Student Hopes To Be 'Last One Standing'

Corey M. Rennell ’07-’08 has been filmed stick fighting in South Africa, canoe racing in Vanuatu, and tribal wrestling in Brazil. Now, one hurdle remains: accepting the fact that his experiences will be on display for TV viewers as the reality show “Last One Standing” makes its U.S. debut this evening.

The 12-part series, produced by the BBC, features six American and British athletes who compete with each other in tribal games while immersing themselves in indigenous culture. The show will air on the Discovery Channel at 9 p.m. tonight.

For Rennell, a certified diver, first ascent mountaineer, and endurance athlete, the show offered an opportunity to escape the rigor of school life and embrace a new physical challenge.

“By junior year, I was kind of disenchanted with school and I was feeling pressure to rush through my whole life and achieve all these things. I was sort of unhappy,” said Rennell, who was a Crimson photographer. “When you’re young, it’s your time to test your body and go on all of these adventures.”

The lust for adventure prompted Rennell to leave Harvard for a year to commit himself to 14 months of on-and-off filming.

“He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to do it or not, but I definitely encouraged him, because obviously it was a once in a lifetime experience,” said former roommate Thomas M. Hamnett ’07.

The show required the athletes to completely immerse themselves in the daily lives of their host tribes. Bottled water was “the only concession to western life,” said Mary E. Donahue, the show’s executive producer.

Despite the physical challenges, Rennell found the emotional side of the experience to be more central.

“I think the show captures the pain of the sports, but I don’t think it captures everything else that’s going on while we’re experiencing the pain,” he said. “The show also doesn’t capture our love for the people and the tribe and our appreciation for them. I don’t really blame Discovery Channel or BBC, I blame the viewers because what viewers want is pain and drama. They don’t really want to see kindness, and compassion, and good morality, I guess.”

Donahue said the experience transformed the participants.

“What I like is that each of the guys went into themselves and found the best of themselves,” she said.

Now a senior in Adams House, Rennell said that he tries to use the lessons of kindness he learned from the tribes to guide his daily endeavors. He said this often means leaving for class ten minutes early to give other people the right of way while walking.

Rennell treated the show as an exercise in self-discovery and cultural exploration, but he worries that one-hour episodes will not be able to do justice to the time he spent among the tribes.

“I think definitely the bulk of the experience for me is behind the scenes of the show, which is another reason why I’m coming into the week with mixed feelings,” he said on Monday. “If there’s a way that I can share the things that I’ve learned through this show to everyone else around me, that would be the ultimate gift.”