What Alone Doesn't Tell You About Their Medical Checks

The contestants on History's hit series "Alone" undergo isolation in extreme wilderness settings to see who will win by outlasting the others. Even for experienced survivalists, the conditions of the show can be tough, leading to one "Alone" contestant in Season 2 dropping out after only six hours. However, others have lasted up to 100 days, and those who decide to stay often have to suffer through the effects of loneliness, starvation, and freezing temperatures. So, what do the show's producers do to make all this safe? The answer is med checks.

The purpose of these check-ups is to ensure contestant safety and pull anyone who's severely injured or has lost too much body fat. While these med checks are typically shown a few times in a season when they're deciding whether or not to remove a contestant, there's a lot about them that you may not know. According to Shawn Witt — the co-president of Leftfield Pictures (the company that produces the show) — in an interview with Reality Blurred, the decision to pull a contestant is never made "without the consultations of doctors and attorneys." Furthermore, Witt explained that the med checks are done in a way that minimizes the contestant's contact with the outside world by not allowing the discussion to veer away from the medical check itself. This is done in order to make the feeling of isolation experienced by the contestants as real as possible without compromising their health and well-being.

Something else fans of "Alone" may not realize is that even though they aren't always shown in the show, the med checks happen regularly throughout the season. According to Sam Larson — Season 1 contestant and Season 5 winner — on the Alonetv forum of Reddit, med checks typically last around 20 to 30 minutes and take place once "​every 7 to 14 days or so."

The idea of regular med checks was also backed up by Shawn Witt who told Reality Blurred that the "Alone" crew does checks on all the contestants about once a week. However, these examinations become more frequent the longer the contestants last and can even occur as often as once every three days. Witt also noted that if they believe one contestant isn't doing well and that they need to increase the frequency of med checks for that person, they also increase the frequency for everyone else.

Additionally, the med checks don't end once the show is over. In fact, the "Alone" crew takes aftercare very seriously, and all contestants receive one final check-up before they return home. This is one of the most important things that happens to "Alone" contestants once they leave the show and ensures that they're healthy (both mentally and physically) before returning to their normal lives.