Photo by Bob D’Amico/ABC
Being the host of show like Mark Burnett’s latest adventure series Expedition Impossible is chalk full of
incredible moments. At least that’s how host Dave Salmoni reflected on his time
in the African bush on the hit show, which has its season finale tonight on
ABC.
Salmoni recounted some of the more magical times on the show, “There’d
be a moment when you’d get home from work and there’d still be a little bit of
sunlight and I could go for run. Or wake up in the morning and you’d have to
get up before the sun comes up and grabbing a cup of coffee and watching it
come over the mountain. So there’s lots of those types of moments when you’re
sleeping outdoors and living on the road. There’s lots.”
But making an adventure series in the middle of nowhere isn’t without
its complexities. As Dave recalled, “The most challenging part for me would be
trying to get cameras in areas where the drama is because unfortunately with
these types of shows it’s very rare for the drama to unfold out in the open or
out in the middle of a field somewhere. Usually it’s at the top of the mountain
or the bottom of the ravine or going up the face of the mountain or repelling
halfway down. It’s when things are most stressful and most difficult, when the
real drama… and the real sense of what it must be like to be on that expedition
so the unfortunate director and the poor cameramen had to really get themselves
in a lot of places that were pretty difficult to get to. And not only did they
have to get there, they had to bring all their gear. “
But there were also the points of sheer joy, like dealing with the
series’ executive producer Mark Burnett. Dave acknowledged, “When he got out in
the bush, that’s when I really got to know Mark. Mark’s background is very
outdoorsy and very adventurous so Mark is all business when he has to be but
when he’s outdoors he has a great time. That guy exudes passion. I don’t know
if he ever sleeps. I don’t know if his brain ever shuts off. But he’s a lot of
fun to be around. And when he’s outdoors and he’s enjoying things and he’s
finding the fun in everything, it helps the whole team find the fun and film
the fun and show the fun to our audiences.”
Who knows if the competitors, who were tasked with grueling physical and
mental tests on a daily basis were able to have as much of a good time. But
they never ceased to have an impact on Salmoni. He said one challenger
impressed him the most. “If I had to pick one, I think you’d have to pick Erik
[Weihenmayer] in No Limits.”
The 42-year-old motivational speaker and writer from Golden, Colorado,
is blind. Dave remembered first being told about the competitor. “Before going
out, hearing that we had cast a blind man on this race, was shocking to me. And
I almost felt like we’re going to have to have safety guys just follow them
around because how is a blind guy going to be able to do any of this stuff? We
were choosing a course that was going to be difficult for the most fit people in
the world and you’ve got this blind guy that’s going to be out there. So that
initially would have been my one, ‘No way that’s not possible.’”
But Salmoni was awed by Weihenmayer skills in the wild. He admitted,
“You get to know Erik and you see him operate and you go, ‘Oh, well that’s no
problem for him.’ He became the least of my worries when things would get
difficult and then you started to worry about some of the people that maybe
hadn’t had as much outdoor experience or adventure experience. So every stage
you found somebody else to worry about only because we started to learn what
some people were good at and what some people were bad at.”
Erik wasn’t the only competitor that Dave underestimated. He confessed,
“We were always predicting who was going to go out. And I wouldn’t say I was
better than 50% for the eliminations. At the first stage I could tell the
Gypsies were solid and I could tell No Limits were going to do well. You can’t
help but look at the football players and recognize their athleticism and
expect them to do well. But in amongst them I just always felt like it just
depended on the course that day. I felt like everybody had some skills and it
was a matter of putting it all together at the right time.”
He continued, “So yeah, there were definitely times when I didn’t expect
a team to go as early. I remember thinking that the Kansas girls were going to
last a lot longer than they did. Grandpa’s Warriors was our second team out and
they were probably the most experienced next to No Limits as far as being
outdoors. So they were shocking. But that being said it’s a tough thing to be
shocked by, only in that each time that someone went out I felt like one
mistake and they’re gone. And anybody can make a mistake so you’re never all
that shocked when a team’s in last.”
And although he obviously couldn’t reveal the winner, he did fess up to
the fact that he didn’t see it coming. “Before I’d seen any of them race, two
of the teams, just on paper, I predicted that they were going to be in the finals
and they are. But the team that ends up winning, I didn’t predict, no. I did
not expect the team to win that did.”
See who takes home the top prize when the season finale of Expedition Impossible airs tonight at 9
p.m. EST/8 p.m. Central on ABC.
No comments:
Post a Comment