Eaten Alive Guy Was A Fluke, Gets Backlash From Viewers

Eaten Alive - Paul Rosolie, the pledged adventurer "Discovery" has chosen for their show "Eaten Alive," was not utterly consumed by an anaconda on his special Sunday night. The show "Eaten Alive" once promised viewers that they would be featuring a man entering "the belly of an anaconda," but despite the hype, that didn't happen.

Instead, the supposed two-hour special "Eaten Alive" showed Rosolie abandoning his mission after just 15 minutes into the process of getting eaten alive. It simply showed him being hugged and his helmet being nibbled by the anaconda. Rosolie then had to call in his team to come to his rescue, saying his arm was being crushed.

"I started to feel the blood drain out of my hand and I felt the bone flex, and when I got to the point where I felt like it was going to snap I had to tap out," he said.

TIME pointed out in their in-depth Q&A that Discovery had refused to say how much Rosolie was actually consumed.

"The story of this is an attempt. When you say Nik Wallenda is going to cross the Chicago skyline, they didn't promise he was going to make it; they promised he would attempt it. So the show is called Eaten Alive and that's what we worked as hard as we could to do. As for what happens, you'll have to watch," said Rosolie about the "Eaten Alive" show attempt.

He added that he spent months trying to recover from the encounter.

The anaconda used in "Eaten Alive" had reportedly been shipped in for Paul Rosolie's underwhelming stunt. Having failed at originally capturing a 26-foot-long anaconda in the wild, the production team had to settle for a smaller, 20-foot snake raised in captivity and shipped in to complete the feat, reported TMZ citing sources close to the production.

The footage of "Eaten Alive" had been plugged on TV and online for months. It was aired despite protests from conservationists on both sides of the Atlantic as well.

PETA also added to those preemptive protests with a new shaming press release blasting it as a publicity stunt. They said it exploited the anaconda by removing it from its natural habitat and forcing it to expend its limited physical resources on constricting Rosolie, reports the A.V. Club.

Many animal activists reportedly deemed the "Eaten Alive" stunt "cruel," therefore pushing on with the show certainly many viewers glued to their seats awaiting a spectacular show.

As a result of "Eaten Alive" not exactly featuring Rosolie's whole body eaten alive, the entire thing is being mocked on Twitter for not going far enough, describes TIME.

Within minutes of the show that "Eaten Alive" was broadcast, the public immediately to Twitter to express their disappointment.

Meanwhile, Discovery responded to the outcry over "Eaten Alive" by issuing a statement clarifying that Rosolie intended to be constricted and eaten alive by a giant snake. However, they had to stop when a team of scientific and medical experts with Rosolie said it was toodangerous.

"Paul created this challenge to get maximum attention for one of the most beautiful and threatened parts of the world, the Amazon Rainforest and its wildlife. He went to great lengths to send this message and it was his absolute intention to be eaten alive."

"Ultimately, after the snake constricted Paul for over an hour and went for his head, the experiment had to be called when it became clear that Paul would be very seriously injured if he continued on. The safety of Paul, as well as the anaconda, was always our number one priority."

The Daily Mail reports that during a live Q&A session on Facebook Monday afternoon, Rosolie admitted that the hype around the show "Eaten Alive" had been misleading.

"People seemed to assume that I already had gotten eaten. 'They seemed to forget that this was an attempt at 'entering the belly of the beast' not a promised outcome," he added.

Rosolie repeatedly stressed that the goal of the "Eaten Alive" experiment was to help protect the rainforest from destruction.

"By doing this stunt and show we got MILLIONS of people all over the world talking about the Amazon, and anacondas," he said. "We are also doing the fundraiser, and the first study of anacondas ever in the Amazon. Its something. Definitely not enough, but its something."

The "Eaten Alive" snake meanwhile remains alive and well and remains healthy. As for Rosoli, he is reportedly already believed to be prepping his next special, this time bringing attention to the endangerment of the blue whale.

For more, here's TIME's interview with Rosolie.

Below is the video of Rosolie getting "eaten alive."