‘Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing' stars give News 8 an inside look at survival

Yahoo

23-05-2025

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — It's all about one thing: survival.
In a groundbreaking season, fourteen top survivalists will venture into the perilous Australian Outback, facing extreme conditions, deadly snakes, and fierce competition, as the most intense and surprising installment of 'Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing' debuts.
Survivalists Matt Wright and Cheeny Plante sat down with News 8's Gio Battaglia this week about competing in the latest season.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: What was it like coming back for the new season?
Matt Wright: It was the best. You've got to be a little bit crazy just to keep coming back. That craziness keeps us from going completely insane, I guess.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: How does it compare to previous seasons you've competed in? Was there anything that happened that was unexpected?
Cheeny Plante: I thought it was way more in action packed. I love the environment. I love the cast that was chosen. The challenges were amazing. Weather was perfect. Everything about it was just great.
Matt Wright: This one definitely was a bucket list place being Australia. I think sometimes the most dangerous, deadly places, are sometimes the best adventure Then this one, obviously, you know, that bucket list kind of got knocked down a bit as I found myself going into elimination right off the bat. And it happens, any little slip, it shows you that all the training of everything you could still mess up, it is just about how well you could stand back up.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: I know when a lot of people watch the show, they think, 'Oh, I could do this.' But if they were ever presented the chance, they'd probably run scared. What keeps you guys coming back?
Matt Wright: What keeps me coming back, I would say is the inspiration. It's the people, the little kid that'll see me on the street, or, you know, anyone that says they've gone through a hard part in their life and because they've watched our challenge, it helped them get through that tough thing. If they were getting through cancer, disability, whatever it might be. There's a lot of people that have messaged me through the years saying, 'Thank you for taking on such a difficult thing when I was going through chemotherapy.' or 'You were my saving grace.' If he's running around naked, doing it, I can do it and and that always keeps me coming back. It's a tug at the heartstrings, and I find myself running around naked all over the world that way.
Cheeny Plante: We see the adventure and the chance to get out and get away and kind of go back in time and live how humans are supposed to live?
News 8's Gio Battaglia: If this was someone's first time tuning in for the new season, talk a little bit about what they can expect and what some of the competition looks like.
Matt Wright: If it's your first time tuning in, what you're going to find out here on this is that 'Naked and Afraid' is trying to survive the elements. You're just trying to like survive, and 'Last One Standing' is you now have to survive your peers in an array of different competitions while you still survive. And as tough as this is, it takes mental strength, physical strength, and it takes a little bit of strategizing, a little bit of pre planning, and being able to improvise on the spot. You'll see on this last one standing. It's gonna be some of the toughest competition yet. And it's one of the toughest places on the planet. And you will see a heck of an adventure.
Cheeny Plante: They definitely picked some of the best people that have ever been on this franchise. The challenges are fast paced. There's many moving parts. It's a lot. It's very exciting. It's lots of highs, ups and downs, lows, unexpected twists and turns. You don't want to miss a single episode, because something crazy happens in every one. I promise you.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: Talk a little bit about the fan favorites that came back. What was it like being in the lineup with these other fan favorites?
Cheeny Plante: It's pretty cool to be right up there with Matt and Laura and Max — some of these hard, seasoned veterans. It says a lot, and it's kind of it's an honor to be amongst these people.
Matt Wright: Without a doubt, it's humbling. It's humbling because I understand how tough it is to do this challenge as much as anyone it and to go out there with people who decide to go and to continue to take it on. Whether someone has has done a few challenges like Cheeney, or has done seven, eight challenges, or it's their first or second challenge, it's humbling to be out there with people who have the same mindset to want to go and run around with nothing and try to not just survive, but try to win this challenge.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: I guess my last question would be just reiterating that message of why you do it, and the message that people can take away once they watch the show other than trying to see survival skills.
Matt Wright: You're going to want to watch 'Last One Standing' as you'll be able to figure out your own strategy of how you might take it on and and see if it works in adapting to this environment. You'll learn a lot of different survival skills. There'll be a lot of things that we're doing out there that you may not have even thought about. You might have to do one day, but it will definitely keep you on your toes, because it's anyone's game, and because of that, it, there's really no way to ever predict what's going to happen next.
Cheeny Plante: This kind of stuff takes a lot of grit, lot of hard work, lot of dedication. And I hope people see that the harder you work, the greater your reward will be in life.
News 8's Gio Battaglia: Anything else that I might have glossed over that you think is important to hit home before the new season airs?
Matt Wright: I'd say one thing is just while you're seeing this challenge unfold, you have to also remember that it's a challenge to survive for a month in the Australian outback. It's one thing to think, you know, individual challenges, maybe won or lost, but you have to survive a month. And to survive a month alone is not an easy task. Not everybody will make it. Not everybody can just survive out there for that month. That is a big thing to take away while you see the challenges take part. Remember that you'd have to also be able to not die while you're out there for a month in the outback.
Cheeny Plante: We're under an extreme amount of pressure when we're out there. For sure, we're all human, so you're going to see a lot of mistakes.
'Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing' airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Discovery.
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