Derek Malcolm has been covering the worlds of tech and entertainment for more than two decades.
Before coming to How-To Geek in 2025, Derek was a contributing editor and writer for the A/V and Home Theater section at Digital Trends, where he wrangled and wrote everything from what to watch on Netflix to reviews, explainers, and guides on the latest Bluetooth speakers, turntables, projectors, and other A/V gear.
Based in Toronto, Derek graduated from Humber College's Journalism program in 1999, after which he started covering the worlds of music, movies, TV, and celebrity for publications such as TV Guide, Hello! magazine, and Inside Entertainment. He then got the bug for covering tech and gadgets in 2006, when he served as editor-in-chief of Canadian tech magazine Connected for more than a decade.
An avid skier, when all the snow's gone Derek can be found at home spinning vinyl with his daughter or cheering on his favorite F1 team, McLaren.
This week, ride along with the NFL's reigning champs, watch expert survivalists get dumped in the ocean off the shores of the Philippine islands overnight … naked, and my top pick is about a beloved sitcom sidekick who fumbles the fate of all existence.
Ready to whet your appetite for the upcoming football season? HBO and NFL Films' multiple Sports Emmy-winning behind-the-scenes reality TV franchise, Hard Knocks, has chronicled NFL team training camps in stunning detail since 2001. But it has never followed a defending Super Bowl championship team. Until now.
Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Seattle Seahawks drops its cameras deep inside the champs' facility in Renton, Washington, as head coach Mike Macdonald is under immense pressure to keep his team hungry and ready to defend its title. And just like any good reality TV show, the juicy stories are not in short supply. The weekly episodes follow the lives of quarterback Sam Darnold and his remarkable career resurrection, star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba's glorious ascent, and dozens of players and hopefuls sweating through roster cuts before the team deadline.
Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan) returns as the narrator, adding his signature coolness to even mundane things like blocking drills. Hard Knocks premieres tonight (August 4) on HBO and HBO Max with new episodes every Tuesday until September 1.
Even having watched countless seasons of intense survival shows like Survivor and Alone, nothing could have prepared me for the opening scenes of Naked and Afraid: Shipwrecked, a series I had never seen before. Which is insane, because the Discovery series has had 13 years, 19 seasons, and several spinoffs to perfect its famed clothing-optional empire, and it is a fascinating and harrowing watch.
For this new spinoff, Naked and Afraid has finally figured out how to blindside its own veterans. Twelve franchise all-stars sign up expecting a standard 35-day group challenge, only to be dumped into open water off the Philippines in the middle of the night with flares overhead and told, first, take off your clothes, and, essentially, good luck, as they plunge into the water with nothing but a survival flotation ring and whatever they can grab from the boat they’re on.
Split into four teams of three, they wash up on a remote island nicknamed the "Bermuda Triangle of Southeast Asia" for its history of shipwrecks and waters infested with box jellyfish, sea snakes, and sharks. Each team holds one piece of a map, and only by finding each other on the island can they earn extraction on day 35. If they don’t kill each other first. New episodes stream Mondays on HBO Max after first airing Sundays on Discovery.
From remote islands to frozen wilderness — can you identify these iconic
survival reality shows from a single clue?
Survivor first aired in the United States in the year 2000. Which network has
exclusively broadcast every season of the show since its debut?
In the History Channel show Alone, contestants are dropped individually into a
remote wilderness location and must survive as long as possible. What is the primary prize for the
last person remaining?
Survivorman features a solo survivalist who films himself surviving in remote
locations without a camera crew. Who is the host and star of this long-running series?
Man vs. Wild, which premiered in 2006, follows a former British Special Forces
soldier surviving in extreme environments. What is the host's full name?
Naked and Afraid pairs one man and one woman who must survive together for 21 days
in a harsh environment — completely nude. On which network does this show air?
Outlast is a 2023 survival competition on Amazon Prime Video in which teams must
work together to survive the Alaskan wilderness. What happens if a contestant's entire team quits or
is eliminated?