The anaconda in "Eaten Alive," a Discovery channel special, did not in fact feature a man getting eaten alive as promised, and fans are not happy.
Long story short: the 18-foot snake began eating the head of stunt man Paul Rosolie, who after a short time called the experiment off because the snake — coiled around his body — began crushing his arm. According to an
interview with Discovery, Rosolie and his team of experts had tested his supposedly snake-proof suit with constriction forces of approximately 90 psi, but the anaconda still proved too powerful.
All told, he claims to have spent an hour partially inside the snake before asking his team to rescue him.
Discovery had long hyped the show, releasing cliff-hanger teasers a month ahead of the Sunday premiere. Rosolie also did the press circuit, giving interviews to high-profile outlets like NBC's "Today" show. He was always coy about the logistics of being eaten alive, and now it's plain to see why: he wasn't.
"Rosolie’s goal was to persevere through the constriction and potential ingestion deep into the belly of the beast," Discovery said in a press release, clearly hedging with the use of the words "potential ingestion."
Many are surely relieved to know that the snake went unharmed, including PETA, which had protested the blatant stunt.
Others took to Twitter to voice their frustration, outraged they'd gotten the old bait-and-switch. To be fair, just think how the snake felt.
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