Democrat and Republican Senators Left on Island for New Reality Show
What would you bring with you if you were going to be stranded on a desert island? If you said "Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and an idea that is at once outrageous and mind-numbingly boring" then, boy, does Discovery have the reality show for you!
The Discovery Channel show is called Rival Survival and, according to Entertainment Weekly, it will follow what happens when two Senators, picked to live on an island, are forced to set aside their political difference and have their lives taped, to find out what happens when they start being polite and attempt to not die. It comes from the producers of Naked and Afraid, and will be filmed on the island of Eru, Marshall Islands. Discovery describes the island as "an utterly unforgiving deserted destination where the reefs alone are fraught with dangers that include venomous stonefish, lionfish and scorpion fish."
The senators explained their decision to do the show in a joint statement:
"Both of us know just how frustrated people are with Washington right now. We can both attest that no one is more frustrated than those of us trying to get things done in this environment. We recognize how difficult it can be to cut through the partisanship. So we decided to do something completely out of the ordinary and frankly a little extreme to show the world and our colleagues that even if you have serious differences, if you want to survive you have to work together."
Obviously the best—really, the only way to do that is with some boring-ass desert island reality show. Bravo! According to Entertainment Weekly, the senators—neither of whom are up for re-election—came up with the idea themselves and brought it to Discovery.
[image via Discovery]