Documentarian and broadcast journalist Atom Araullo is embarking on an exhilarating journey as host of a brand new original series, a weekly 30-minute crowd-sourced travel show that explores thrilling experiences across the archipelago.
In the program, which premieres today at 8:30 p.m. on AXN, the award-winning TV personality begins his journey with a blank bucket list. Through social media, the list rapidly becomes populated with a variety of suggestions and tips including skydiving, bungee jumping and camping on a cliff ledge under the stars. Basically, netizens decide what destination and adventure Atom will take.
We sat down with the 35-year-old reporter to talk about Adventure Your Way, the show title, and his experience filming the first five episodes of the series – a first of its kind in the Philippines.
“Social media fans play a big part in the show. They will help shape my itinerary as I traverse the country with a phone as my only guide,” he told Manila Standard.
According to him, the show wants its audience to be highly-engaged. The fact that it is crowd-sourcing, the viewers and netizens play an active part in the travel program as Atom gets random suggestions – from strange to outrageous requests – which the show will try to accommodate.
“There have been a couple [of outrageous suggestions], one is a suggestion to actually fly a plane, which takes one day to learn. There are a lot of different levels to flying a plane but to actually being in a tiny plane and having control over it was both nerve-wracking and quite thrilling. I won’t reveal too much it but you really have to watch the show,” Atom said.
Talking about the premiere episode, Atom experiences his first adventure in Cebu and must decide whether to go river trekking or interbuilding ziplining. The activity to take on depends on the popular comment on Adventure Your Way’s social media pages on Facebook, Instagram and Twiter using #AdventureGoals.
“It was very fun, like any other program, there are birth pains, this is the first time I’m working with this group of amazing and talented people. It came out better than I expected, better than I hoped actually. And the great thing about the series is that it’s only going to get better as I kind of get more comfortable also in this role of being a host, just a host not a reporter or a producer,” he shared.
For Atom, the show calls on people to create their own adventures. It aims to encourage them to pack their bags, hop on a bus, and visit and explore a place they’ve never been to before. Similarly, it promises to be very spontaneous that at the end of its season, audience would be inspired to create their own adventure bucket list.
“I want people to have fun watching this show, first and foremost, along the way they will discover or rediscover how beautiful the Philippines is. Not everyone has the luxury of traveling. We have to be honest and realistic, some people don’t have the resources for it. But sometimes that’s not what’s holding us back. Sometime we are just to fatigued or afraid and we just wanted to stay at home. Traveling does wonder for the soul,” he ends.