Discovery Channel Discovers Gays on The Alaska Experiment

UPDATE: It's a 3 part series, airing Tuesdays April 14, 21 & 28 at 9 p.m. in Alaska.
UPDATE 2: Ttsusena Lake is 64 miles NE of the town of Talkeetna, according to an anonymous comment.
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The Discovery Channel is turning last year's "The Alaska Experiment" into a new eight-part series, and one of the participants is an out gay man, a first for Discovery.

"Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment" strands nine strangers together in the Alaskan wilderness with three days worth of water, a map, a compass and instructions to find their way back to civilization before the harsh winter sets in.

The new cast members are from "all different walks of life." The gay volunteer is Jake Nodar, a thirty-year-old horse trainer and avid hiker from Maryland.

"For me personally, I've always found Alaska to be appealing," said Jake in an interview with AfterElton. "I completely stumbled upon this, just complete fluke kind of thing, and being openly gay, I found it to be a very cool opportunity to go and represent."

The series was filmed in September 2008. After a three-day crash course in basic survival skills, including how to shoot a gun, skin an animal and start a fire without matches, the volunteers were flown to "Ttsusena Lake" in the rugged Alaskan interior, described by Discovery as "one of the most inhospitable terrains on earth."

Where is "Ttsusena" Lake? Could they mean Tustumena Lake on the Kenai Peninsula?

"Over the course of their monthlong journey, the volunteers put their newfound skills to the test, hunting, fishing, foraging for food and building makeshift shelters," said the press release. "They faced plummeting temperatures and diminishing daylight hours. Their only lifeline was a GPS beacon they could activate if their lives were in danger or if they wanted to be evacuated."

"Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment" will debut in April during Discovery's Alaska Week.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Ttsusena Lake is only 64 miles NE of Talkeetna. So the story is already tainted when they say it is 200 miles from anywhere.It is just north of the Sustina River. These shows are a real farce. hey need to just show a few Alaskans as a control to make these people look really stupid. I have spent 30 years hunting, fishing and river rafting up here. I have spent nights in a tent when it was as cold as -30 (not a heated tent either)

E. Ross said...

Thanks for the location, Anon. Remember, they only had *3 days* of training. The goal is to challenge them, not kill them.

Anonymous said...

Of course by the date of this post you can see that my comments will be Post Show.

I stumbled upon this program late at night surfing tv. The was just being advertise as a (starting) new show. I had seen the last part of the previous season where they lived in a cabin though the winter.

I set this up to tape weekly and did not watch the first show until several days after the first airing.

After the first viewing I was HOOKED ! !

The people in this program were not professional hikers, survivalist. Not paid a damn thing to go out there with just the minium of survival knowledge blew me away

I would like see a show like this again.

Wayne C

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