President Obama to appear on 'Running Wild with Bear Grylls'

Kelly Lawler | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Five things Bear Grylls will eat, but Obama probably won't President Barack Obama will appear on a special episode of the NBC show 'Running Wild with Bear Grylls.' Bear Grylls eats a lot of strange things to survive. Here are some of the grossest.

President Obama is about to get a little wild.

Obama will appear on a special episode of the NBC outdoor adventure show Running Wild with Bear Grylls, the network announced Monday in a news release.

The president and the host will be trekking through the Alaskan wilderness in an effort to highlight the effects of climate change in that area. The episode, to be taped, will air on NBC later this year.

“I will not deny your suspicion that there may have been some suggestions put forward by the Bear Grylls team that were not approved by the Secret Service," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday, as the president headed to Alaska and the Arctic Circle.

Uh...could one of those suggestions be he has to drink his own urine as a Grylls "survival technique"?

After the news broke Monday, quick as a flash, a smartaleck put up a petition on the White House's petition site, demanding that POTUS drink his own urine. "For science."

"President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with Bear Grylls during his visit to Alaska, who will give the president a 'crash course in survival techniques.' If there's one thing we all know about Bear Grylls' techniques, it's that they mostly involve drinking his own urine," the petition read. "And so: We ask that Obama do the right thing and drink his own urine during a taping of Running Wild with Bear Grylls. For science. The people demand it."

A grand total of 62 people have signed this petition already, proving...well, that some people will sign anything. Only 99,938 more to go before reaching the minimum necessary for the White House to pay any attention to the petition.

But no worries, says British-born Grylls (real name: Edward Michael Grylls, 41). He tweeted a response to the petition.

The taping will happen on Tuesday during Obama’s scheduled hike to Exit Glacier in Seward, Alaska. And while the White House did not want to give any spoilers, officials said the president does know what he’s getting into.



“The President has seen the show before,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force one en route to Alaska. “I will not deny your suspicion that there may have been some suggestions put forward by the Bear Grylls team that were not approved by the Secret Service,”



The president’s main objective is to talk about conservation, but “discussions about climate change will not be the only thing that they do,” Earnest said. “I think it’s just sort of an admittedly unorthodox but legitimately interesting way for the president to reach an audience that obviously cares about this conversation.”

Now in its second season, Running Wild follows wilderness and survival expert Grylls as he takes celebrities – who have included Kate Winslet, Kate Hudson, Zac Efron and Channing Tatum – on journeys through the wilderness and teaches them survival skills (such as the aforementioned drinking of one's own urine).

Grylls is a survival expert and former member of the British Special Forces, who formerly hosted the Discovery Channel show Man vs. Wild. The show is known for getting celebrities to do crazy stunts in wild locations, and recently featured Kate Hudson eating ants and Michelle Rodriguez eating a mouse soaked in her own urine.

Mouse stew? Of course, with Bear Grylls Bear Grylls "Running Wild" with Kate Hudson, Michelle Rodriguez, and others.

"The fun bit is that it's not planned too much. We do wing it. It's a coil of rope and two (people) on a journey," Grylls told USA TODAY of the show last month. "People are surprised by how rough it is. I brief stars beforehand. I think they believe there will be an ambulance on standby. They can't believe it's me, them, two cameras, two sound, a mountain guide for the crew. And a story producer to make sure it makes sense. That's it. Five or six of us on the ground total. It has to be lean and light."

What you see on the show is "100% (real)," Grylls says. "If you try and not do it in a real way when you have stars there, it would be disappointing for them. They want that authentic journey. We're just doing a couple of days of hard work, It's all manageable. I could take you. It's only one night. You can do anything."

This is not the first time the president has made an appearance on an entertainment program. He guest starred memorably on the Funny Or Die web series Between Two Ferns, and was recently featured on the popular podcast WTF with Marc Maron.

Contributing: Gregory Korte, Maria Puente