When NBC's "Fear Factor" ended its six-year run in 2006, host Joe Rogan figured that was it. But then NBC Universal-owned cable network Chiller started airing reruns of "Fear Factor."
"The repeats got great ratings and that began the dialogue" that led to the show's resurrection, Rogan said in a phone interview late last month. He got messages from his Twitter followers who were watching it, prompting him to check out the reruns. "I looked so young. It's very strange looking at the show you did. I most certainly did it, but I don't remember it," he said. "It was like watching something for the first time ever."
Spying the ratings for "Fear Factor" on Chiller, other NBC cable networks began making inquiries about the possibility of reviving the show, Rogan said. But ultimately NBC, in need of a hit to rescue it from its cellar-dweller ratings, made a deal for the revival with the original's producer, Matt Kunitz.
Kunitz has kept busy in recent years with ABC's "Wipeout" and this past summer's "101 Ways to Leave a Game Show," which looked a lot like "Fear Factor" when it came to physical stunts.
"I looked at the ad for that one and thought, 'Are people ripping off "Fear Factor"?'ââ" Rogan recalled, not realizing the same producer was involved in both shows. "But I guess they're allowed if it's the same people."
Once the process of reviving "Fear Factor" began in earnest, Kunitz emailed Rogan to see if he'd like to return as host.
"I had to stop and think about it," Rogan said. "The big thing I thought is that I would hate to see somebody else do it."
And so the "Fear Factor" team reconvened this summer to produce eight episodes, six one-hour installments and two that run two hours. The two-hour premiere airs Monday at 7 p.m. on NBC.
"When we went back to work, it was like a well-honed machine," Rogan said. "It was like the first day of season seven, which it essentially is."
In each episode of "Fear Factor," four teams of two compete against one another in challenges, both physical stunts and gross stunts. The team that wins the final challenge takes home a $50,000 prize.
Rogan said the show's format remains the same, with three stunts each episode. The middle challenge is always the gross one involving contestants consuming something disgusting. But the physical stunts are bigger than they were on the old "Fear Factor."
"Sometimes the first stunt of the show this season is like the grand-finale stunt of the old seasons," he said.
Rogan described a stunt that involved a contestant hanging by a wire from a helicopter as he's flown into a rock quarry. Once on the ground, the contestant has to pry open a box. Inside is a remote control that starts a full-size remote-controlled pickup truck that begins driving toward an ammo dump. Then the contestant has to hop in the back of the pickup and pull flags out of barrels in the bed of the truck until the truck runs out of road. At that point, the helicopter pulls the contestant up into the air and out of the truck, which crashes through a barricade and into the ammo dump, where it explodes.
"We were 600-700 yards away and you could feel the concussion from the explosion," Rogan said. "These stunts are just a massive step up from the past ones."
Of course, they do come with inherent risks. Both a contestant and a stuntman were injured during the filming of these upcoming episodes. The contestant was not seriously injured; the stuntman broke both ankles.
"People have been hurt many times," Rogan said. "I'd describe it as the same kind of injury you'd get if you were playing touch football. Nobody needed surgery."
Another innovation viewers may take for granted now: High definition.
"We didn't have HD back then, so now you get to see the bugs and things in all their glory," Rogan said. "And the explosions look way cooler."
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