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NATCHEZ — Natchez native David Norman will compete on the new Fox TV reality series, “Extracted.”

The first episode airs tonight, Feb. 10, at 7 p.m. on the Fox network.

Norman, 37, is a 2006 graduate of Natchez High School and a 2011 graduate of Alcorn State University, where he earned his degree in biology. For the last 11 years, he has been a high school biology teacher in the Houston area.

The survival-themed competition places 12 contestants in all kinds of perilous situations — harsh terrain, frigid temperatures, with little or no sources of sustenance. Players aren’t allowed to leave until their family members, who are watching them from afar, decide they’ve had enough.

Each of the contestants who are placed in the wilderness, has two family members or friends watching their every move back at “headquarters,” he said.

Norman said he and two of his cousins competed on the show, which was filmed in July, August and into September.

“I can’t tell you where the wilderness was. I just know it was the Canadian wilderness,” Norman said. “The other two family members were at someplace called headquarters or HC, and I could not tell you where that was. I don’t even know.”

Norman competed on the show with two cousins, Jakoben Thomas, 22, and Laterrance Baker, both of McComb.

“Jakoben has been on a similar show before and so they sent him information about this show. He called him and asked if I wanted to compete with him. We are very competitive as it is, so I said yes,” Norman said.

Thomas was the family member who was sent into the wilderness and Norman and Baker were at headquarters and decided Thomas’s fate — whether and when he was extracted.

The last group of family or friends standing with a member still in the wilderness at the end of the show won $250,000.

Norman is contractually prohibited from talking about how far he and his cousins went on the show.

“Extracted features 12 untrained competitors attempting to survive extremely grueling conditions, perilous terrain, and the threat of fearsome predators in the unforgiving Canadian wilderness. Meanwhile, some miles away, their family members are locked down at a secluded headquarters watching them navigate their dangerous surroundings alone via a 24/7 live feed. The fate of each untrained contestant in the wilderness lies in the hands of their family members back in HQ. Each amateur survivalist’s family has the power to decide whether their loved one has what it takes to brave the elements and fight to be the last one standing, or whether the family will push the ominous ‘Extract’ button and remove their loved one and their whole family from the competition,” according to a Fox press release about the show.

“It was an amazing competition — very intense, fierce. It’s going to be good for TV,” Norman said. “Everything is real — real emotions, real communication, not acting,” he said. “The competition of the show brings out the love of the families. It shows how connected these families are.”