If you think all country-music singers are alike, try this simple experiment: Plunk two of them into the Panama jungle.
That’s what “Beyond the Edge” (9 p.m. Wednesdays on CBS) did, dropping Craig Morgan and Lauren Alaina into the jungle, alongside seven other celebrities. The result?
— For Alaina (shown here, front), it was overwhelming at first. She recalls “going, ‘Are we alive? What’s happening?’”
— For her country colleague, it was sort of natural. “Without Craig Morgan, none of us would be alive now,” Paulina Porizkova, a former supermodel, said.
She may be exaggerating a tad, but everyone (in a virtual press conference) agreed that Morgan, an Army Airborne veteran, was a key force. “He knew how to make a fire in the rain,” Porizkova said. “He knew how to do the roofs. He showed how to collect food. (He was) Captain Morgan.”
He had more preparation than most people. Consider their starts.
At 17, Alaina was “American Idol” runner-up, launching her country career. At 18, Morgan was an EMT (emergency medical technician), soon joining the Army. At 24, he was in combat in Panama. “When we would do a jump-in behind enemy lines, we were extremely dependent” on each other, he said.
Now “Edge” again had a few people fighting the elements. “The heat and humidity was so intense,” said producer David Garfinkle. “You would drink water all day. (At night,) it would just pour rain.”
When the rain stopped, it was pitch-dark. With animals nearby, tough guys – former football stars – wanted a bathroom buddy. “It was 2 o’clock in the morning,” Mike Singletary said. “He (Ray Lewis) was like, ‘What? What?’ I said, ‘Get up. We are going to the bathroom.’”
The show included another former football player (Colton Underwood, better known for “The Bachelor”) and a former basketball star (Metta World Peace), plus actress Jodie Sweetin and Eboni Williams, a lawyer who’s on the “Real Housewives of New York.”
All were out of their element. Alaina – who’s from a Chattanooga suburb of 10,000 – considers herself a country kid, but did the Zoom call from a room that seemed stuffed with shoes and dresses and such.
“Despite the backdrop, I’m a pretty big tomboy,” she insisted. “This is the one part of my house (where I go) when I have got to work. But I do like a good pair of shoes.”
She’s 27 and has thrived on duets. On the Billboard country chart, she reached No. 1 with Kane Brown (“What Ifs”), No. 2 with Dustin Lynch (“Thinking ‘Bout You”) and No. 4 with Hardy (“One Beer”).
Morgan, 57, has reached the top-10 seven times, led by “That’s What I Like About Sundays” at No. 1, “Redneck Yacht Club” at 2, “Bonfire” at 4 and “Almost Home” at 6. But now, he was in his old element, making fires, food and friends. Said Alaina: “I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
Sweetin agreed. “I weirdly miss it and maybe want to do it again,” she said.
Williams deferred: “Jodie, girl, you are on your own. I am not going back to the jungles of Panama. I am too comforted by my warm bed, three meals a day, knowing which water I’m going to be able to drink.”