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Saturday, January 08, 2005

NBC's 'Fear Factor' Sued for Rat-Eating Episode

"Watching contestants eat dead rats on NBC's gross-out stunt show "Fear Factor" so disgusted a Cleveland man that he has sued NBC for $2.5 million, saying he could not stomach what he saw."

When it first started, I liked the idea of "Fear Factor" because I thought it was a great way to challenge the contestants to conquer real fears people face: heights, tight spaces, darkness and my favorite - plunging into water strapped into a car with a baby to get out of a carseat in the back (a recurrent nightmare I used to have). Watching it caused me to examine whether I could face the challenge, and watching others face those fears made me feel that I just might be able to as well. Now, the show seems to be trying to entice viewers with only contestants who look like models (complete with wet tank tops) while grossing them out with the worst possible things to put in their mouths. To me, the only thing worth watching now is the cute host.

(While the idea of this post is to speak against the show, I realize that some of the above just may have the opposite effect!)

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