Governor Palin: Quads, Bogs, and Bones

Life is so unpredictable, and like my dad always says, it’s “too short to be stuck in a rut!” One way to get out of a rut is to find inspiration in the great outdoors. Activity and fresh air are energizing! Sunday at 9pm ET/8c on “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” we show you a few things that we find more fulfilling than staying indoors and sitting on the couch. 

Plato said, “You learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” So join us as we learn more about each other and what God’s creation has to offer, as we pack up the RV to go dog mushing, white water rafting, four-wheeling, and fossil hunting where we find evidence of ancient sea life on the high hilltops of the Last Frontier! Come join us as we experience more of Alaska’s amazing sights and meet a few more of our friends, including a very special friend we visit in this episode who passed on recently. This episode is dedicated to our old friend “Bones.” You can watch a preview of it here. 

My early New Year’s wish for all is that inspiration and fulfillment will be yours in 2011. Remember that one way to find that is to get outdoors.

- Sarah Palin

‘Sarah Palin’s Alaska’ Draws 5 Million, Best In Network History

TLC says 4.96 million total viewers tuned in, including 1.8 million  adults 25-54, and 1.6 million adults 18-49, two of the network’s key demos. That is the best premiere in network history with regards to total viewers, beating the 2003 debut of “What Not to Wear.”

The series had its origins earlier this year, when Burnett and Palin shopped the concept around to the broadcast networks. When the big players passed, they take it to cable, where A&E Networks and Discovery Communications entered into a bidding war. Discovery came out on top, and opted to run the series on its TLC network.

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Media Bistro: ‘Sarah Palin’s Alaska’ Premiere Draws 5 Million, Breaks TLC Ratings Record

NY Times Review: Sarah Palin's Alaska, How’s That Outdoorsy Stuff Working for Ya?

Sarah Palin says her new series on TLC is not a reality show, and she has a point. The show is not an outdoorsy version of celebrity-dysfunction shows like “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” or “The Hasselhoffs.”

“Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” which begins on Sunday, is odder than that. The snowcapped mountains, pine forests and shimmering lakes are majestic, the Palin children are adorable, and the series looks like a travelogue — wholesome, visually breathtaking […]

But mostly, the eight-part series lives up to its title — the camera follows the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee as she fishes, hunts, dog-sleds and rock-climbs. It’s a nature series for political voyeurs: viewers get to observe Ms. Palin observing nature. And to her credit, the governor doesn’t use the camera crew to recast her image or pad gaps in her résumé. She doesn’t pore over position papers in a book-lined study, phone foreign leaders or even watch “Jeopardy.”

Mostly she has fun outdoors. That includes white-water rafting, kayaking, salmon fishing and climbing glaciers. “You know what they say,” she says to the camera after a disappointing fishing trip. “A poor day of fishing beats even a great day of work.” […]

The TLC program highlights her physical bravery, but the series’s existence points to a different kind of courage: Ms. Palin is not afraid to be herself.  Yet Ms. Palin allows the camera to record moments that may well make her critics snicker, particularly now that Bristol is back in the limelight as an underdog contender on “Dancing With the Stars.” 

One day a hired seaplane lands on the lake at the back of their Wasilla house to take the family salmon fishing and bear watching. The Palins watch, awestruck, as brown bears lope, swim, growl, fight. At one point a bear seems on the verge of charging the boat, a danger that Ms. Palin says “keeps you on your heels.” […]

Perhaps Ms. Palin’s most impressive feat is climbing a glacier with a guide and her husband, a rock-climbing adventure that is obviously arduous and scary. She says out loud many times that she is afraid she can’t make it to the top. Viewers may fear another risk; her high-pitched voice is so piercing it could trigger an avalanche.

Sarah Palin’s Alaska: TLC, Sunday 9/8 pm 

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NY Times: Sarah Palin's Alaska How’s That Outdoorsy Stuff Working for Ya? By Alessandra Stanley