  Joe Rogan. (Handout) |
We're pretty sure that when Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself," he was talking about Fear Factor.
OK, maybe we have that wrong. But Fear Factor has been off the air for a long time -- FDR might have been President of the United States back then, who can recall?
Anyway, Fear Factor is alive. It disappeared in 2006 after six seasons and 140-plus episodes, but an abbreviated seventh season has emerged, starting with a two-hour premiere Monday, Dec. 12 on NBC and Global.
"I don't think it ever has happened like this before, where a show took off for six years and then came back with the same host and the same crew and the same producers and the same directors," said Fear Factor host Joe Rogan.
"Matt Kunitz, the executive producer, said it best. He said it was like we went into a coma and woke up six years later and just started filming Fear Factor again. It was very strange but very seamless."
But you were all for it, right Joe?
"I was all for it, yes," Rogan said. "Well, they were willing to pay me, so that helped."
Ah, honesty. So rare and yet so appreciated.
Each new episode of Fear Factor will include four teams of two, competing against each another. Contestants must decide if they have the determination to face their primal fears, as they are presented with a series of challenges that range from physically strenuous to flat-out gross.
If contestants complete their tasks, they advance. If fear stops them, they are eliminated. Pretty straightforward stuff.
Besides hosting both the new and original versions of Fear Factor, Rogan is a standup comedian by trade. He played electrician Joe Garrelli on the sitcom NewsRadio, and since 2002 he has provided colour commentary for UFC fights.
"When Fear Factor first came on the air in 2001, there was nothing like it," Rogan recalled. "We had Survivor, which did a few gross things and it was a reality show. But as far as grand game-show-type reality shows, really ridiculous over-the-top shows, there was nothing like Fear Factor before.
"Now there has been a bunch of these shows. It has become an accepted genre, whereas in 2001 we were the red-headed stepchild of television. I remember some articles when we first aired where I was like, wow, people are looking at it as the downfall of Western civilization and not from a joking standpoint."
Whether viewers in 2011 consider the new version of Fear Factor to be a plague or a lark doesn't really matter to Rogan or anyone else associated with the show. They simply have to tune in, out of curiosity if nothing else, just like they did the first time.
So, Joe, give us a reason.
"The grossest one is this season, for sure, without a doubt," said Rogan, when asked to identify the grossest stunt Fear Factor ever has done. "But we can't talk about it because NBC has not decided yet whether or not it's going to air."
Top that, FDR!
