Two opposing senators have joined forces to star in a reality survival series in which they are marooned on a desert island while trying to show that Republicans and Democrats "can get along."
Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico had pitched Discovery Channel the idea for a TV program that had them spending six days and nights on a remote island,
according to Deadline.
The cable network agreed to the project and filmed the senators on Eru, one of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, for a show called "Rival Survival," which is scheduled to debut Oct. 29 on Discovery.
During their stay, the senators agreed that they would at least be able to hammer out their differences on how to survive, even if they couldn't agree politically.
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The network said the "senatorial adversaries" were turned into "survival teammates" using just their wits and a couple of modest items of their choice.
"Our first thought was just to go and take a few Go-Pro cameras and film it and document it or hand it over to someone," Flake told
The Washington Post.
"We wanted to show that Republicans and Democrats can get along and survive together. Then we approached Discovery because they have a number of survivor shows and they said, we like the idea but how about you let us come film it?
"Whoever is going to lead the Senate going forward is going to do so with a very slim margin. The parties are going to need to work together, so we wanted to get this out before the election. Now's a good time to show it."
The politicians were filmed trying to spear fish, build a shelter, and find enough water to live on, which was complicated by the fact that there is no natural source for fresh water on Eru, Deadline reported.
The tiny island, which played a central role in the battle against Japanese soldiers during World War II, is the site of a downed U.S. aircraft from the fighting.
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Last year Flake spent a week "stranded" on a deserted island in the Pacific with two of his sons, and he also went on a solo survivalist trip five years ago to another of the Marshall Islands, the entertainment website said.
Discovery says that Eru is an unforgiving island filled with potential dangers, such as the reefs with poisonous stonefish, lionfish, and scorpion fish. The surrounding ocean also is known as a shark breeding ground for such species as black tip sharks, grey reef sharks, bull sharks and tiger sharks.
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