A Chance to Win an Underground Shelter - SPIKE TV Casting Call

SPIKE TV IS GIVING YOU THE CHANCE TO WIN AN UNDERGROUND SHELTER FOR YOUR FAMILY

Are you a survivor? Are you prepared?

Nuclear war, terrorism, pole shifting, killer comets and tsunamis all have the potential to cause national or worldwide disaster. Some people think the Mayan Calendar predicts the end of the world on December 21, 2012.

If you've always wanted to secure lifetime access to a well-protected, underground shelter for you and your immediate family in case of a global emergency, then this is your chance.
SPIKE TV and Vivos Shelters (www.terravivos.com) are seeking a handful of lucky people to compete on a new TV show for the chance to own shares in a state-of-the-art, community underground shelter for up to 6 family members.

Producers are looking for outgoing, competitive PAIRS of immediate family members (husband and wife, father and son, siblings...) to represent their family household on national television in a series of fun and exciting challenges. This is your opportunity to PROVE that you have what it takes to join a community of people who can survive global disaster!
APPLY TODAY!

Send an email to LastFamilyCasting@gmail.com with the following:
1. Your name and the name of at least one family member who could be your teammate
2. Your phone numbers
3. Your city/state (same household or neighborhood preferred)
4. Recent photos of each of you
5. A brief explanation of why you want to win this show AND what skills you and your family can offer a community of survivors.

Deadline to apply is JUNE 20, 2012! Producers are waiting to hear from you!
* To compete on the show, you must be a legal U.S. resident and at least 18 years of age. (Note: Family members of any age are eligible for a place in the shelter. Conditions and restrictions for shelter co-ownership apply.) For more information, visit www.pilgrimstudios.com/casting/LastFamilyOnEarth

Casting: Looking for Single Survivalists & Preppers for TV Show

Received an email a couple of days ago from a casting agent/company who are currently looking for single survivalists and preppers for a show. Here are the details:

CASTING:
SURVIVALIST AND PREPPERS,WHO ARE SINGLE AND LOOKING TO DATE



DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE END OF THE WORLD IS NEAR, YET YOU ARE STILL SEARCHING FOR SOMEONE TO FALL INLOVE WITH?


A Major television production company is casting single men and women who share the belief that the world is soon ending for a new major television series. We are in search of people who passionately believe in the world’s inevitable end, but are also single andlooking for someone to enjoy the rest of their time on earth with!  Please tell us your story.

Please email us with yourstory with a current photo of yourself along with a current contact telephonenumber and email address to Sean De Simone (http://seandesimonecasting.com/) at survivaldatecasting@gmail.com

Discovery Channel's Out of the Wild: Venezuela - Get your Survivalist Fix

Out of the Wild: Venezuela - The Volunteers

The premise: 9 ordinary people dropped off in Venezuela's southern frontier with basic supplies. The goal is to travel 70 miles through a remote area and make there way back into civilization.

Here's what I liked about this series - while most survival reality tv shows have a handsome reward in the form of monetary gain at the end for those who completes the challenge, this particular show has none. Its reward is the experience in itself. The participants joined for self-exploration / self-improvement / the thrill of the adventure, etc. Not to mention the tremendous bragging rights.

The participants were put through a 3 day crash course on survival skills training. They were allowed to bring the items in the list provided:

1 Pair of good hiking boots
1 Pair of trainers (aka running shoes)
3-5 pairs of socks
1 rain jacket (Gore-Tex or rubber)
1 pair of rain pants (Gore-Tex or rubber)
1 fleece jacket or wool sweater for warmth
3 pairs of underwear (not cotton)
Malarial drugs
 2 pairs of long pants
2 long sleeve shirts
bandannas — suggested
Hat — Wide brimmed or baseball
2 T-shirts
2 pairs of shorts
Bathing Suit

Source: Discovery channel

In addition they were allowed to gather additional supplies near the drop-off point from a supply cache, keeping in mind that they would only be adding to the weight they'd have to haul along.

