Naked and Afraid’s latest survivalists are put to the test in South Africa’s Limpopo province, where a scorched, apocalyptic wasteland becomes the backdrop for the franchise’s toughest challenge yet.
The series spin-off, which premieres on Wednesday, 24 September, at 20:05 CAT on Discovery Channel Africa (DStv channel 121), features twelve battle-tested survivalists dropped into forgotten corners of Limpopo. Spanning a ghost town, cemetery, vehicle junkyard, and even a mine shaft, these long-abandoned landscapes are rife with hidden dangers and scarce resources, forcing contestants to scavenge ruins to survive.
Limpopo is South Africa’s 5th largest province by land area and with multiple game reserves in the area. This leaves contestants with wide territory to navigate while enduring some of the country’s most extreme weather conditions. The province experiences a hot, semi -arid climate with distinct dry and wet seasons and summer temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, extreme heat and drought pose constant threats.
The region is also home to apex predators such as lions, leopards, elephants, hyenas, hippos, and snakes including the deadly black mamba. Adding to the challenge are man-made hazards such as rusted metal and broken glass scattered across the terrain.
Naked and Afraid: Apocalypse represents a significant departure from previous iterations of the franchise by incorporating this unforgiving South African environment and diverse wildlife. Contestants are split up into four teams and must attempt to survive for 35 days with only basic tools, no food, no water, and no clothing. In a franchise first, survivalists will not be extracted at the end of their challenge. Instead, they must escape the wasteland and find their own way back to civilization, adding another layer of difficulty to their survival experience.
The cast features veterans of the franchise, Steven Lee Hall Jr., Amber Hargrove, and Waz Addy, alongside newcomers Miranda Adams, Teal Bulthuis, Frank Eytcheson, Wes Harper, Steven Kelly, Joseph Prouse, Kelly Roske, Russell Sage, and Alexa Towersey. Representing locations from Florida, Oklahoma, North Carolina, England, California, Hawaii, East Texas, and Australia, this season marks the first time so many international cast members have visited South Africa, offering them a unique perspective on the country’s natural beauty and challenges.
As several semi-nomadic indigenous communities have historically survived in this dynamic environment using traditional knowledge, it will be fascinating to see what survival skills the contestants employ in the face of punishing heat, relentless predators, and constant danger.
The Naked and Afraid franchise, which began in 2013, has become one of Discovery Channel’s most successful properties, with this South African-filmed installment marking the seventh spin-off of the original concept.
