Is Discovery’s ‘Raising Wild’ Better Than ‘Alaskan Bush People’?
Could you give up your smartphone, your computer and even your TV (yikes!) to live independent of modern society? Could you convince the rest of your family to join you?
In Discovery Channel’s Raising Wild (once known as Book of Hines), premiering June 2, former covert military man and intelligence officer Brett Hines, his wife and their seven kids leave civilization behind and try to start life over as homesteaders in a remote part of Washington state.
“At some point in life, we’ve all said, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to just get away from everything and live out in the wild?’ This is a suburban family who took that idea and ran with it,” says executive producer Deborah Ridpath. “To me it feels incredibly authentic and relatable.”
In addition to footage shot by the TV crew, the Hines family has been documenting their experience with cameras for years, making them an extension of the crew as they captured scenes that would’ve otherwise been lost. “It is really intimate, and you get that immediate, visceral feeling that it’s happening right here, right now,” Ridpath says. “Anything that came up was covered.”
Hines puts his military-honed survival skills to work in leading his family on this endeavor, but as first-time homesteaders, there was plenty of trial and error. “A lot of things didn’t work the way that they thought, so they really, truly had to learn as they were going along,” Ridpath tells us.
According to Discovery’s announcement, Brett Hines is “a former Army counter-intelligence officer and military contractor” with nearly two decades of service conducting operations overseas in places like Afghanistan.
“We give a brief history of his service in the show,” Ridpath says. “He was injured, as well. Part of the reason that they decided to go for it in the end is because he almost died from his injuries. It was kind of like that dream that everyone has — whatever that dream is — and then something catastrophic happens. What changes are we making in our lives right now because you got that wakeup call? That’s very much a part of why they decided to just completely go for it, ready or not.”
When Discovery announced in April of 2018 that it had picked up Raising Wild, we immediately noticed some eerie similarities to another Discovery Channel show that we’ve covered extensively: Alaskan Bush People.
My hope was that Discovery would give ABP‘s Brown family the boot and replace them with the Hines family, but it appears there’s enough space in Discovery’s stable for both shows. (Discovery hasn’t announced a return date for the remainder of ABP Season 9ish episodes.)
I asked Ridpath how Raising Wild avoids becoming just a clone of Alaskan Bush People.
“I think it stands on its own,” she says. “For me, the difference in the two shows is that people at home will be able to relate to [the Hines] family. Because they’re first-time homesteaders. Because they’re people who have some measure of expertise, but not completely.”
At least the Hines family’s backstory seems much more solid than the Brown family’s, which has been exposed as false. Hopefully, Raising Wild won’t have to rely on false pretenses and absurdity to gain an audience.
“I think people are going to be able to imagine themselves going through the same experience,” Ridpath says. Alaskan Bush People is different in that way in the sense that there’s probably not too many people sitting at home going, ‘Well, that’s just like Cousin Mark!'”
There is also the matter of the Hines family living in the same remote county of Washington where the Brown family established their ranch.
This Is Just a Test, the producers of Raising Wild, put out a casting call in January 2016 “looking for a family of at least six individuals in the Oroville area who live mostly without modern amenities.” Billy Brown purchased the land in Washington almost two years later. Who got there first? And is the Brown-Hines proximity just a coincidence?
By all accounts, the Hines family set roots in Washington before the Browns did. It’s unclear if Discovery’s order for Raising Wild influenced the Browns and Park Slope to move Alaskan Bush People to this part of Washington. For now, it appears to be a combination of coincidence and availability of land.
“Our crew stayed at a motel/gas station in a place called Tonasket,” Ridpath says. “There are a lot of homesteaders out in that area. There are a lot of characters and people living this way in some shape or form. [The Hines family] bought this land a long time ago, so their plan was always to be there. There’s not too many places where you can get a big chunk of land that isn’t near anybody.”
Raising Wild, Premieres Sunday, June 2, 10/9c, Discovery Channel
Conversation25 Comments
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Ryan, that was a rhetorical question you posited? A case of 4 inch hemorrhoids would be better than WBP.
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Yes, I know that being better than ABP is not a very lofty goal. 😜
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Oh, Discovery Channel, how I weep when I think about what used to be......
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Discovery used to be one of my favorite channels. Used...
🙁
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The fall is just amazing. But reality TV (such a horrible term since 99% of the shows are just made up), is here to stay. It is super cheap to produce and in many cases is quite profitable. I am also old and remember when MTV and VH1 showed music videos. So nothing is as it was.
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I watched an episode for the first time tonight.
They could use that video at assisted suicide clinics. At least as bad as ABP is, there is still some element of excitement, waiting for Matt to blow, or Bear to fall, or Bird to bite something or someone.
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I figured that RW wouldn't be bad/stupid enough to be as successful as ABP.
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Sounds like a slow painful death of boredom
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Oh Oh, DC Rep says,
"I think it stands on its own," she says. "For me, the difference in the
two shows is that people at home will be able to relate to [the Hines]
family. Because they're first-time homesteaders. Because they're people
who have some measure of expertise, but not completely." Now that sounds to me like, the writing's on the wall for Park Slope and it's 'flagship' ABP!
