Fear Factor Headed Back to NBC

UNIVERSAL CITY: NBC is reviving the reality competition series Fear Factor, which ran on the network for five years starting in 2001.

The network’s sister channel Chiller has been airing Fear Factor repeats for some time, scoring high ratings for the near decade-old show.

“No one has come close to doing what they’ve done on that show,” Paul Telegdy, NBC’s head of alternative programming, told EW. “You go back and they’ve stood the test of time. It always had this incredible spectacle to it.”

Endemol North America is on board for the reboot. “I said, ‘Let’s apply everything we’ve learned since then and put together the team,’” added Telegdy of working with Endemol Norther America. The team includes original executive producers David Hurwitz along with Matt Kunitz, who later went on to launch ABC’s Wipeout.

“The stunt and camera technologies have evolved since then, we’re going to be able to make it even bigger,” Telegdy said. “We’re going to make it more visually arresting.”

“In the brave new world of reality TV it was deemed symptomatic of a problem—‘we want our West Wing, why are you doing this?’” Telegdy continued. “Now the ecology has changed, the top shows are reality TV. For consumers, it will be a fond reunion.”