‘Alone’ Casting Director Shares How Contestants Are Chosen For the Show

Alone isn’t quite like any other reality show. The History Channel series premiered in 2015 and wrapped up its 10th season in August 2023. Each season follows a group of contestants who must survive on their own in the wild for as long as they can. The person who lasts the longest wins $500,000.

Needless to say, competing on Alone requires certain skills. You won’t make it far if you don’t know how to find food and start a fire. Cast members also need a particular personality. Aside from occasional med checks, contestants are completely isolated from other people. Anyone who can’t handle long stretches of time with no human interaction is likely to tap out early. So, how do producers find people who are cut out for the intense experience? Casting Alone is a complicated process. 

‘Alone’ producers look for cast members with different skills  

Alone contestants tend to be cut from the same cloth. They’re independent types who are comfortable in the outdoors and have key survival skills. But within those broad parameters, there’s quite a bit of variety. The season 10 cast, for example, included a living history reenactor (Melanie Sawyer), a second-generation survival expert (Luke Olsen), and an off-the-grid organic farmer (Ann Rosenquist).  

That diversity is intentional, Alone’s casting director Quinn Fegan told Vulture. 

“We always want a good number of people who have taken down big game with a traditional bow in the past,” she said. “We also typically want some military being represented, and any time we have an amazing bushcrafter is great.”

Thousands of people apply to be on ‘Alone’

As Alone has grown in popularity, the number of people interested in being on the show has increased. About 10,000 people apply for Alone every year. (If you’re interested, details on how to throw your hat into the ring are on the ITV America website.) 

Alone producers have also scouted for candidates, proactively reaching out to people who they think would be a good fit for the show. That’s how season 6 contestant Woniya Thibeault ended up on the show. The Alone casting team reached out via email with an invitation to chat, she recalled in her 2023 memoir Never Alone: A Solo Arctic Survival Journey.

Thibeault, an ancestral skills teacher from California, had been approached by reality TV producers before. But was turned off by the process, which felt “forced and ingenuine.” Alone was different. Unlike some reality shows, where producers engineer situations for maximum drama, Alone is truly hands-off. Once she overcame her reservations about appearing on TV (and upending her life to do so), she was all in. 

Potential contestants go through an ‘Alone’ boot camp 

Whatever way they come to the attention of producers, all potential Alone contestants have to go through a rigorous vetting process. According to Vulture, that includes a test on practical skills, such as proving they know what wood to use for a bow drill. They also need to show they can use camera equipment, as cast members must self-document their journey in the wild. There’s also a psychological exam as well as on-camera interviews that help producers zero in on potential story arcs. 

“We had days of meetings and tests, interviews and camera training,” Thibeault recalled of her Alone boot camp experience, which took place in a New York hotel. Later, her group of 22 prospective cast members headed to the woods, where they demonstrated their practical skills.  

While there’s no magic formula for getting chosen for Alone, being too fame-focused can definitely hurt a person’s chances. While past cast members have developed substantial social media followings, people who just want to promote themselves aren’t a good fit for the show.  

“Any time someone explicitly wants to be on television is a ‘no’ for me,” Fegan told Vulture. “If you even know what your brand is, that’s challenging.”

The result of that intense casting process (and producers’ commitment to not intervening once cast members are dropped off at their campsites) is one of the most authentic reality shows out there, according to past participants. 

With other reality show, “there’s always a level of fabricated conflict, and you just know there’s some puppeteering happening behind the scenes,” said Britt Ahart, whom competed on Alone Seasons 3 and 5. “Alone is the only survival show I thought had real legitimacy to it.”

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