Bipartisanship doesn’t exist these days. So Discovery Channel is cashing in on the friction and putting two senators from opposing parties on a remote island, calling the program “Rival Survival.” Will they kill each other or come together for the sake of survival?
As described in a release, the network makes it all sound so terrifying: “Disconnected from the world on an uninhabited island surrounded by shark infested waters that mirror the seemingly treacherous terrain of the U.S. Congress, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) must put their political differences aside and work together for six days and six nights to find common ground through compromise if they want to survive.”
Discovery describes Flake as a “true conservative” while Heinrich is a “self-described conservationist and a strong progressive voice from New Mexico on issues that include education, health care and social security.”
Things on the island won’t be easy. They’ll head to the island of Eru, Marshall Islands, hyped by Discovery as “an utterly unforgiving deserted destination where the reefs alone are fraught with dangers that include venomous stonefish, lionfish and scorpion fish.”
The two senators must choose a few items. Otherwise they’ll have to come together and figure out how to survive their trenchers environs. There is no fresh water on the island. Most important, neither men will have any contact with the outside world.
Flake may have the advantage. He and his wife were Mormon missionaries in Zimbabwe and South African. And in 2009, when he was in the House, he spent a week alone in the Pacific’s Marshall Islands as a sort of survival adventure. He later did it again with his sons during a congressional recess.
Heinrich, meanwhile, has a B.A. in mechanical engineering.
The program premieres Oct. 29 at 10 p.m.