Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid has seen some crazy survival stories since it started airing eight years ago. 

The contestants give their full consent, completely aware of the show’s scary nature. Still, there are times when they have narrowly escaped death. 

Over the years, some contestants have come forward to bust the myth that the show is scripted. 

Ex-participants have shared how they encountered their worst nightmare while the production team didn’t even lend them a helping hand.

Matt Wright

Matt Wright is a survival junkie in its true sense. He is one of those contestants who can’t get enough of the show and keeps coming back to it, even making it on to our list of best episodes. 

In 2017 on Naked and Afraid XL, Matt got injured by something which he wouldn’t even have given a second thought, “a bug’. The guy has snapped a pig in half, but an insect was what got him. As soon as he got bitten, he developed an infection.

When you roam in the jungle without clothes, bug bites come with the territory. But people forget that insects at these exotic locations are more dangerous than they look. 

Similarly, in Wright’s case, it was no ordinary infection. It was a flesh-eating bacteria. Visible to the naked eye, it was clear that Matt’s foot flesh was being eaten away.

The leg also gave out, and he prepared mentally to eventually lose it. He did get to the hospital just in time, and it was treated urgently. 

The doctors said there was no doubt his leg had to be taken off if more time had passed. He later told how this was one of the scariest moment of his life:

“The feeling of losing my stronghold on the jungle and having to leave all of my survivalists, it was just the worst feeling I could have imagined, besides the fact that I thought I might lose my foot, leg, or life”.

Matt has since found love on the show, so we’re happy he’s alright.

Shane Lewis

Shane Lewis was more hurt by how the creators of the long-running Discovery Channel show portrayed his injury. 

He had broken three toes even before the filming started. The producers made it look like he got hurt during the challenge in which he happened to be underperforming (due to being injured beforehand, of course). 

The show only mentioned it once that he had been hurt, but they never talked about breaking three toes. He didn’t even receive due medical care to make him look like someone who is not giving his best shot just for the ratings.

He completely flunked the challenge and only talked about its reason after coming out of the show.