Varun Patel
‘Win the Wilderness’ is a one-of-a-kind reality television series, the likes of which you might never seen before. The British show revolves around a bunch of couples who compete against each other and try to woo the owners of an Alaskan home in the wilderness. The winners of the show get complete ownership of the house on top of the Ose Mountain! Like all reality shows, ‘Win the Wilderness’ seems to be too good to be true. Hence, viewers must have wondered whether the show is real or fake. You can quell that curiosity as we have got you covered.
Is Win the Wilderness Fake and Scripted?
Well, the short answer is no. ‘Win the Wilderness’ is real and not scripted. However, it must be noted that, like most reality shows, ‘Win the Wilderness’ takes some “creative liberty” while showing things that actually transpire. Luckily, Theo and Bee are YouTubers and active bloggers. They have shared their complete experience on their blog known as The Indie Project, which is also the title of their YouTube channel.
Firstly, Ose Mountain is very real. It is actually owned by Diane and Rena Ose. You can read more about the property here. The winners of ‘Win the Wilderness’ do actually win the Ose Mountain property as a reward. The contestants are made aware of the legal intricacies before the show begins. The winners are not allowed to sell the property for a few years after the show.
However, on the show, the Oses are depicted leaving the property for good in the sixth episode. But that is not entirely true. The show was filmed in June 2019, but the Oses did not move out completely before September that year. According to Theo and Bee, “a lot was cut, and things were definitely steered in specific directions.” They also reveal how being pescatarians, they did not consume the black bear stew shown in the first episode. Whether the two ate the stew was left open-ended in the episode.
Furthermore, the YouTuber couple also revealed how there wasn’t any time limit on the challenges. For instance, the challenge involving the couples building an overnight shelter in the wilderness was not timed at all.
Interestingly, Theo and Bee also reveal something else on their blog page. They suspect that the producers had pre-decided who was going to win the challenge in the fourth episode and advance. This could mean that the results of ‘Win the Wilderness’ are partially rigged. However, this ought to be taken with a pinch of salt as it is just Theo and Bee’s suspicion. They could be wrong. They were eliminated in that episode, after all. However, their blog posts have been more than fair and quite unbiased.
Are the Contestants of Win the Wilderness Real?
Have a look at the following video posted by Theo & Bee where they highlight the casting process of ‘Win the Wilderness’ in complete detail:
As you can see in the video, one of the producers of ‘Win the Wilderness’ posted an ad, looking for people to apply as contestants on a Facebook alternative living group that Theo & Bee are a part of. However, the application process was quite rigorous. The couple reveals that they had to participate in multiple Skype interviews with various producers, followed by taking a psychometric test to determine whether they were mentally stable. It can be presumed that the same process was followed for each of the contestants. However, Theo and Bee reveal how the producers gave the initial impression that ‘Win the Wilderness’ was going to be a documentary.
Another question that viewers would have had is whether the contestants were paid to be on the show. Theo and Bee answer the question towards the end of the video attached above. They reveal how they were paid a surprising amount of money to be on the show: 1 pound! No, we aren’t missing any zeroes. All the couples were paid a grand total of one pound to be on the show to account for a requirement in British contract law.
Apart from Theo and Bee, the other couples include the farmers from Warwickshire, Mark Warner, and Emily Padfield. Then there is Matt and Rachel, Tina and Chris, Pete and Jane, and Jerome and Laura. You can click on some of their names to go to their Instagram accounts (the others don’t have Instagram accounts). Apart from the contestants, the (former) owners of Ose Mountain, Duane, and Rena Ose are also integral members of the show. And yes, Duane’s eyepatch is real. He wears it to cover a gunshot wound from the time that his ex-wife fired a bullet at his eye from a close range!
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