Andrew “Lucky” Larson and his daughter, Andrea “Louie” Larson, 24, of Chicago, were crowned the winners of NBC’s adventure reality-competition series “Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls.”
The father-daughter duo defeated the two remaining teams — Austin and James Vach and Chris Winter and Jeffrey Powell — in a soggy final challenge that took place amidst a downpour in a rainforest during Monday night’s finale. The pair took home $500,000 for their victory.
Lucky, 58, is a carpenter from Stillman Valley, near Rockford. A rugged outdoorsman, he raised his daughters on a goat dairy farm and taught them to follow in his footsteps. They learned how to hunt, trap, fish, skin an animal and survive and thrive in the outdoors — skills that no doubt came in handy for the show, which just finished its first season. (Ratings weren’t great, so who knows if there will be a second.)
Louie lives with her husband in Chicago and works as a volleyball coach.
The competition began with 10 teams (including another from Chicago: Vanessa Vazquez, 23, and Erica Franklin, 24), all trying to avoid weekly elimination and survive the elements and challenges in New Zealand.