DISCOVERY CHANNEL TO AIR RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS SPECIAL FEATURING PRESIDENT OBAMA, ACROSS ASIA PACIFIC

Press release

11 December, 2015 – Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific today announced it will be airing RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS featuring President Barack Obama.  This special, acquired from Electus International and Bear Grylls Ventures, features President Obama trekking through the Alaskan wilderness with Bear Grylls while on a visit to observe the effects of climate change on the area.  It is scheduled to air on Discovery Channel across Asia Pacific from 18 December at 10pm, immediately after its premiere in the US on the evening of 17 December.

Discovery Channel will also be premiering the second season of RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS on 5 January 2016, at 9pm(PH).  This season follows Bear Grylls as he takes Hollywood’s biggest celebrities – including stars such as Kate Winslet, Kate Hudson, Michelle Rodriguez, Ed Helms, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Michael B. Jordan, James Marsden and Drew Brees – on a one-on-one adventure that tests their survival skills and pushes their mental and physical boundaries. From the Nevada Desert to the Italian Alps to the Panama Jungle, Grylls and each celebrity push both their minds and bodies to the limit in these extreme environments to successfully complete their journey.

BEAR GRYLLS PUSHES ORDINARY PEOPLE TO THEIR BREAKING POINT

Press release

The world’s best-known adventurer is set to face his toughest challenge yet in BEAR GRYLLS: BREAKING POINT, a new six-part series for Discovery Channel. The series follows Bear as he returns to the wilderness - but this time, he’s not alone. In each episode, the extreme survivalist will instead be joined by some very unlikely companions: two people on a mission to overcome debilitating phobias that have haunted their daily lives. Plagued by their anxieties, they are determined to confront their fears, Bear Grylls style.

Premiering on Discovery Channel on May 26 at 9:00 p.m., Bear will take his terrified companions on a meticulously-planned three-day expedition into the wild landscapes of Mexico and Italy. Designed to expose them to the fears that rule their lives, Bear will test their resolve as he brings them to their Breaking Point – and beyond. And Bear himself is seen in a new light – as an advisor, cheerleader, confidant and buddy – that leads him into unchartered psychological and emotional territory.

Heights, germs, spiders and rats are just some of the phobias Bear’s companions struggle to live with on a daily basis – but they are unavoidable in some of the world’s harshest terrains. As Bear’s survival skills are put to the ultimate test, he vows to keep them out of danger – and send them home in one piece. Bear wants to show these people that they hold strength in their vulnerability, that the wilderness can transform their lives. If they can conquer this, he believes, they can conquer anything.

Bear’s buddies:

• Water. Bear meets two men who are terrified of water after suffering trauma in their lives, and helps them to confront their fears at some of the world’s deepest canyons and highest waterfalls. 
• The OCD Sufferer. Terrified of any contact with blood or germs, an OCD sufferer tests his trust in Bear when he must face a muddy forest canyon, eat raw meat and drink animal blood.
• Afraid of Heights. Our heights sufferers have to face their fears head-on when they are dropped at the bottom of a mountain and the only way is up. After reaching the summit, Bear expects them to heli-hop through the Dolomite Mountains to another peak, where a terrifying high-wire challenge awaits. 
• The Claustrophobics. Bear meets two men who struggle to conduct normal lives after traumatic events gave them a life-long terror of enclosed spaces. In a bid to face their demons head-on, Bear takes them through a massive network of caves.

 

Photo courtesy of Discovery Channel

• Rats and Spiders. Haunted by the idea of these scuttling creatures at their homes and workplaces, two family men follow Bear into terrain perfect for hosting super-sized versions of the very thing they would normally run screaming from.
• The Picky Eater. Food allergies and fad diets are not much use when it comes to surviving in the wild with a man boasting an infamously unorthodox palate. A father of two embarks on a journey with Bear that threatens to take his strict diet to breaking point.
• Trees. Bear meets a mother who is so scared of trees she can’t even take her son to the park. Determined to help her tackle a phobia that has blighted her entire life, Bear takes her to the middle of the Mexican jungle, where she must confront the very trees she is most afraid of.
• Insects. After witnessing his mother suffer a terrible allergic reaction to an insect sting, Bear helps a man face his fear of insects with an emotional journey into the wilderness, where insects come in far larger, more dangerous shapes and sizes than he could have previously imagined.

BEAR GRYLLS: BREAKING POINT demonstrates that anyone can become an adventurer, no matter how inexperienced or terrified they are, and that with the right training and support, the wilderness is a place not just to survive, but to thrive.

SOME OF HOLLYWOOD’S A-LISTERS ARE RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS!

Press release

- Featuring Zac Efron, Ben Stiller, Channing Tatum, Tom Arnold, Deion Sanders

and Tamron Hall -

- Vote for your favourite celebrity and catch the highest-voted episode during a special Valentine’s Day preview -

 

Photo courtesy of Discovery

Private jets, after parties, sparkling swag bags and a coterie of personal assistants, publicists, agents and managers. Why would anyone trade this for two days of roughing it in the wilderness? In RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS, the famed adventurer and survivalist will take six celebrities into wild and remote locations for a journey of a lifetime. RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS premieres every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m., starting February 17. Discovery Channel is available nationwide in the Philippines on every major cable, DTH, and local provincial operators.

The celebrities who will be teamed up with Bear in their own stand-alone episodes are Zac Efron, Ben Stiller, Channing Tatum, Tom Arnold, NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, and anchor Tamron Hall. They will each take on the challenge of surviving the wild in an action-packed 48-hour adventure with Bear. Together, they will endure the harsh wilderness and run a high-stakes gauntlet of mental and physical obstacles, with a reward of spiritual renewal waiting at each remote extraction point. From skydiving into the Catskill Mountains, to rappelling down the cliffs of Utah, to battling torrential wind and rain in Scotland, Bear and each of them will have to push both their minds and bodies to the limit.

Join Bear and the celebrities as they step out of their comfort zones and embark on their individual high-octane, action-filled empowering journeys on each hour-long episode.

Catch a sneak preview of the series with a special airing of one of the episodes. Which one? You can help decide! Who would you like to spend Valentine’s Day with (on television, that is)? Vote for your favourite celebrity from RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS and Discovery Channel will air the highest-voted episode as a Valentine’s Day preview on Saturday, February 14 at 9:00 p.m. Voting is from January 30 through February 8, on http://www.discoverychannelasia.com/.

RUNNING WILD WITH BEAR GRYLLS encores every Wednesday at 2:00 p.m., Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 9:00 p.m.