When we last saw Matt Wright on the Naked and Afraid XL, he was being evacuated from Ecuador with a flesh-eating bacterial infection on his foot. Doctors were able to save the limb, but Wright’s Naked adventure was over.
It was a crushing blow for Wright, who tells PEOPLE that he would have considered losing a toe or two if it would allow him to finish off the challenge.
“I didn’t want to go,” he says. “It was devastating to be pulled from the adventure. I never saw that coming.”
Now, Wright is back — and the Discovery Channel has given him the hardest challenge they’ve ever given a survivalist: to survive by himself for 40 days in Africa. And yes, he’ll be buck naked.
The’ve appropriately called the new show Naked and Afraid: Savage. The mini-episodes will premiere exclusively on the Discovery GO app on Sundays during the upcoming season. The first web episode premieres on April 29, and an preview video is above.
Wright’s task is to track the other participants of Naked and Afraid: XL, who will be having their own African adventure. It remains to be seen whether Wright will cross patsh with any of the other survivalists. If he doesn’t, he’ll be naked and alone in one of the harshest places on earth.
And to answer one of the most common questions that people ask: Yes, the participants are really alone at night, armed only with handheld cameras and a walkie talking to radio for help if things get dangerous. Motion sensing cameras are set up, so if the survivalists are eaten by a jaguar, at least it will be on film.
If anyone is up for the task, it’s Wright, who has accomplished a lot on the long-running show. During his first adventure in Thailand, he proposed to his girlfriend, Brooke, while naked. (They later got married.) From there, he went to Belize for a short Naked and Afraid adventure with PEOPLE’s Steve Helling. Then he went to Ecuador, where he showed his wilderness skills by hunting a wild boar.
But in all those adventures, Wright had someone to talk to. In this new one, he’ll be alone. Will he make it the full 40 days?
Naked and Afraid XL will premiere Sunday, May 6 (10 p.m. ET) on Discovery Channel. The companion web series, Naked and Afraid: Savage is available on Discovery Go on April 29.
