Full exposure: Capreol man lets it all hang out on reality show ‘Naked and Afraid’

Chad Bretschneider, 41, from the Greater Sudbury community of Capreol, literally let everything hang out when he appeared on the reality show ‘Naked and Afraid.’

He and Ken, his partner on the show, were dropped into the African wilderness without clothes or other provisions.

“I’m a hunter, fisherman outdoorsman, but this is all foreign to me,” Bretschneider said, when introducing himself to Ken.

A camera crew captured their struggle to survival in the wild.

“You’re 100 per cent vulnerable,” Bretschneider said in an interview from his Capreol home.

“I mean you’re naked obviously, that’s the obvious one, but even emotionally with your failures and accomplishments.”

“Every step of the way everyone is seeing every bit of it and its just as raw -- it’s in its raw form.”

It was his wife, Arielle, who entered his name to participate in the show. Bretschneider is and avid outdoor enthusiast who enjoys camping, hunting and fishing, but he said surviving in the African wilderness was on another level.

Chad Bretschneider, 41, from the Greater Sudbury community of Capreol, literally let everything hang out when he appeared on the reality show ‘Naked and Afraid.’ (Supplied)

“When you’re starving and deprived, you’re depleted, sleep deprived — none of this is complaining, it’s just sort of the reality of it when you’re out there — but you’re really down,” he said.

“Your head starts playing (tricks) on you. I tried to control it, but then eventually things just got the better of me … All of a sudden I started missing the family, I can’t sleep and there were all these little things.”

After 10 days, Bretschneider ‘tapped out,’ which is the show’s version of quitting before the 21 days are up.

At the end of Episode 2, he told producers and audiences he was “honoured to have had the opportunity to try the challenge.”

“Obviously I’m disappointed in the outcome, but I take so much away from it. I learned so much about myself and about surviving,” Bretschneider said.

He said he is hoping for a second chance on the show to make it the full 21 days.

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