Naked and afraid: TV's most 'insane' show

This cheeky promo for Naked and Afraid season finale.

Australian Ky Furneaux and fellow Naked and Afraid contestant Billy Berger both suitably blurred. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

Furneaux was forced to create clothes out of leaves and available materials. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

IT IS widely described as the most "insane" show on television.

Contestants on the Discovery Channel's Naked and Afraid are thrown nude into the jungle with a member of the opposite sex for 21 days.

They get nothing from producers. No food. No water. No help. Definitely no clothes. All competitors can bring is a personal item of their choice and the desperate need to survive.

And we mean desperate.

One contestant was left so hungry she used her, ahem, ladyparts, to catch fish between her legs in a swamp.

"We were very hungry and needed fish for our survival," the imaginative Kellie Nightlinger, 38, explained to the New York Daily News.

"We needed something with protein and because the water was so muddy, traditional fishing methods wouldn't work, so I had to improvise, adapt and overcome."

A stint on the show is the ultimate experience for a survivalist - someone who challenges themselves by testing their ability to live in the wild.

Most contestants, including Australian stuntwoman Ky Furneaux, do it without having to fish with their genitalia.

But as Furneaux told news.com.au, they experience incredible ordeals.

Into the wild

The contestants trawl through the swamps. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

During her time in the Louisiana wetlands, Furneaux developed infected holes in her feet.

Yes, holes. She still has big, knotted scars, seven months after filming. She got trench foot too. That didn't help.

"There were thorns under the water that stuck into our feet," she said. "The holes from that then got infected and didn't heal because they were submerged in wet dirty water for 21 days."

They were the least of her concerns at the time, given she was living, naked, in a place infested with alligators and brimming with poison ivy and venomous cottonmouth snakes.

"To be waist deep in that water and see this massive (alligator) head just surface ... It was like, all right, wow, time to move quietly."

Some of the nasty denizens of the Louisiana swampland. Picture: ThinkStock Source: ThinkStock

It was bitterly cold. She and fellow contestant Billy Berger had to drink boiled swamp water, usually from the patch they urinated in. They were starved for days on end, snacking on the occasional mouthful of snake meat. Just once were they lucky enough to eat a nutria, a large, stout-bodied rodent, and their shelter and fire was wiped out at least four times and had to be started from scratch.

And then we haven't even gotten to the awkwardness of hanging out with a member of the opposite sex with your genitalia exposed, or having your bottom broadcast to 3.6 million Americans.

Furneaux said she had to keep calm and pretend she wasn't naked - and it's not like there was sexual tension, she added. "It's the most unsexy experience you could ever put yourself in. You are slowly dying. Sometimes you're quite rapidly dying. All you're thinking about is where you're going to get your next mouthful of water from, and how not to freeze."

Too unreal to be real?

Bear Grylls was accused of misleading viewers of his Channel 4 show, Born Survivor, in 2008. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

Not everyone's sold on the show. Outback survival specialist Bob Cooper reckons it's too unreal to be real.

He points out that when you're stranded in the bush, you don't have a medical team on call if you do get seriously stuck.

In fact, he said, one of the biggest misconceptions of people stranded in the outback is that help is just around the corner.

"It's disgusting. It's ridiculous," said Cooper, who learned how to live off the land from traditional owners. "It's exploiting people as well. It's just entertainment. It's not realistic at all. It's awful."

But it all felt very real to Furneaux.

Some people are jaded about reality TV shows because they are often proven to be scripted, she said. In 2008, a program consultant famously revealed that scenes of an "abandoned" Bear Grylls in adventure show Man Vs Wild were staged.

Grylls slept at a motel that night.

Naked and Afraid was nothing like that, Furneaux said. "There was no one there doing my hair and make up," she said.

The crew filmed and monitored them, but otherwise they were on their own. It was an experience of a lifetime, according to Furneaux, where she pushed herself to her endpoint and then kept going.

"I lived through it. I know what it was," said Furneaux, who is next month releasing the book Girl's Own Survival Guide: How To Deal With The Unexpected. "I know what I achieved.

"There is nothing like this challenge," she said.

This reporter: Daniel.Piotrowski@news.com.au

Continue the conversation on Twitter: @drpiotrowski | @kyfurneaux | @newscomauHQ

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