The celebrities on “Beyond The Edge” – including country singers Craig Morgan and Lauren Alaina – have been through filming for months, and Morgan and NFL legend Mike Singletary have different memories of the experience.
“It was exciting,” Morgan said on CMT Music Awards pink carpet. “The environment we were in. All of us were stripped of the things that inform people’s perceptions of who we are, what we should do, and how we should act. In that jungle, it’s all about your heart and your soul, and it created an environment that allowed us to be as pure and just stripped away of everything, and because of that there’s an honesty that comes.”
“Beyond the Edge” airs 9 p.m. (ET) Wednesdays on CBS Television Network and will be available to stream live and on-demand on Paramount+*. In addition to Morgan and Singletary, the cast also includes country singer and Grand Ole Opry member Lauren Alaina, supermodel Paulina Porizkova, Super Bowl MVP Ray Lewis, NBA champion Metta World Peace, NFL legend Mike Singletary, “Full House” actress Jodie Sweetin and television personalities Colton Underwood (“The Bachelor”) and Eboni K. Williams (“The Real Housewives of New York City”). During the show, the celebrities trade the comforts of their daily lives for two weeks of brutal living conditions and intense physical and emotional challenges to raise money for their favorite charities.
The charities are Alaina (The Next Door); Morgan (Operation Finally Home); Lewis (Johns Hopkins Children’s Center); Peace (The Artest University); Porizkova (ACLU Foundation); Singletary (Changing Our Perspective); Sweetin (Girls Inc.); Underwood (Colton Underwood Legacy Foundation); and Williams (Safe Horizons).
At the end of two weeks, the top two earners will face off in one final adventure to compete for the title of BEYOND THE EDGE champion and win even more money for their charity of choice.
The conditions are treacherous, and Alaina, who was in the lead, was disqualified following a severe foot injury last week.
Singletary said everyone looked to Morgan for guidance on the show but that the feeling they left with was gratitude for the military.
“The No. 1 thing that I really came away with was thinking about our soldiers and what they go through,” Singletary explained. “I was there for 10 days, but I thought about our soldiers and the price they pay. I was dumbfounded. All I can think about is how can they do that day after day? We should appreciate them more.”
Morgan said that what the cast experienced on the show was a tiny microcosm of what troops face, but said he felt like he walked away from the nine cast members feeling like he had nine new members of his family.
“It will forever be that way,” he said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity.”