Does it bother you that people focus so much on the gross food? Do you ever worry that this somewhat sensational aspect of the show is taking over—that Man Vs. Wild is becoming Man Vs. Gag Reflex?
I never thought that people over here would focus so much on it. Yes it can be gross but it's just food (of sorts!). I have learnt though that people focus on different things in different countries. In the UK they focus on my climbs and in the Far East people are fascinated by the animal encounters. The 'Man Vs. Gag' is maybe more of an American thing, but heh!

Give us a brief run-through of how an episode of Man Vs. Wild comes together, from the original idea to researching survival skills to filing and editing.
I tend to get a few days prep when I arrive in country, to go through all the safety procedures and emergency plans with local rangers and experts. The crew will have pre-scouted a lot of the routes and locations to make sure that we're getting as much information as possible across to the audience. The research for each area is done beforehand by me and the production team, and a local expert will brief me thoroughly on any local survival techniques, dangerous animals and useful plants at that time of year. I feel a bit like a cook who can bake almost all the most common cakes, but when in the high northern hemisphere needs a quick refresher on how to do a baked Alaska meringue!

Have you ever absolutely refused to do what producers asked? Said, "I won't go there!" or "I won't eat that!" or "I won't do that!"?
Not really. I get to make all my own decisions on what I do or don't do. If anything, it is mainly the other way round, with the production team saying I can't do something due to heath and safety regulations. But I have become good at persuasion! In Iceland I did a river crossing in 50mph winds in sub zero temperatures, with the white water being whipped into a frenzy, and the safety expert said it was too dangerous to attempt with the currents and wind, as we were struggling to stand up along the volcanic banks. But ultimately it turned out fine. I enjoy those moments, and rise to those sort of challenges. It is the waiting for the crew to set up and check safety that I find boring. I am very impatient!

People are constantly comparing Man Vs. Wild with Survivorman. But since your shows are on the same network, do you see Les Stroud as a competitor or colleague?
I have watched one of his shows, and they are great. Our shows, though, are essentially very different. He is alone and therefore his big struggle is the camera kit, and moving that around. I have a crew, and I suppose that allows me to push it a bit and do a little more action. Both shows serve a purpose but maybe cater to a different audience. There are so few of us doing this sort of thing on TV that it's important to be friends, not rivals. I admire him, for sure.

On your blog (beargrylls.blogspot.com), you wrote on August 3 that the recent accusations about you staying in motels and staging parts of the show "don't always tell the full story." Does that mean some of the accusations are false or misleading? Can you respond to these accusations and give us the full story?
It made a good headline: "Bear stays in a motel when filming", but the truth is a bit less exciting. I spend a lot of nights under the stars, and for the times when I am not filming the live stuff out in the wild, or I'm about to illustrate something really physically exhausting, I stay with the crew in a base-camp lodge. As to the question "are things ever staged?", the answer is on occasions, yes. We have to condense so much action into a few days, and that involves good prior planning. But the production team have since edited the previous shows to make this clearer.

We are also making the shows for season 2 two hours long, instead of one, allowing us to go into more detail, and to see more of the role and challenges faced by the crew. I think people will enjoy that, especially since we'll now be working in some of the most extreme environments in the world, including the Sahara and Siberia.