some kind of survival scenario (one can always nitpick the scenario in any of these shows) and basically isolate himself for 5-7 days. He would go out into the situation with a limited set of gear that a lost day hiker or something like that might have and then he would demonstrate how to survive and find your way back to safety or at least how to call for help. As far as I know, Les is very unique (there have been one or two less succesful folks who copied his general formula - e.g. Alone in the Wild) in that he geniuninely went out alone. He does all the camera work himself and documents his process as it occurs and he encounters it. Of course, they have to spice up the footage with dramatic music and he tends to dramatize something intentionally - like making things look more difficult than they are for him (even though he is well capable of the method, he stometimes tries to portray something like an inexperienced person might). Les' information is often excellent. But, for many people they find it boring and they ironically criticize him for his lack of success at a lot of things like being able to catch fish or other food items on demand. Les often goes hungry without anything to eat for several days. He's sometimes forced to drink bad water sources. The guy must have been exposed to every parasite imaginable and I'm sure he goes through a full regime of shots before and after filming an episode. Anyhow, he has some awesome skills and when you think about the fact that he also spends all that time not only lugging camera gear, but positioning the cameras at different angles to catch himself in action, then his achievements are really quite remarkable.
The Man Vs Wild; Man, Woman, Wild; Dual Survival or sort of hybrids of the Les and Ray Mears documentaries. Man vs Wild - Bear accentuates the drama. Where Les is sometimes boring, Bear is amped up like a monkey on meth. Much of what he does placates to shock value and extremes of survival. Every episode he eats something disgusting, in part to show you what can be eaten, but mostly to show you that he is a crazy bugger who will ingest anything. He scales rock faces and jumps into waterfalls sans gear and without reservation. People who criticize show are often taken aback at the often unnecessary risks taken to do the simplest of things. There was also a big scandal during his first year of filming where the events were portrayed as 'real' but later revealed that he was only shooting on sight and was not sleeping in shelter but rather staying at hotels. He has a full camera crew with him and they provide him a lot of safety support that allows him to take the risks he does whereas it would be insane for him to do so alone. This why this show is so disfavored in the community. However, if you like watching people eat gross things and jumping around unheaded, then it is a good watch. I view a lot of advice on this one as suspect.
Duel Survivor and Man, Woman Wild. Both these shows are more tamed and educational versions of Man Vs Wild. The schtick, or hook, of these shows is that there are two people with two different opinions about what to do in the survival situation. Dual survivor pits Cody and Dave together, both of them pitched as different types of survival experts with different approaches to a situation. The show format has a lot of potential, but the producers were clearly trying to go for a 'human drama' effect and the editing and/or acting makes it look like they are constantly arguing with one another about how to proceed. This was really bad in the first couple of episodes and it was later toned down in subsequent shows. While the Duel Survivor experts tend to take less dramatic overt risks as Bear, the show places them in overly fantastic survival scenarios to up the drama factor. They often find themselves having to scale ledges and cliffs or expose themselves to extreme temperature changes in this pursuit. I think this tends to take away a lot from basic education factor of the show. Note, Les was bad for this as well as his show started to put him in more and more extreme environments as his popularity increased. Duel survivor does try to focus on basic skills factors like fire building, shelter craft, navigation, food/water. They often have little fact segways that are really informative. They are known for 'faking' the capturing of animals in their show and artifically shoot higher success rates than a person would normally achieve when it comes to hunting for food.
Man, woman, wild - has a husband and wife. Mike Hawk is a legitimate survival expert. His wife is hot (thats part of the schtick) and while she isn't a girly girl, she sort of learns the techniques from her husband as he demonstrates it. Its a variation on the theme of Dual Survivor, but the combo of teacher/student is more refreshing. Mike Hawk sometimes has to cajole his wife into doing certain things, but his patient demonstration of skills and our ability to witness her attempts at them give us some realistic ideas of how hard an activity as being portrayed really is. The show has many good merits to it. Best of all, there are 2 or 3 episodes in my recollection where they had to cut the epidode short and call in the rescue team because things just weren't going to well for them. Mike then basically looks into the camera and says something to the effect of 'nature won this time, sometimes you just can't given the circumstances you are under'. I have lot of respect for that and it is true. Sometimes you will have your ass handed to you, whether you are an export or not.
Reality shows - there are many new reality shows and I have not kept tabs with any of them. I place The Colony in this category, but you also have ManTracker and others - there are also a tonne of Homesteader kind of shows where families are or contestants are placed in a situation with a set of rules and they have to make due. These things are typically total crap when it comes to actual content. The shows are set up to emphasis person/person drama and group dynamics and they don't really care about realism of the survival. They often use artificial ploys to pit people against one another and audience love this, just like they love how in 'survivor' or 'big brother' people get really nasty behind each others backs and gossip about one another. Take these shows for a grain of salt. They don't present much realistic information nor do they present realistic group dynamics either.
on a serious note, there has to be a couple diehards out there that 'chose' that path and are perfectly sane.. 
