“Fear Factor” is back with a new look, new rules and a new host — because who knows about putting yourself through painful challenges on camera better than “Jackass” star Johnny Knoxville?
“It was always on the radar to bring the show back at some point, but there’s a lot that goes into when you’re rebooting a big show like that: Is it culturally relevant? Is there updated creative that people are going to want to see? Ultimately though, it was the right time to bring the show back because Johnny Knoxville said yes,” Executive Producer Michael Heyerman told TheWrap.
Perhaps the most notable change from earlier seasons of the reality show to Fox’s “Fear Factor: House of Fear” is the addition of a social element to the game. While the early run of the show (once hosted by Joe Rogan) focused more on self-contained, one-off episodes, “House of Fear” throws contestants into a house for a season-long arc where the group of 14 is whittled down to one prize-winner.
This means that contestants must not only face their fears, but also curry favor with each other to avoid getting thrown into elimination competitions.
“I love the gossip as well, all the intermingling of people in the house,” Knoxville told TheWrap. “Zach really went out of his way to play the heel. It’s like it was in his mind from the beginning, you know? But it worked. I don’t know if people rooted against him. He gave you reasons to, but it’s interesting.”
“It’s always nice to see people play the game,” Heyerman added. “Zach specifically targeted people in a very public way, which I think surprised all of us, but it made him really pop as a character. It really stirred up the drama inside the house. I think we all were like, ‘Oh my God, this guy is unhinged.’”
Zach may have been unafraid of getting people on his bad side, but he lasted longer than several other contestants in “House of Fear.” In one crucial elimination event, Zach escaped from a straightjacket and locked room roughly one second before his competitor, Damienne, causing her to be sent home — and bringing Knoxville to tears on camera.
“Everyone’s really giving it their all. You see these reality shows where people are crying and you’re like, ‘What are you doing, man? Everyone’s fine.’ But when you’re in it and you meet these people and develop a bond with them — Tyler’s trying to impress her daughters, Damien’s trying to overcome real fears, they both did so well — I don’t know, I was sad to say goodbye to them,” Knoxville said. “That’s why I wore glasses today, so you wouldn’t see me cry again. It just happens. As I’ve gotten older, I get more emotional. I can’t explain it, I’m just really invested in the people on the show. I’m totally in it.”
This season of “Fear Factor” brought a lot of intense concepts and interesting challenges, ideas that Heyerman said were honed by a writers room before he had to “decipher between what is actual torture and what is a challenge that we can broadcast on television.” A slew of these challenges came together in the season’s sixth episode, which featured the contestants participating in a “pain auction” where they bid on how much pain they could inflict upon themselves to earn an advantage in a final challenge. Contestants wagered that they could withstand 100 volts of electricity, 13 needles in their arms, five bites from a snake and more as the episode progressed.
“When we got to the pain auction, we all knew that we had really good, horrifying challenges to put in front of them,” Heyerman said. “We were really nervous about who was going to be able to do what, would it work, would people say yes to this.”
“That was probably one of my most fun days on the set. Everyone really went for it. To be really frightened of something and then push through, that’s something,” Knoxville added. “It never got dark to me. It was all fun and games. It’s like, yeah, it’s a needle in your arm, but it’s fine. It’s just where they go in their head that makes them terrified. Luckily, everyone we had on the show showed terror in a very entertaining way.”
The event started off with a bang, as Ethan (the contestant who wagered he could withstand 100 volts) began screaming as the voltage surging through his body increased. Despite this horrific start, not a single contestant bailed from their challenge after making a wager (though, one did have to visit an ambulance after ingesting five hot peppers).
“(Ethan) was very dramatic,” Knoxville added. “When that’s the first thing you see, the other contestants are like, ‘Oh no.’ He was the perfect the guy to be overdramatic and go first. It was perfect.”
“You can’t really ever predict it working, but when it works, you can really feel it on set, and it is electric,” Heyerman said. “This is what the show’s all about.”
“Fear Factor: House of Fear” is now streaming on Hulu.
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