Survive the Raft is Discovery Channel’s newest reality offering, and Celeb Secrets is giving you the scoop on what to expect straight from the show’s host, Nate Boyer.
For those who don’t know, the new series follows nine contestants as they set sail for twenty-one days combating both physical and mental challenges. The nine-episode assemblage depicts contestants from diverse backgrounds as they navigate various circumstances to achieve the same end goal. The experiment itself? To see if people from different walks of life can put aside their differences and work together.
The entire series is based on a behavioral study done by Mexican anthropologist Santiago Genovés in 1973. He placed multiple people on a raft for a 101-day voyage to see how well these individuals would work together. Discovery created a replica of this raft – Acali II – to recreate this experiment.
Will these nine contestants be able to cast away their differences and work together on the Acali II over the course of twenty-one days? You’ll have to tune in to find out.
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“It was very unique. I was surprised, and I was there every day,” host Nate Boyer tells Celeb Secrets exclusively in a virtual interview. “That’s how real and raw this show really is. These people are honest and genuine and real, and nothing ever felt contrived from them. The crew out there on the boat — they’re special people — and they all brought something different to the table, and they all taught me something and kinda brought these very unique backgrounds and experiences and they weren’t afraid to show that. They weren’t afraid to be themselves. They had to be.”
“In order to stay on that raft and to make it through, you gotta be vulnerable and you gotta be willing to sacrifice quite a bit and let go of things you feel are super important to you to understand something different may be important to somebody else. All that stuff is what makes this show different and special. I was really shocked. I had my own preconceived notion, and it was challenged every day,” he continues.
Boyer’s background has taken him through many walks of life. From a United States Army Green Beret to an NFL player to now a reality television host, the Oak Ridge, Tennessee native is up for any challenge and even had his own takeaway.
“I was in the army prior, and I was playing professional football for a little while,” he shares. “Being in these very diverse backgrounds and locker rooms, sorta being forced to work together with people from different perspectives and walks of life towards a common goal, to win a football game, to be successful on the battlefield, and all of these different things made sense for what this show is all about. It’s bringing together different perspectives from different walks of life.”
“Their locker room is a raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They were forced to live together, work together, and survive this experience together. So I think just with my background and kind of, like I said, working with people from all walks of life and putting those differences aside, that was very much complementary to what Discovery was looking for,” he concludes.
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The biggest learning lesson for everybody? Don’t judge a book by its cover.
“It’s something we learn about in Kindergarten but it’s don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s hard not to, we’re judgmental animals. We see something, we hear something, and we make a quick judgement and assessment based off of our own survival skills. We’re not always right. We see something, we hear something and maybe we think, ‘Oh, well I know what that person’s about,’ and then you get to know them and realize how little you were actually correct. And how little you actually know about them and I think that element was truly unique and special and that’s what I loved about it most,” he says.
Survive The Raft airs Sunday nights at 9PM ET/PT on Discovery Channel. You can also stream episodes on Discovery’s website and MAX here.