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You would have thought that ABP should have been put to pasture around season 3-4, but the zombie will never die. That show is so horrible on every level I just don't get how it continues on.
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Because David it yearns to return back to its grassroots in Alaska. Also, any truth to the fact that uncle Matt has secretly been staying with you while in rehab.
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Well I do run 3 Airbnb's so he might actually be if he is using a different name. You are just not warming up to the Arizona Bush People in Bob's backyard. Look on the bright side... despite somewhat trashing the place the construction crew will build you a free log cabin and a barn that you can keep when they leave onto the next state.
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David, actually the ABP/CBP/WBP will be returning to the ABP. Cepting this time it will be the Alabama Bush People. A heart warming story bout a family that takes up living in the Alabama swamp. Billie will wrestle gators whilst losing all his toes and rendering him unable to ever work again, Noah will invent an anti venom for non poisonous water snakes, Matt will build a beaver dam to live, Rainy and Bird will make weird things out of weird things to sell out of the nearest bait shop, Bam will farm cute little water moccasins, Bear will fall in love with a certain muskrat and Gabe will keep the food supply going by noodling catfish. I personally can’t wait.
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Alabama! Absolutely brilliant. Hadn't thought of that. Now there is a 100% logical place for this to be filmed. I think they would fit right in.
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And then the Browns will open a pawn shop.
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We found the Hines family seemed to be trying to copy the Browns. We tapped into one episode last night and I am not sure which episode it was but we will be sure to stream the series and do a better comparison.
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Yes much better
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lOVE THIS NEW SHOW RAISING WILD! At keast it's real, where Alaskan Bush People is totally false. I could pretend to film a show in the wilderness and then go to my $500,000 lodge every night too like Alaskan Bush People, so Discovery, how about you give me a show?I
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I couldn't find last nights ratings but the premiere episode of Raising Wild was (hold your nose)... .796 million viewers and a 18-49 share of .18. Now summertime is a lot tougher than winter, but Sunday is one of the best nights and those numbers stink. That wasn't even good enough to make the top 25 on the Sunday cable rating list. Wow, was this a dud. Be really interesting to see the next couple of weeks when most shows shed a number of the early viewers. .18 is pretty much dead on arrival. ABP could get more viewers if it was just them using the outhouse (which is pretty much what the whole show is at this point).
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A dud it was, David. Had hoped for Ryan’s input on the show so I wouldn’t have to watch, so I guess Raising Wild will have to do without me in total. Hopefully that was just a mere typo where you state there were 796 million viewers. Hitchhiking now to Pork Slop productions to pitch my Alabama Bush People idea.
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Raising Wild's second episode had 848 million viewers and .18 18-49 share. So the total viewers was up a bit but the 18-49 stayed the same. The debut episode was ranked 40th for 18-49 on Sunday cable and the second episode was 45th. That is pretty horrific. Think I saw somewhere that there is supposed to be 7 episodes. I see them them showing the 7 episodes and this will never be seen or heard from again. The site I normal go to for TV ratings only does the top 25. I had to go to another one that shows the top 50 and raising wild is barely on that. These aren't even reruns, but the series premiere and second episode. I guess the appetite for people claiming to live off the grid in Washington State isn't that high after all. Who knew?
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I got Discovery's July schedule today and Raising Wild isn't on it. Someone noticed that ALL future episodes of Raising Wild are gone, too. It looks like Discovery gave them the hook already.
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So since I didn't ever plan to watch it I didn't pay attention to the schedule. So after reading your comment I went to the guide on the TV for today (Sunday) and poof... it didn't even show on the schedule. Then I went to Discovery's website and it was nowhere to be found anywhere in the menu list. So when I searched for it then it came up and showed 1 season and 2 episodes. So looks like Raising Wild made it all of 2 episodes. Those rating were pretty horrendous though so it makes perfect sense. When you are barely making the top 50 shows on Cable for Sunday night... yea, not so good. A number of those shows were reruns. I am sure America has all it needs of people claiming to live off the grid in Washington state that are within driving distance of a Wal-Mart on the road system. I actually thought they would at least show the last 5 episodes, but I get it. It came out of the gate with a thud and I am sure they would have continued to hemorrhage their very small amount of viewers. Kind of like an badly injured animal, why make it suffer. So do you think ABP is happy or sad? Happy there is less competition, or worried America has lost interest in the whole genre?
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To answer the question in the title of the article on which is better, I think wiping poop on the camera lens is better than ABP at this point. ABP just won't die no matter how half-assed the production quality gets. I swear they could club baby seals and people would still tune in. I do wonder if maybe the genre will become tiresome though (If people claiming to live wild is a genre). No matter how good Raising Wild is (100 times better than Book of Hines which sounds like a chapter of the Bible), ABP has completely taken the wind out of me wanting to watch people claiming to live off the grid and wild no matter how real it actually is. That ship has sailed for me. Were not talking northern Alaska or Canada with the Polar bears. It is Washington for goodness sake on the road system. When you can drop what you are doing and run down to the Wal-Mart I don't find it that compelling. Will be interesting what the rating are and if this has any effect on ABP.
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