And as has been pointed out, that is rarely, if ever, the case. Unfortunately, sitting down and waiting out the situation just doesn't make for very exciting TV, while doing dumb,improbable things does.

This is not a trivial matter. While I am no longer involved, I spent a good amount of time in SAR work in southern Arizona, dealing with the often highly unfortunate (i.e., fatal) consequences of precipitous action by people who got in over their heads. Our unit also spent a fair amount of time on public education, especially with school children. His lousy examples don't do anything at all to help people behave more safely when outdoors. Two people drowned in Zion NP a couple of years ago, trying to produce footage similar to his, and I'll bet there are other situations like that.

Have you ever seen Bear,or any of the other "experts", when faced with an obstacle, pull out their map and determine that they could backtrack, follow another route, and reach safety in a much less hazardous manner? Of course not! Something that sensible and mundane will never boost ratings, and hence, will never be shown. Higher ratings is the name of the game, not educating the public.