Bear Grylls hosts “Running Wild with Bear Grylls”

If you’ve ever been camping, you know there’s more to the fun of it than getting out of the city and spending a few days surrounded by nature. There’s a certain satisfaction that comes from building a fire, sleeping on the ground and generally roughing it -- even if roughing it involves an air mattress, bottled water and easy-to-prepare canned goods warmed on a nifty little stove.

For many of us, that’s as close to living off the land as we plan to get, thank you very much. Others, of course, take it much farther, pursuing areas far off the grid with few supplies and surviving chiefly on what the land gives them.

Bear Grylls is no stranger to the wilderness, and as one of the world’s most renowned survivalists, he’s just about seen it all. In last year’s freshman season of “Running Wild with Bear Grylls,” the adventurous Brit took six celebrities from one extreme of the comfort spectrum to the other on a 48-hour stint in the true wilderness -- no air mattresses allowed. Now, eight new A-listers are on the roster for the adventure of a lifetime when a new season of “Running Wild with Bear Grylls” begins Monday, July 13, on NBC.

It’s always fun for us to get a glimpse of the glitterati outside of their on-screen roles and lacquered red carpet looks. We barely blink if we see our friends or colleagues denuded of makeup and are seldom interested in how they spend their downtime, and yet magazine racks are filled with items on celebrities looking normal and doing mundane things -- and readers eat it up. For whatever reason, it’s refreshing to be given a concrete reminder that, no matter how big their houses are or how many cars they have, celebrities are still only human.

In season 1 of “Running Wild,” we got to see some of Hollywood’s biggest names get down and dirty with a guy who, let’s face it, is far more accomplished than any of them. At age 23, he realized his childhood dream of climbing to the summit of Mount Everest, a mere 18 months after breaking his back in three places in a free-fall parachuting accident.

Even if that was the only thing he’s ever done with his life, he’d still be leagues above the most impressive person I know, but it doesn’t end there. Grylls has also circumnavigated the British Isles on a jet ski, rowed naked in a homemade bathtub along the Thames, crossed the North Atlantic Ocean in an inflatable boat, and raised more than $2.5 million for children’s charities through his various exploits. Oh right, and he’s also penned 15 books, including a No. 1 bestseller, hosted multiple TV series and, at age 35, was appointed the youngest-ever Chief Scout.

Clearly, if there’s anyone equipped to drag a few zillionaires from their sprawling mansions in the Hollywood hills and shove them out of a plane into dense jungle or a yawning canyon, it’s Bear Grylls. Last season saw Zac Efron (“Neighbors,” 2014) parachuting into the woods in the Appalachian wilderness, Channing Tatum (“Magic Mike,” 2012) eating a scorpion and a rattlesnake in Yosemite National Park, and Ben Stiller (“Tropic Thunder,” 2008) sleeping in a cave on the Isle of Skye in Northern Scotland. Each episode raked in more than four million U.S. viewers on average, adding to Grylls' already massive following.

Kate Winslet and Bear Grylls in “Running Wild with Bear Grylls”

“I think what has been powerful for me is seeing how the wild can transform people, and it can empower people and it can reconnect them with actually who they are,” the host said in a behind-the-scenes video for ScreenSlam last season. “I think the danger of fame is that it’s easy for people to go a little bit mad, you know, because everyone’s kind of pampering to them and you get whatever you want, and it makes you go a bit crazy.”

As was the case last year, this season’s list of celebrities is pretty actor heavy, with A-listers such as Kate Winslet (“Titanic,” 1997), Ed Helms (“The Office”), James Marsden (“X-Men,” 2000) and Kate Hudson (“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” 2003), but NFL quarterback and Super Bowl champion Drew Brees is also on board. Locales include everything from the Panama jungle to the Italian Alps to the Colorado Rockies.

“I think what is great about the wild is it’s the ultimate leveler,” Grylls said in the ScreenSlam video. “The real joy of the show is getting to know these celebrities who we know and love from movies and from TV, but getting to see them stripped bare ... and the truth is these guys are just often amazing, just who they are is incredible. They’re talented, they’re determined, they’re family people, and sometimes we don’t always get to see that, and that’s what I love about ‘Running Wild.’ We get to see the real people. It’s surprising, but almost invariably encouraging.”

With summer in full swing, the call of the wild is coming in loud and clear. Get a taste of it without leaving home when the second season of "Running Wild with Bear Grylls" begins Monday, July 13, on NBC.