I recently downloaded it and am beginning to watch it again as I didn't catch it all back when it was originally aired. I thought it was really interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier_HouseFrontier House was an educational reality TV series that originally aired on PBS in April 2002. The show, which was filmed over the course of five months, followed the lives of three family groups that agreed to live as homesteaders did on the American frontier in 1883. Each family was given a 160-acre (0.65 km2) plot of land and an allotment of food, supplies, and livestock. They were expected to establish a homestead and complete the tasks necessary to prepare for the harsh Montana winter. At the end of season, before winter struck, each family was judged by a panel of frontier experts and historians, and the likelihood of survival for each group was assessed.
Frontier House followed in the footsteps of the successful The 1900 House, a British series which originally aired on PBS in 2000. Manor House, Colonial House, The 1940s House, and Regency House Party followed the successful series and the latest, Texas Ranch House, aired in May 2006.