Alone Australia Has Locked In A Premiere Date And I’m Building A Bivouac In The Lounge Room

alone australia premiere date

Find your flints, sharpen your survival skills and brush off your bivouac-building boldness because Australia’s very own version of the US reality TV series Alone now has an official premiere date.

Per TV Tonight, the first Aussie iteration of the ultimate survival show is set to land on our screens at 7.30pm on Wednesday March 29 with a double episode (!!!) before moving to an 8.30pm slot the following week.

SBS secured the exclusive rights to commission a local iteration of the show in which survival experts are left in the wilderness completely alone with no camera crew and must survive the longest to win — and the one to out-last everyone else will score $250k.

Alone Australia is raw, authentic, and truly unique,” SBS Head of Unscripted Joseph Maxwell said in a statement.

“At its core, it’s about people — what it is that challenges us, drives us, and motivates us as human beings. The relentless effects of nature, hunger, and solitude result in a very real examination of who we are as people.”

The Aussie version is the fifth spinoff in the Alone franchise following US, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Each season has taken its participants to remote locations worldwide including Patagonia, Mongolia and the literal Arctic, but this will be set in the unforgiving lutruwita (Tasmanian) bush.

Alone is by far the most successful factual franchise on SBS On Demand and anyone who’s seen the show will know why it is practically impossible to switch off.

Alone Australia will see 10 contestants dropped in remote locations in western Tasmania, each several kilometres apart, with a backpack of 10 survival items they can choose from an approved shortlist.

Contestants are also given a fuckload of camera equipment which they must have with them at all times in case something crazy happens like a bear attack. Yes, seriously. 

Now we’ve got a state date, it’s time to start learning how to weave gillnets and build a Rock House™.

The Alone Australia casting call asked: “Do you have what it takes to protect yourself, feed yourself and stay alive in total isolation? Can you survive in the Australian wilderness alone?”

But Alone is so much more than survival. Yes, we’ve seen people build intricate and thoughtful homes out of logs, sticks and rocks, as well as hunt animals with their bare hands — but the show’s hook is the mental challenge the contestants face. 

They must not only survive but thrive as long as possible — sometimes more than 100 days —  or use their satellite phone to officially tap out and be extracted. But without communication, none of them knows how many other contestants are left. 

We ultimately see people tapping out due to fear, isolation, injury and starvation, and the show gets more and more intense as the days go by.

It’s probably the most real reality show to exist, with contestants not only capturing terrifying encounters with predators and extreme weather conditions on camera but documenting diary-like video entries as they wrestle with themselves to keep pushing and stay another day.

Alone can be a little bro-y, with many ex-army dudes applying (though they’re often the first to tap out) but SBS has promised the series will feature “the most diverse cast of self-reliance experts yet”.

BRB, gotta practise my wood-chopping.

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