United States theme-park visitors will get the chance to confront their phobias when the often stomach-churning reality television show Fear Factor becomes a live amusement-park game.
Universal Studios announced on Tuesday it was overseeing the first shift from reality TV to public reality with the planned opening of its Fear Factor Live shows at its Hollywood and Orlando, Florida, theme parks.
“The odds are more in your favour for getting into Harvard than being chosen to appear on Fear Factor,” said the show’s executive producer, Matt Kunitz in a statement.
“With Fear Factor Live, people will now have the chance to participate in some of the same stunts we’ve done on the show,” he added of the theme-park experiences that will open in the first quarter of this year.
In each show, park guests will compete against each other in a progression of extreme stunts designed to test their physical and emotional limits.
The stunts — details of which were not immediately released — were developed with help from the creators of Fear Factor, on which contestants are dared to perform hair-raising physical stunts and eat such treats as liquidised rats and raw animal entrails in return for a cash prize.
In one episode, contestants were offered an array of animal penises and had to pick one to eat.
In the theme-park version of the game, audience members will play an interactive role by blasting contestants with water and air and controlling obstacles on stage.
Audience members will also be able to spin a “Wheel of Fear” and confront their own phobias. — AFP