Supply cache:
2 small metal framed military backpacks
7 Pemon packs
4 bows with real barbed 1 and 2 point arrows
1 flint stone rock
1 spool of bailing wire
1 yucca strainer
1 big fish trap
10 fish hooks
9 GPS Beacon transmitters
1 small dutch oven-style metal pan
1 big dutch oven-style metal pan
1 skillet
1 spool of 1/2" twine approx. 50' in length
2 broad blade hunting knives with leather belt sheaths
1 Pemon big drop basket
4 small gourds
1 large gourd with cork
3 machetes (small Pemon-style)
3 Pemon baskets
1 big flashlight and 4 extra batteries
9 mosquito nets
2 candles
9 whistles
 1 magnifying glass
1 axe with handle
1 axe without handle
1 hatchet
2 military belt-mount canteens
7 round shoulder slung canteens
9 pairs rubber boots
9 hammocks
1 roll of 1/8" parachute cord-style twine
4 pairs of leather gloves
1 oversized metal cooking pot/wash basin
2 maps per leg
300 electrolyte tabs
3 tall baby food jars
2 boxes of tampons
1 compass
1 lb of Pemon ground grain
1 Block of local back salt beef
5 military fleece blankets
1 spool of spare slingshot cord
1 palm hook knife with no handle
1 roll of screen mosquito net
1 file for sharpening
1 small roll of duct tape 

Source: Discovery Channel

I sat down and pretty much watched the 8 episodes of the series in two days. It was an engaging show - interesting people with very different background stories, beautiful and dangerous terrain, of course some conflict (this is inevitable in a group setting, especially under these very stressful conditions). As the show progresses, you can see how much weight the members lose from caloric intake deficiency.

Each participant has a gps locator beacon system that they can use should they choose to leave at any time. All they have to do is press the button and the helicopter extracts them. No spoilers here, you'll have to find out who leaves and who stays.

It took the remaining volunteers twenty six days to reach civilization.

Hands down the best reality tv survival show I've seen so far. 5 out of 5 stars.

Currently available for Instant Play in Netflix (as of April 9, 2012) or you can watch the entire season 3 at Vimeo starting with Episode 1 right below:

Meet the Preppers (on Animal Planet)

With all the talk about NatGeo's Doomsday Preppers, there's another show that I happened to catch the other night called Meet the Preppers.

This one's focus is just on one family, giving us a glimpse of their daily routine. Not sure if I watched the first episode or if I missed a few.

I thought it was a bit strange that it's on the Animal Planet channel, but whatever works. I was actually watching Pit Boss when it came on right after.

My first thought was: "Cool, another prepper show!"

So naturallly I watched the entire episode.

Interesting show, overall. I'm still on the fence on this one. For this episode, there's parts I liked more than others. I thought the drill with their prepper neighborhood group was a great idea.

The whole "let's kidnap our own kids to test their skills"  is a bit too extreme IMHO but in the end the way the two girls handled the drill was impressive.

Also when they were setting up the workshop / garage and organizing the supplies, I thought hanging up the guns in that manner seemed too exposed and way too easy for intruders to access it but that's just me.

So I'm probably going to set a reminder for the next episode and watch that too.

Anyone else catch it? What did you think?

The Walking Dead Returns with Nebraska; Walking Dead Video Game In Production

Season 2 Episode  8 of The Walking Dead entitled "Nebraska" picks up where it left off. I thought it was a solid return to a (at times) painfully slow first season.

My favorite scenes?
Rick finally stepping up as a leader and taking a stand (Excellent trigger finger action). I know he's the voice of reason, but I really wish he'd just give Shane a taste of some knuckle sammich. Oh wait, Maggie gets to do that (She's on my favorites list now). Daryl calling Lori Olive Oyl (she does nothing for the group but cause friction, plus her constant questioning of Rick's decision making capabilities really irks me.)

By the way, they're coming out with a game too.

