The Real Reason Bear Grylls Got Fired From Man Vs. Wild

Bear Grylls, the popular survival man, first became famous on his hit TV series "Man vs. Wild" where he taught viewers how to survive in harsh climates and difficult situations. Even before the show, Grylls showed his metal as a talented survivalist when climbing Mount Everest at only 23 and serving for three years as a paratrooper in the United Kingdom's special forces. However, despite Grylls being a knowledgeable host and the show becoming quite successful worldwide, Grylls was fired by Discovery in 2012, per Reuters.

While it is easy to jump to interesting theories on why the survivalist was fired, the real reason appears to be quite simple. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it was all about a contract dispute. Discovery wanted Grylls to appear in two new series that the survivalist did not want to work on. Because an agreement couldn't be reached between the two parties, Discovery ended up canceling the contract entirely. The effect of this was also the canceling of all upcoming seasons of "Man vs. Wild."

Although the TV network and celebrity were unable to come to a contractual agreement concerning the two new unannounced shows, Bear Grylls seems to have been upset by the cancelation of his popular "Man vs. Wild" series. The series was quite successful and episodes continue to be rated highly by viewers even after the 2007 controversy where an ex-employee revealed that Grylls actually slept in hotels and often accepted help from his crew.

Regarding the cancelation, a representative for the survivalist spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and said that Grylls' "goal has always been to make life-empowering shows for his many fans around the globe" and that he "[Disagreed] with Discovery's decision to terminate current productions." In the same statement, the spokesperson also hinted that this wouldn't be the last time we'd see Bear Grylls on our television screens.

Despite the dispute, it seems that there isn't bad blood between Discovery and Grylls as the two have worked together a few times since the star was fired in 2012.

After the termination of the contract between Bear Grylls and Discovery, for a while, it seemed that the survivalist had removed himself from the limelight (at least in the United States). However, there are a few reasons why we don't hear from Bear Grylls anymore, and the main one is that even though he has hosted new survival shows, they've run on smaller networks — primarily in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the celebrity survivalist has kept himself busy with other projects including writing a series of children's books, running a survival school, and attending events as a motivational speaker.

In recent years, Grylls also appeared in a choose-your-own-path show on Netflix called "You vs. Wild". This new style of media allowed viewers to make Grylls' survival choices for him, turning the TV-watching experience into a more video-game-style form of interactive entertainment. Although "You vs. Wild" has not yet been confirmed for a second season as of this writing, Grylls also appeared in another Netflix interactive show in 2021 called "Animals on the Loose," in which multiple animals escape enclosures and you help Grylls make the right decisions to recapture them.