INTERVIEW: Couple competes on new Discovery survival series, ‘Men Women Wild’

Jenny and Justin Cook, a married couple living in Alabama, are gearing up to become reality TV stars. Justin is an environmental scientist, and Jenny is a regional city developer. On a recent break from their jobs, rather than relaxing on the beach or heading to a tucked-away cabin in the woods, they traveled to the remote regions of cold, cold Norway and filmed their adventures for a new survival show on Discovery Channel. Men Women Wild, set to premiere Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 10 p.m., follows three sets of partners as they battle the elements and try to work as a team in the wild. Their mission is to survive for three weeks with little resources.

“Well, I know for me it just seemed like the most ultimate challenge ever,” Jenny said recently during a phone interview. “It was putting our skills to the test.”

Justin said he grew up as a woodsman and outdoorsman, and has practiced various survival skills. His time on Men Women Wild with his wife was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“I’ve got a lifetime of outdoors experience,” he’s said. “I had my doubts, and worries and anticipations about it, but it was a major undertaking. We didn’t know what it would be until we got there.”

Jenny added: “Well, we definitely knew that it was going to be grueling and hard, and that definitely put a little fear in it. And once we knew we were going to a cold weather place, that intensified that just a bit.”

Both spouses were hoping for a warm-weather climate for the televised adventure. They were surprised, to the say least, to head toward the Arctic Circle and the northern reaches of Norway. A Las Vegas couple on the show heads to Morocco, and another married couple travel to southern Mexico.

 

“I know personally I was hoping for the jungle or somewhere warm,” Jenny said. “We both thought we would be going to like a tropical area. We were hoping for something maybe like India, or South America or Malaysia, so we were absolutely surprised by the destination they had in store.”

Justin said a “semi-arid desert area” would have been nice, maybe like Utah or Colorado.

This definitely seemed like a lemonade-out-of-lemons type of situation. The demands in Norway, especially the cold weather and perpetually wet clothes, were trying and made the challenge seemingly impossible.

 

“For me, the cold weather was the hardest part,” Jenny said. “I just physically hurt, like it was so cold, and our clothes were wet most of the time.”

Justin called the wetness and cold air a combined “force.” It was always raining or about to rain, so the elements proved to be the “biggest adversary.” The Cooks needed to rely on each other for help.

“You don’t go into an endeavor like this without being confident in your partner and your abilities,” Justin said. “But until you get there, and you get a few days in, and the full reality of where you are, what the situation is and what you’ve got to do to overcome it really sets in. And then watching your partner rise to the occasion and meet those tasks and meet that adversity head on, it really teaches you a lot about who you’re married to when you watch how they handle those super-stressful, dangerous and threatening situations, you know. So we definitely learned that we were very strong people. We learned that we’re a very strong couple, and we learned that we work together pretty well when faced with adversity.”

Justin added that the “emotional walls” go away because the basic needs are immediate and necessary. “You just really don’t have time for anything but what you’ve got to do,” he said.

Jenny agreed with those sentiments about the emotions that are present in tough situations. “Most times you don’t really notice it after you’re out there because the task is just to survive,” she said. “So you really don’t pay attention to any of that after like a day either.”

The reality series is filmed not only by camera operators but also Jenny and Justin themselves. They would film each other and offer video-diary entries, almost like personal confessions. It’s a semi-unique take on a reality-TV field that is crowded with survivalist fare. Justin and Jenny enjoy watching these survival shows on TV, although they find themselves so busy that watching television is not a priority.

“Well, we both work full time, and we’re extremely active in our free time,” Justin said. “We’re out on the water. We’re fishing. We’re kayaking. We’re backpacking. We’re camping, whatever. What I’m trying to say is we’re really not TV people. We don’t watch a lot of TV. We have seen a lot of the survival TV shows, and, yeah, it’s safe to say that I’m a fan of them. I like to watch them because you can learn so much. Everybody has a different take on, you know, how to survive with the resources provided. It’s just 2 + 2 = 4, and 10 – 6 = 4. There’s multiple ways to get the same result.”

Jenny said she is “super-excited” for the show’s premiere, and that it will be interesting see the series from the “viewers’ eyes.”

“We were there when we experienced it, so it’ll be kind of a different adventure for us to watch ourselves on TV,” she said. “Usually you go on an adventure, and you come back with a couple of photos. And you try to tell others what it was like, but now our families can watch it.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Men Women Wild premieres Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 10 p.m. on Discovery Channel. Click here for more information.