Outdoor survival expert Bear Grylls is returning to TV with a new show, Running Wild With Bear Grylls, in which he takes celebrities on mini-adventures. Featuring guests Channing Tatum, Zac Efron, Ben Stiller, Deion Sanders, Tom Arnold, and Tamron Hall, Grylls travels to some of the wildest wilderness on the planet for a 48-hour adventure.
OHSOGRAY talked with Grylls about his global exploits and his new show.
Of all the places you’ve been, and you’ve been all over the world, what’s the place that you connect with the most?
Home. I think what a lifetime of doing this has taught me is – it’s taught me two things: I do love it. I love the adventure. I love being out there. It’s where I come alive. It’s where I perform at my best. I love the wildernesses around the world we’ve gone to. It’s such a privilege. But, going away a lot has also taught me the value of home. I say it really genuinely; it’s the greatest driving force always for me when I’m up a mountain or in a difficult jungle. It’s the shining light making me work hard and get out of there in one piece. I’ve got a lovely family, three young boys…. The real lesson of going away is home is good.
Have you had a chance to take your boys on any adventures?
I get to do that the rest of the year when we don’t have TV cameras around us. They love it. Where I am right now, I’m looking at all three boys, stark naked in the sea in the rain. I’m sheltered under a fallen tree, trying to keep out of the rain talking to you. So they love it. They live it. It’s in their DNA for sure.
Has there been any one place that was so incredibly difficult that you have no desire to ever go back?
Probably the black swamps of Sumatra where the tsunami hit in 2001 [that] decimated a big part of the island. [It was] just full of this stinking, black, rotting swamp with all these crocodiles feeding off the 65,000 human corpses. The loss of lives in that disaster and the disease-ridden, crocodile-filled, snake-filled place…. Yeah, I’m not going to hurry back to that one.
I’m sure seeing things like that gives you a new perspective on your life, doesn’t it?
Yeah. It’s the same deal. Work hard. Work fast. Get home. Get out of there in one piece.
Was there any guest you wanted to get for this season of the show but turned you guys down?
We wanted to take Kristen Wiig, who was all on for it but sadly got injured a couple days before. That was sad. But, she’s keen to do it when she’s better. Yeah, I think Obama turned us down, which was a shame. I think his scheduling was hard. [Laughs] But beyond that, no, we got really lucky early on. We got the main people we really wanted. We went for it, so we didn’t have to cast a net wide at all, which was lucky.
Running Wild With Bear Grylls premieres July 28th at 8/7c on NBC.