Naked And Afraid: A Costa Rican Snake Encounter Almost Cost A Producer His Life
Discovery's "Naked and Afraid" is easily one of the most harrowing shows on television. With only a microphone, one rudimentary tool, and their wits, two contestants try to survive in the remote wilderness for 21 days. The show is just as challenging to work on as it is to participate in, and before the contestants are dropped in the farthest reaches of Madagascar, Malaysia, or Mexico, the intrepid staff must explore the regions on their own, even if it means contending with unforgiving landscapes or fearsome creatures.
In March 2013, "Naked and Afraid" producer Steve Rankin was location scouting in the jungles of Costa Rica when he had a deadly run-in with a venomous fer-de-lance snake. As Rankin and the crew climbed over a fallen tree, his foot landed in the jaws of the snake. "It was quite a sharp pain. It's like being stabbed," Rankin recalled on the "Naked After Dark" behind-the-scenes special. "But then the real pain started in the time afterwards, when the venom started to spread up my leg."
Rankin had to seek out a doctor fast — no easy task in the depths of the jungle. "We were in the middle of nowhere," Rankin continued. "... We had to hike for about 20 minutes through some really thick jungle out to a trail." His team crafted a makeshift stretcher out of some branches and took him to a helicopter, which flew him to the nearest hospital.
The snake bite required five surgeries to repair
Even after arriving at the hospital, Steve Rankin wasn't out of the woods. The venom had traveled up his leg, causing it to swell, in his words, "like a quarterback's leg." He continued, "That's when the doctor first noticed that the flesh in my foot was rotting." Indeed, the "Naked After Dark" segment includes some gruesome footage of Rankin's foot swollen and mangled (squeamish viewers may want to pass). The entire ordeal required five surgeries on Rankin's leg and foot.
As he explained, it wasn't until after the first surgery that Rankin fully discovered the gravity of the injury: "The doctor said, 'Well, it's good news. We've saved your foot.' And I said, 'I wasn't even aware I was gonna lose it.' And he said, 'Oh, yeah, for sure.'"
The attack became "Naked and Afraid" lore, and in an episode a few months later, survivalist Shane Lewis discovered another fer-de-lance snake, this time killing it. "It's the same snake that bit our executive producer Steve," Lewis said in the episode, "and I'm gonna kill him." After stabbing the snake with a heavy stick, Lewis picked up the limp carcass triumphantly, signing off with a hearty "Tell Steve I said hi."
Season 15 of "Naked and Afraid" premiered in February 2023. "Naked and Afraid" is streaming on Hulu.