Naked and Afraid Is Bringing Back 4 Past Survivalists for Their Ultimate Redemption
Contrary to what the title suggests, these people aren't afraid of anything.
At least, that's what Anthony Coppage thought the first time he did Naked and Afraid. While the survivalist was forced to tap out during his initial outing in 2018, he and three other past contestants are returning for their ultimate redemption in season 15.
"The first time I went, I'd never really been involved with the show," Anthony exclusively told E! News. "I watched a few episodes before I went. The second time going in, you realize regardless of how much you want to do and how many big moments you want to have, you do need to pace yourself. So there certainly was a lesson learned."
In fact, he said there are two ways to approach the show. "There's two modalities of thought," he explained. "One is we're going to smash this; we're going to work, we're going to do a lot of things. The other is, I'm going to get through this, I'm gonna lie around and do as little as possible to survive. And when those two clash, great TV happens or bad things happen—that's exactly what happened in the first one."
Anthony will be joined by fellow alums Daniel Graves, Andrew Shayde and Chris Wells for their two-hour special on March 12 where they'll be stranded in the African wilderness.
Unlike his expedition to Brazil opposite Suzänne Zeta in season nine, Anthony's second episode saw the show abandon its usual format of pairing members of the opposite sex together... but that's not the only change.
"Right away the very first day I knew with Suzänne that we weren't on the same page," he noted. "And at the same point, the first day [with the men] I knew, OK, we're probably going to get through this. Our views, lifestyles, all that might be different, but our mentality here is the same. We're both in it to get things done and it was refreshing to know that was the case."
Still, despite a suboptimal ending to his first adventure, Anthony remains on good terms with his former castmates.
"I talk to all of them," he confirmed. "We're in contact regularly with everybody actually. And it's a great community as Naked and Afraid as a whole, so not only am I in contact with them but others from different episodes, too."
And as fans of the show are aware—it's legit. But believe it or not, Anthony also admitted it's not a special skillset that would help you survive Naked and Afraid.
"This may upset some of the people doing the challenge, but I don't think it's about skill," he shared. "I think generally being able to build a shelter helps protect you, you need to know how to make a basic fire. But really, they're taking us places outside of our comfort zone—it's headspace."
So what's next for Anthony after being literally naked on national television?
"I would like to go back and do XL," he revealed. "That's how I top this. They're also doing a solo version... I think I could do the solo one for 21 days or XL would be my hope. And, really, I'd love to go back to Africa. It's such a special place. But the next one for me is 40 days."
"I'm just excited to see this show come out and hope the representation is as good as we felt it was," Anthony concluded. "We all did together great as a team and looking forward to seeing what everybody else thinks about that."
See for yourself when Naked and Afraid airs Sunday, March 12 on Discovery followed by the premiere of Naked and Afraid: Solo.
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