How to survive the 72-hour challenge

MANILA, Philippines - Exploring an unknown territory is always a challenge. With rocky terrain, grassy roads, mountainous pathways, hills, forests, rivers, canyons, cliffs and even sand dunes… you must survive everything, which will be surely tough and hard.

You are not alone, however. You are in a team of three people, but you get to meet your companions for the first time on the first day of your challenge. That’s the premise of 72 hours, the new reality competition series on AXN.

Unlike other reality series which concludes in the end, 72 hours is episodic. You can afford to miss an episode and not really feel bad about it. You can still follow the flow of events in the next episode. At the end of every episode or after 72 hours, one team gets to win $100,000. But first, they must find the briefcase containing the money.

Team work spells the difference in the series. At the start of every episode, there are three teams (green, blue and red) with three people, who are total strangers from each other. They are dropped off in a remote location which they must explore. Eventually, as they go along, they get to know each other, build their rapport and team work and win the much-coveted cash prize.

Every episode takes a new team to a different location, a challenging environment which can be difficult, harsh and dangerous. The teams must race against each other and survive three days or 72 hours. Within that time, they have to rely on the drop-offs, which will supply some of the essential things they will need, including food.

The team members naturally share a common desire to win, so understandably, they strategize from the start of their three-day journey. At the onset, they are merely given a bottle of water and a GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking device.

Throughout the 72 hours that they must explore the remote location (by land, sea and air), there are three supply drops marked by a red flag along the way. The teams cannot bring everything, much as they want to, so they must choose the useful and essential load they really need.

There is also a relief drop along the way which the teams can conveniently use, but that entails a one-hour penalty. The relief drop has water, limited food and basic comfort items.

Some of the teams nearly give up from the grueling trek. Walking from sun up to sun down, they are tired, exhausted and cold from being out the whole day. In one episode, two teams gave up, so the last remaining team was individually made to continue. The female member solely won the $100,000 prize.

Some of the locations explored by the teams were Yasawa Island in Fiji (the shooting locale for the 1980 movie, Blue Lagoon, starring Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins), New Zealand, Lanai Island in Hawaii, Flinder’s Island in Tasmania (Australia) and American Southwest (New Mexico).

Hosted by Brandon Johnson, 72 hours airs Monday nights on AXN.