An episodic video game to be released nine chapters with the first one currently planned for an early 2012 release for PS3, XBOX 360, and PC.

Watch PLAYING DEAD, a video series that takes you behind the scenes of the creation of the game.

Here's some screenshots to whet your appetite:

Off the Grid: Million Dollar Manhunt (History Channel)

Hey there Apocalypse Hub-bers - did any of you catch this new show? I missed the first 10 minutes of it but the rest was pretty good.


From what I got from it, they have two participants who had to complete specific tasks (I believe there were 4 total, each one had to be completed in order to move on to the next)  armed with only a cellphone and a credit card. The real challenge was to try to evade 4 experts from tracking them down. These experts are basically using the grid - surveillance cameras, cellphone gps, credit card tracking, and various other methods to catch the contestants. 


Should the participants succeed - they are to be rewarded a million dollars.

Sounds easy enough right?

Keep in mind the trackers have expertise in various fields.

The team:
Kevin - human tracking expert
Rob - a hacker
Matt - corporate security IT specialist
Dave - former Navy SEALs

Matt and Rob stayed at the homebase and did all the surveillance / tech stuff while Kevin and Dave were out in the field. 

As for the contestants for the premier episode, they got really careless in their approach for completing each task. For their first one, they were given a call number for a book in the library that held a clue - their first mistake was storing this number in the cellphone. Really? You're in a manhunt show!!! And yes, as soon as they got to the library they accessed that stored information on the phone which only confirmed their location.


This led them to a drycleaners in which they had to pay up to retrieve a piece of clothing that had their next clue. They managed to convince the clerks/owners to delay scanning the credit card for a little bit to buy them time. At their next stop they weren't so lucky. The associate scanned their card to pay for the photo prints even after he said he'd delay it for a little while.


You'd think the contestants would grab the prints and assemble it elsewhere (it was a puzzle clue that revealed a phone number). Nope. They stuck around until they figured out the puzzle. Meanwhile, the tech experts called the shop and actually convinces one of the contestants to reveal info about the puzzle clue.

So do the contestants succeed in evading their trackers and win the coveted price? No, they don't.

*****
We were discusssing what we would've done differently if that was us trying to keep a low-profile and this is what we came up with.

Main thing is to ditch the phone and get some cash. 

1) We would've turned off the cellphone the entire time, committing the call number to memory instead. I probably would leave the phone where it would be found by a total stranger, which would throw off the trackers for a little while.

2) If we were going to take the chance of using the credit card we would've only used it once and would have withdrawn cash.

3) We probably would have used the majority of that cash to pay someone else to retrieve the photos and the train ticket.

4) We probably would have planned to split up if they were hot on our tracks then meet up later on.



But that's just me.




Show synopsis:
America has 30 million cameras recording four billion hours of footage each week. Everyone is being watched. Now witness host and master tracker Kevin Reeve give two everyday Americans the chance to escape this surveillance and win one million dollars. Contestants race to complete simple tasks and evade Kevin and his highly-trained team of trackers hunting them down with cutting-edge technology for the largest prize in cable television history.

Cool premise for a show. Will definitely be watching it again.

AMCs The Walking Dead. Zombies on Halloween.

Source: AMC

AMC has greenlit The Walking Dead as a six-episode series based on the comic book written by Robert Kirkman and published by Image Comics. The Walking Dead tells the story of life following a zombie apocalypse. It follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, traveling in search of a safe and secure home. Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually, Teachers, Strike Back) will portray the lead role of Rick Grimes while actor Jon Bernthal (The Pacific, The Ghost Writer) will portray the character Shane, who worked with Rick in the police department before the zombie disaster. Other cast includes Laurie Holden (The Shield), who plays Andrea, one of two sisters who join the survivors of the zombie plague, Steven Yeun as Glenn, an expert scavenger and Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break), who plays Rick's wife Lori.



Watch the pilot episode of The Walking Dead on Halloween.

Buy the comic: