FEAR FATIGUE

TV Chief Teases Terrifying New Role For Joe Rogan

Fox isn’t ruling out bringing the former “Fear Factor” host back to the show’s reboot.

Could Joe Rogan be making his return to goading desperate twenty-somethings into eating cow testicles for money? With a new reboot of Fear Factor, the classic 00s reality TV competition show he previously hosted, in the works, the door is open.

On each episode of the original show, which aired on NBC from 2001 to 2006, six contestants battled it out over three terrifying (and/or disgusting) stunts to be crowned the most “fearless,” winning $50,000 in prize money. Those stunts would include anything from being locked inside of a vehicle and dropped into a body of water to drinking donkey semen.

Fear Factor is being rebooted by Fox Entertainment, according to Variety. Though the network’s entertainment president Michael Thorn said “it’s too early for us to say,” whether or not Rogan will reprise his hosting role, he didn’t deny reaching out to the “major talent tied to the show.”

The new show, titled Fear Factor: The Next Chapter, will have the contestants living “under one roof” in an “unforgiving, remote location,” where they will endure “mind-blowing stunts, harrowing challenges and a twisted game of social strategy.”

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Rogan, who has since made a name for himself with his eponymous, oft-controversial podcast, has yet to comment on the series pick-up, but he’s previously been critical of his experience as host. In 2008, he told The Denver Post that he didn’t “enjoy” fronting the unexpectedly successful reality show. “I enjoyed the money, but I didn’t enjoy doing the show,” he said. “It was boring, and after a while, it was mindless.”

In 2011, when Fear Factor was first rebooted, Rogan returned to host, but later expressed regret over the decision.

“I didn’t have as much money back then and also it was a lot more money than I got the first time,” he explained on the Joe Rogan Experience. “It was a big deal that it was gonna come back, but I immediately regretted it.” He added, “After a while it was like, Jesus Christ, how many animal d---s can you serve people? How many times can you throw them off buildings?”

(That reboot was canceled after just one season, but the show was revived again for MTV in 2017, which rapper Ludacris hosted for two seasons.)

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Eboni Boykin-PattersonEntertainment Reporter

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