Last One Standing

Claire recommended the Discovery Channel show Last One Standing (which, by the way, you can get for free on the website - here). It's wild. There are six guys, all immensely strong in one way or another, who train and compete in indigenous tribes all around the world in whatever test of manhood/war style they have. I watched the first episode, where they go into Brazil and compete in wrestling. It's intense.
What is this trend that's going on lately? Man vs. Wild is huge (I love Bear Grylls) and now this. Is it some kind of reaction against demasculinization? Against the feminist movement? Against feeling too civilized?
In my Cultural and Intellectual History of the US class, we learned about how, in reaction to the Victorian era of extreme civilization and men who were in their wives' pockets, there became a movement (personified by Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders) of a 'Strenuous Life.' The cowboy was romanticized, and everyone (not just men and boys) was encouraged to get their butts outdoors. Maybe something like that is happening now.