Cody Lundin posted this on facebook | The Woodsman Hut | Forums

Netflix should do a show with him

HI Campers!
I have received hundreds of questions over the months from people wondering “when” or “if” I will appear again on television. In regards to the “if”, the answer is yes. Regarding the “when”, it’s complicated and requires explanation. I have turned down eight TV “survival” shows in the past seven months. This is not unusual behavior for me as I had turned down several TV opportunities before Dual Survival. Unfortunately, it’s not difficult to get on TV in the survival genre for nearly anyone who appears to be interested in the subject, qualified or not.

The difficulty lies in appearing on a program that doesn’t compromise personal integrity, professional reputation and credibility, self-respect, the survival skills profession itself and of course safety and health. In essence, the difficulty lies in being on a survival show that’s still interested in teaching survival skills. As my main livelihood is teaching survival at my Aboriginal Living Skills School, now in its 25 year, I care about context and quality.

Industry Change and Failure to Properly Vet Hosts:
Part of this challenge lies in the fact that the focus of the cable television industry over the past few years has drastically changed. It has become more interested in promoting sensationalistic, scripted so called “reality shows” rather than quality educational entertainment. A symptom of this involves networks hiring people to portray a profession in which they have little or no experience such as passing people off as actual scientists when they are simply actors.
To illustrate the point, I was the first person hired for Dual Survival in 2009. At that time, I told a Discovery Channel executive that I was proud to work for the network. I felt they stood for quality in a sea of TV garbage, and I was excited to not only entertain viewers, but to educate them in a realm where quality and proper context meant the difference between living and dying. Can anyone imagine me saying that now?

Unprofessional and Unethical Behavior:
Many of you know part of the unfortunate story about how Original Media and Discovery Channel chose to handle my firing from Dual Survival. Other professionals in the entertainment industry have told me that their behavior was unprecedented. (Lucky me.) While untypical in its scope and depravity, unprofessionalism is not limited to my situation. Many of my peers have told me their stories about being lied to, mistreated, and ripped off by production companies and networks. Some have refused to talk with production companies who continually beg them to find people for survival programming. Once bitten, twice shy.

Lack of Quality and Industry Pressure for Ratings:
Networks will run a program into the ground for money, quality be damned. This is business and expected. What’s not expected, at least for the TV host involved in the profession being portrayed, is they will be asked to stray further and further from whatever professional ideals they had to “keep ratings up” and to keep their TV job. The “keep ratings up” people are not concerned with the professional reputation of the host. They have their own professional reputations at stake which is based upon keeping the ratings up, whatever the cost.

Lack of Context and Jumping the Shark:
No one in positions of leadership for Dual Survival with the network or the production company had any outdoor survival skills experience. Ill conceived, poorly scripted TV antics can later play hell with a TV hosts credibility and professional reputation...for the rest of their life. Assuming the host had a professional reputation to begin with, it is very hard to repair trust with potential clients, especially when the profession involves personal safety. Credibility is everything.
I had fears about this with Dual Survival from the beginning as there are only so many things two guys can do in the woods before story lines get out of context, stale, dangerous to the viewer and/or flat out boring. There is a reason that Will Ferrell jumped out of an airplane with Bear Grylls. It’s the same reason that Fonzie jumped the shark on Happy Days. In the proper context, and with the right idea, there is no reason to repeat content.

All of these variables aside, I am open to working with traditional networks to do another TV survival show. In the meantime, traditional networks are no longer required to produce and distribute original programming. It’s a brave new world in television, and the dawn is just beginning…thank you all for your continued support!
Stay safe and true! Cody