According to this article, 9-year-old Grayson Wynne was hiking with his family in the Ashley National Forest last Saturday when he became separated from the group. He didn’t realize the group of about 15 had stopped to adjust the saddle on a horse. He kept walking ahead of the group, then diverted onto a smaller, side trail.

Lost and alone, he started thinking about television, specifically Man vs. Wild and its host Bear Grylls.

In Man vs. Wild, Bear Grylls intentionally gets lost in extreme outdoor environments, then gives tips on how to survive in that situation.

Grayson applied those lessons by tearing up his yellow raincoat, even though it had started to rain” and tying the pieces to trees to leave a trail. Then, when night came, he built a shelter. After waking up the next morning, he decided to follow a creek. His thinking was that it might lead to a lake, and there were more likely to be people around a lake.

As he approached a meadow, he heard a helicopter. He ran out waving the small piece of his raincoat that was left, but before it saw him he was spotted by members of the search party who were on horseback. They had been following the trail he had left behind. Grayson made it through his 18-hour ordeal uninjured.

It’s incredible that a 9-year-old could take the lessons from the TV show and apply them that effectively. He may very well have survived being lost in the forest, but the things he did based on what he saw on Man vs. Wild certainly made it easier for people to find him.

Watching television really can save your life.