In 2016, 23 people traveled to a remote part of Scotland with a specific goal – to survive in the wild for an entire year. All this was part of a kind of social experiment conceived by the television channel.
The participants did not even suspect that the entire experiment had gone wrong in the second month.
The show was planned to be broadcast in prime time. The goal of the project’s authors was to demonstrate a successful social experiment and find out whether participants could build a self-sufficient community away from technology and the hectic pace of modern life.
Participants were not given any other goal or objective other than the core idea of creating a sustainable community. They were allowed to independently solve all problems with food, housing and organization.
Footage for the broadcast was obtained in three ways: from a network of fixed-mount cameras, from four on-board camera operators, and from personal GoPro cameras.
The people were isolated from the outside world and were not going to be told about any news or current events that were happening during the experiment. Complete isolation took place in the Scottish Highlands.
The team managed to survive for a whole year, completely cut off from modern society. They built primitive houses, raised animals and generally settled down quite comfortably.
None of the participants even suspected that the show was canceled after just four episodes – by the end of the year, everyone had simply forgotten about people living in the wild.
The 23-member band emerged a year later in a completely different world. Many of them are still suing the TV channel:
At the same time, the social experiment was considered successful. The group had no problems creating a society resilient to shocks.
