Exclusive: Discovery’s ‘Outback Lockdown’ Tackles Extreme COVID Seclusion
TV Shows Ace has the scoop on love and survival in the age of COVID, as told by a couple in Outback Lockdown for Discovery Channel.
The new series is part survivalist, part romantic reality as it takes us to the arid bush of Australia. This new series aims to show that love can flourish in a global pandemic.
The premise of Outback Lockdown
The Australian outback is absolutely not user friendly, unless you know what you are doing. It is survival of the fittest and love-sickest. It takes two to make a proper love story, and two people to work together to get through a daunting survival challenge.
IFC.com.au says of the series creation: “Acting fast, [production company] Essential’s head of factual David Alrich and DOP Max Corkindale spent 22 days filming the couple who are living in an old stone hut on a 46,000-acre sheep farm in South Australia owned by Ky’s cousin.”
It is one of the world’s most remote terrains with flaming hot and dry temperatures, sudden torrential downpours, stinging insects, snakes and deadly animals at every turn.
But is it as unforgiving as it seems?
Who takes part in Outback Lockdown?
Meet Aussie survival expert Ky Furneaux and British chef Calem O’Grady.
Ky Furneaux is described as “the World’s Greatest Stuntwoman… the star of Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid and “someone who can survive anywhere.” O’Grady is a British Chef who cooks at the great restaurants of Europe. And they’re together doing the Outback all while the world is experiencing the Great Lockdown of 2020.
These two have the ultimate “meet-cute” and will weather a COVID lockdown just after meeting and falling for each other.
The two have decided to go on lockdown after a “whirlwind romance in the wild outback of Australia” as described by producers. All of their movements and day-to-day doings are captured on film in the all-new series for Discovery.
Discovery says:
Faced with spending months apart as coronavirus hits, Ky and Calem decide to dive headfirst into an Aussie desert adventure going on lockdown – with no idea when they’ll return to civilization. Now they’re surviving off the grid, in an old stone hut on 38,000 acres of desert country sheep station. But is the lockdown together as idyllic as it seems? And just how much work will it take to survive the brutal conditions?
The two will have to find food, make a shelter, get potable water and generally keep their romance going as all these Herculean challenges pile up.
Can they do it? They’ll be without the basic necessities we all take for granted. But they will have each other’s company and hopefully they will be able to manage the stressors that this series will present.
The Australia National Park website says to “plan like a pessimist” when going on a jaunt in the outback.
They said: “Since remote areas don’t have reliable mobile coverage, it’s a good idea to hire a satellite phone and GPS to take with your phone and car charger. If you’re going deep in the outback, you should also stop off at the Visitor Information Centre to pick up a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) and Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB). Be sure to let friends or family know where you’re headed and when you plan to reach each landmark, so they know roughly where you are at all times.”
Outback Lockdown is described as a “love story” with these added elements of a “do-or-die” situation, without the basic needs we all take for granted and sheltering in a place less than hospitable or comfortable.
Take a chance on love and survival with Discovery.
Creatives in charge of the series
This new series is perfect for the times we are in, and is produced by Essential Media Group, acquired from Abacus Media Rights by Discovery Channel.
Series Executive Producers are David Alrich and Brendan Dahill.
Outback Lockdown premiering Sunday, July 19 at 10 PM ET/PT on Discovery.
