Top 10 Crazy Bear Grylls Celebrity Challenges

While we know her best as the neat freak Monica from “Friends”, Courtney Cox proved she could rough it in the great outdoors when she teamed up with Bear in the Irish Highlands. This “Running Wild” episode sees Cox and Grylls fish a dead sheep from a nearby bog, before cutting off its testicles and boiling up the maggots inside. It has to be one of the least appetising meals we’ve ever seen, but Cox does muster a mouthful. It’s an acquired taste, we’re sure.

While our next entry isn’t focussed on a standalone challenge, when Thom Evans quit the first series of “Celebrity Island” in 2016 it highlighted how unforgiving a Bear Grylls show can be. A former international rugby player and an ex-Strictly contestant, Evans might’ve seemed an ideal fit for the extreme endurance programme. But he dropped out midway through, after losing almost two stone in a week. In fact, he was so exhausted, he could barely clamber onto the boat to take him home.

When this actor took a walk in the California woods with Bear, he threw himself into each and every task. But while we enjoyed Tatum’s daunting cliff climb, or the even hairier decent, his hunt for dinner is easily the most memorable part of this episode. First off, Bear and Chan find a potentially fatal scorpion: Bear beheads it, they both eat it. Then they come across an angry snake, and Tatum has machete in hand. The movie star makes light work of the kill, and guts it for good measure.

To one of Bear’s most infamous clips, and probably one of the most bizarre situations ever shown on prime time tele. When Mel B and Grylls go hiking in Wales, they make the somewhat surprising discovery of a jellyfish caught between rocks. But while explaining the nutritional benefits of their find, things take a turn for the worse and Bear ends up with a sore hand. But all’s not lost, because Scary Spice hasn’t peed for a while, and she volunteers her urine as an antidote. You have to see this, to believe it.

To another actor who fully commits to everything Bear throws at him, Zac Efron proved his grit for the first ever episode of “Running Wild”. The “High School Musical” star saved his best for last though, when he and Grylls negotiated a nerve-shredding 150ft drop into a remote lagoon, just before reaching their extraction point. Bear and Zac bred quite the bromance on their expedition, and they finished by beating this final obstacle together. Shirts were clearly optional.

While Bear pushes all of today’s celebs out of their comfort zone, few are forced further than Stephen Fry was, when he teamed up with Grylls for a “Wild Weekend” in the Italian Dolomites. The well-spoken comic was quick to confess his inexperience with outdoor adventuring, but he still managed to helicopter in, abseil down a rock face and kip in an abandoned war trench. But the highlight has to be Stephen scaling a 500ft waterfall. He goes through all manner of emotions during the three-hour climb, but he’s beaming when he reaches the bottom.

Stick an NFL Quarterback in the Panama jungle, and you might expect the unexpected. But Drew Brees went to untold extremes to keep his protein levels up, when he and Bear came face to face with a crocodile. While Grylls distracts the croc by noosing its nose, it’s down to Drew to capture it – which he does with surprising composure. There follows some pretty grim footage of the pair ending the predator’s life, and a slightly stomach-churning assessment of the kill – but Bear isn’t fussy when it comes to food.

For one of Bear’s earliest celeb collaborations, he and Jake Gyllenhaal head out into the Icelandic wilderness – and the “Southpaw” actor proves a prize fighter on tough terrain. Jake and Bear trek treacherous plains and dine on some questionable delicacies, but Gyllenhaal’s greatest moment comes when crossing a ravine. Despite perilous weather and a long-held fear of heights, Jake edges along the rope with spectacular views all around, but certain death if he falls. What a hero.

As we’ve seen, dinner with Bear is rarely a mouth-watering prospect. However, Michelle Rodriguez’s menu triggered new levels of nausea. The actress eats with Grylls on a rock in the Nevada desert, but all they’ve got to bite on is a dead mouse, and nothing to boil it in. So, ever the opportunist, Bear gets Michelle to do her business, and they stew the rodent in urine. Even Bear admits that he struggled to keep this one down, and can you really blame him?

Today’s winner involves not one but four famous people, all taking part in ITV’s “Mission Survive”. Michelle Collins, Jason Gardiner, Samantha Barks and Alex Scott all drop their trousers for this one, but not before Bear bares all to show them how it’s done. Grylls assures us that rectal rehydration saves lives, but there’s little to save red faces here. A clip you just can’t un-see, it’s a literal bum deal, and reality TV at its weirdest.