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Fear Factor
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NBC’s Fear Factor may be the meanest series ever on a major network. USA Today TV critic Robert Bianco calls the reality game show the "most vile." Its rules are simple: Three women and three men attempt a trio of stunts in each episode, battling for a $50,000 purse. In the first activity, some sort of adrenalized feat warms up the audience. Players get dragged behind a horse or jump from one speeding semi to another. Then viewers gawk at gross-out behavior designed to horrify and repulse (such as submerging contestants in live rats, worms or snakes). The third and final assault is typically a timed, high-intensity test of strength and nerve, often taking place high above ground.
"Just because some people are willing to do anything for money doesn’t mean society should allow it, or networks should program it," Bianco writes. "[Do] we think so little of our fellow men, we’re willing to have them subjected to any humiliation for our entertainment?" Evidently.
Humiliation is precisely the right word for what happens on Fear Factor. Host Joe Rogan (NewsRadio) alternately cheers and jeers the participants, futilely attempting to coax some sort of larger meaning out of their senseless activities. "Feel free to mess with each other’s minds, play off each other’s fears," he tells each group. "These are not your friends, these are your opponents." Opponent may be too lofty a designation. These people are not competing; they’re mice in a maze, hapless dupes in a network ratings scheme. Their only commonality is a willingness to do anything to be on TV and possibly win a few bucks.
Occasionally, a player will back away from a stunt, too nauseated or scared to proceed, usually weeping. The producers must love that—a pretty girl reduced to tears at the thought of writhing around in 300,000 worms, then swallowing one. Sadly, if it was only the producers who enjoyed her agony so much, Fear Factor would not have survived the summer. And now NBC has already ordered up another season's worth of episodes. Adolescents are eating this stuff up, and the case of moral indigestion sure to follow is going to be a doozy.
EPISODES REVIEWED:
June 11, 18, 25, 2001
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