So Why Did 'Fear Factor' Get Canceled in the First Place?

June 2024 · 5 minute read

'Fear Factor' was once one among NBC's highest-rated presentations in the early 2000s, so why did it get canceled, introduced back, and canceled once more?

Mustafa Gatollari - Author

The leisure trade is usually a brutal beast. There's a reason why there are throngs of folks available in the market who in the long run make a decision to give up on their dreams of having their very own talk show or changing into a stand-up comedian or the global's largest clown-themed rapper for a role at their dad's apply. That's as a result of getting a tight activity in the business is certainly not a accomplished deal.

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And even if you do set up to land an excellent gig, maintaining it is another tale. Countless high-profile pilots are never picked up and further evolved even if they have top skill and administrators attached to it. And if your display does get picked up, there's no ensure it will final for a couple of seasons. But NBC's Fear Factor did, and used to be one among the community's greatest shows. So why did it get canceled?

Why did 'Fear Factor' get canceled?

It was once the early 2000s, and community television was going large into reality TV and so they weren't afraid to dip their ft into the edge-pool in order to secure ratings. The WWE was promoting D-Generation X T-shirts with the words "SUCK IT" on them. People hadn't discovered Limp Bizkit sucked but, and movie-theater goers cheered after they watched Anthony Hopkins feed Ray Liotta his personal brains.

It used to be a wild time, and Fear Factor embodied that wildness.

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Hosted through the podcast king himself, comedian/UFC commentator/tae kwon do champion Joe Rogan, Fear Factor was once, at the time, a surprise luck for NBC. The display, which launched in 2001, picked a handful of contestants and put them via quite a lot of hair-rising and disgusting demanding situations to overcome their fears for the probability to win a ton of cash.

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Folks had been dangled from zip strains that have been connected to helicopters, ate insects and boiled genitals of strange animals, and did loads of weird and horrifying issues for a candy money prize.

Rogan at the time was mostly recognized for his routine function on the widespread sitcom News Radio. In a 2015 interview with Art Bell, Rogan stated he did not suppose there was once any way that Fear Factor would stay on air.

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"It was bizarre for me being there, being the host of it, as it was for anyone to watch it. Ninety percent of the time I would show up at work and I’d be shaking my head going, 'I can’t believe this is a real show,'" he mentioned (according to Gossip Cop), including: "I thought it was something completely ridiculous. I’m like, ‘There’s no way this is going to stay on television.’ Then, 148 episodes later…"

However, like most displays with zany premises, it seemed as if the allure of Fear Factor started to put on off after a couple of seasons. Ratings dwindled from 12 months to year, despite the fact that they were still reasonably robust even up to the end of its 6th season, when it was once canceled. The sequence reportedly earned the network a whopping $600 million in ad revenue for its first run on air.

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While the show was once successful, NBC noticed that fanatics weren't too interested in re-watching episodes of the collection, as DVD box-set gross sales (that have been giant in the early aughts) of the first season did not carry out neatly sales-wise.

As Gossip Cop notes, some consider that "overexposure" may've contributed to Fear Factor's cancellation and dwindling target market passion, as new episodes have been premiering on NBC at the identical time that older episodes have been airing in syndication.

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After seeing that the reruns did well on NBC's sister community, Chiller, NBC determined to convey the sequence back in 2011. However, it did not fare well because of production pushing the envelope a bit too a long way with a few of the challenges. Rogan informed Bell, "The second time around we did it for seven more episodes… and then I was worried because there were some episodes… where they really kept upping the ante further and further and there was a few accidents. Nobody got hurt; [it was] nothing serious. But it was like wow. This is more risky than we ever did before."

They gotta convey back Fear Factor and make Saweetie host that whinge😭

— Waricito (@_Jawhari) August 5, 2021

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One episode in specific, where contestants have been challenged to drink either donkey semen or urine, in the long run put the kibosh on the sequence. Although it used to be by no means aired, the episode is to be had for those to watch who're .

The show used to be rebooted again in 2017 on MTV with Ludacris as host but used to be ultimately axed after two seasons.

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Joe Rogan once fought a contestant on the show.

The scuffle befell after Joe referred to as out a feminine contestant — who appeared on the collection together with her husband — for physically assaulting another player. The feminine contestant's husband sooner or later charged at Joe. WWE's The Miz ended up breaking apart the battle between the husband and Joe, announcing, "And then all of a sudden they start going at it and I was like, 'All right I gotta break this up because Joe's gonna kill him.'"

The host can also be observed retaining the contestant at bay as he fecklessly accosted the tae kwon do champion and BJJ black belt.

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