Jake Nodar is out on Discovery’s “Out of the Wild”

Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment isn’t your typical reality show. And thirty-year-old Jake Nodar isn’t your typical reality participant, especially not when it comes to those usually found on The Discovery Channel. Nodar is gay and, as hard as it is to believe, in nearly twenty-five years of operation, the network has never featured an out gay man in its programming.

That changes Tuesday night when Nodar, along with eight other participants, are dropped in the middle of the Alaskan bush and told to find their way out with minimal supplies and virtually no help. But don’t mistake this for a colder version of Survivor. There are no reward or immunity challenges, no scheming alliances and no million dollar prize.

Instead, Nodar and the eight others face only brutal weather and mile after mile of trudging through the Alaskan wilderness as they work to navigate their way back to civilization.

Fortunately for the very fit Nodar, a horse trainer by profession, he is also an avid hiker and camper used to the outdoors and adverse conditions. He’s also a member of the Atlantic States Gay Rodeo Association. In other words, he’s not the usual sort of gay guy we see on television.

Nodar competing and with his horse

AfterElton.com had the chance to chat with Nodar last January during the Television Critics Association January Tour about his time on the show, his coming out experience on a ranch in western Colorado and more.

How exactly did the slender, sandy-haired Nodar go from training horses in Maryland to hunting bear in Alaska? It turns out he had been planning a trip overseas when he stumbled across an application for the show.

I was going to go over to Mongolia [to] spend some time with the herdsmen over there, photographing them. And I typed in something like ‘Mongolian Expedition’ on Google, and something came up about Alaskan Expedition and I just clicked on it. And a day later, the guy from casting called and I sent him some shots of me riding horses and told him what I do – an openly gay horse trainer from Maryland.

As to what possessed Nodar to chuck everything to spend a month slogging through Alaska, he says “Alaska has had a huge appeal to me. I mean that was sort of what caused me to click on the link and when I started reading it, it was right up my alley. I think the whole idea of being out there with complete strangers and having to rely on them to sort of help you get through this was very appealing.”

Nodar and two other Out of the Wild participants fording a river
(Discovery Channel/Rich Prickett)

Less appealing was leaving behind Andrew, an architect in Washington D.C. and Nodar’s boyfriend of four years, “I think he was shocked,” Nodar says of his Andrew’s initial reaction. “He was very, very surprised, but very supportive at the same time.”

After being dropped off southeast of Mt. McKinley in early September, Nodar quickly realized he was up to the challenge mentally, but hadn’t really understood what the show involved physically.

I felt like I went into the show with the right mindset, but physically I was not expecting it was going to be that much. I was dropping I think about a pound a day. And I didn’t have a whole ton to lose. I’d never shot an animal before and that was one concern of mine. When you get out there, and by day two or three, we were starving. And you’re like - gimme that gun! I will shoot anything! So it was full of surprises. Every day was a constant push just to get shelter and water and food.