A floating drone shot reveals a snow-blanketed forest next to rushing water. The icy chill can almost be felt through the screen, and it is clear that we are very much out in the wilderness. A man in a fluffy fur hat and big parka stands amongst trees equally fluffy from fresh snow. After seventy-eight days alone in northern Labrador, Juan Pablo Quiñonez is being interviewed about how emotional it has been to witness the slow march of winter freezing over the lake near his hand-constructed shelter. His voice cracks with emotion as he describes his goal of making it long enough to step out onto the ice as well as his longing to reunite with his partner. But she’s there, surprising him in the cold for the cameras, because he’s outlasted nine other contestants to win half a million dollars on a reality show that pits humans against both nature and one another in a test of endurance.
Forget about Survivorman, Naked and Afraid, or even the over-two-decades-old Survivor. Manitoban Quiñonez is a winner of the true heavy hitter of the genre, the one that is more popular than almost 99 percent of all reality shows in Canada, the “Olympics” of wilderness endurance: Alone. Ostensibly the ultimate wilderness survival challenge, History channel’s Alone allows contestants basic supplies and ten personal items, gives them cameras with which to record themselves, sends them out into the wilderness (since its premiere in 2015, seven of Alone ’s nine seasons have been filmed in Canada), and hopes for the best. Each person has a satellite phone which they can use to “tap out” if they can’t take it anymore, but whoever is the last one standing wins half a million dollars and bragging rights that come from being able to rely on skills so few of us seem to have. This isn’t sit-around-the-fire camping; this is survival.
