Joe Rogan returning as 'Fear Factor' host for NBC's upcoming revival

Joe Rogan will be reprising his role as host for NBC's upcoming Fear Factor revival.


"It doesn't seem real. It seems like some sort of bizarro dream world. But I'm looking forward to it. The idea of sitting at home and watching someone else host it would have driven me crazy," Rogan told TV Guide Magazine, adding he intends to keep his hosting style the same.

"What I brought to Fear Factor the first time I hope to bring to it again -- a background in competitive athletics along with being a standup comedian. This show is tailor-made for me."

Fear Factor's executive producer Matt Kunitz said there's no one who could measure up to and do the job quite like Rogan.

"We wouldn't want to do this show without Joe," Kunitz told TV Guide. "This makes me 100% percent relieved. Part of the nostalgia of the show coming back is Joe Rogan. Joe is a guy's guy, but women like him as well."


NBC reality chief Paul Telegdy told Entertainment Weekly earlier this month the network began considering reviving Fear Factor after discovering repeats of the show's original episodes were producing high ratings on Chiller, the horror-focused cable network NBC's NBCUniversal parent company launched in 2007.

"Once it was a reality, I got really fired up about it," Rogan told TV Guide. "It seems so strange that a show could be off the air for five years and come back."

The revival season of Fear Factor -- which will feature eight episodes and be ready to air as early as September -- apparently won't attempt to go for maximum shock value but will still implement some noticeable changes.

"The stunt world has evolved significantly in the last seven years, since we taped the last show," Kunitz, who launched Wipeout for ABC in 2008, told TV Guide. "Technically stunts now are so much better at what we can do -- much bigger falls, much faster falls, bigger explosions, faster car stunts, bigger flips -- We want to take it to the next level."

Fear Factor's revival will also utilize a couples format including brothers and sisters or significant others. 


"When you have pairs, there's so much more at stake. You're relying on your partner to get through this stunt. There's a lot of screaming back and forth and better energy. So we're sticking with that," Kunitz said, adding that one of the eight episodes may feature celebrity contestants.

"We're in discussions right now. Ten new hours will actually be produced with the first and last episodes to be taped as two-hour events."

While Rogan told TV Guide he is happy to be reprising his position as Fear Factor host, his return is a bit of a surprise given he had publicly bashed the series after its 2006 cancellation.

"I enjoyed the money, but I didn't enjoy doing the show," he told The Denver Post in a 2008 interview.

"It was boring, and after a while, it was mindless... It's not something I would look forward to, but it was a great paycheck."


Telegdy said he originally approached David Goldberg, the CEO of Fear Factor producer Endemol USA, about reviving the show with a series of specials, however the talks eventually progressed into a full-scale revival.

"I said, 'Let's apply everything we've learned since then and put together the team,'" Telegdy told EW earlier this month.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski