I watched this a couple of days ago. I’m not sure if it was the first episode, but it was the first I’d seen. It’s a game show in which 3 men and 3 women attempt “scary” stunts in an attempt to get $50,000US.
I don’t consider myself fearless, but nothing in the show seemed the least bit frightening. The first stunt was to be dragged by horses down a muddy street in a wild-west set. The second was to lie still for 4 minute in a small area with 400 rats. The third involved climbing around on the outside of a car that is dangling by a crane and is being hosed down with water.
The dragging was the only one that really even began to risk injury, since you could forget to hold you face up out of the mud. Aside from the head (with safety goggles), the contestants were fairly well covered in clothing. One guy did scrape his forearm and another cut his knuckle, but that wasn’t anything that would stand between me and 50 G’s. The rats seemed friendly enough, and you know they weren’t diseased. One guy tried to fake a bite wound to freak his opponents, but no one was actually bitten. One of the men actually bailed at this point rather than go through it. And the car thing was totally harmless, since there was a full safety harness attached.
Anyhow, if I were on this show, I might lose due to my lack of strength, endurance, or coordination, but the fear factor would be no factor at all.
I was struck by how unfair the show seemed. I watched the same one you did, and while anybody can last four minutes under the rats, and most people have the strength for the horse-drag thing, most of the car-in-the-air had more to do with your height and upper body strength than your balls. Or, rather, too much to do with your balls - there’s no way the women could win that one, not because they’re chicken or out of shape, but because the deck is stacked against them. WTF? IMHO, the blonde girl would have been tough to beat at anything physically possible for her.
No clue on how the horse-dragging stunt related to “fear” in the same way that the rats did. I mean, if the rats were roaches, and I had no garauntee I’d win the money, I’d have to think twice about that one. But I have no irrational fears about being dragged by horses in a fake Western town.
I noticed the same thing that Zsofia did. The final stunt was unfair to the women. I really thought the blond girl was going to win too. Until I saw what they had to do. I know very few women with the upper body strength to do the last stunt.
The show wasn’t very good and I probably won’t watch it again.
As far as the low prize money, remember that the other shows have the same group doing stuff for weeks, this one has a new group each episode.
I agree about the unfairness. When I first saw the group and saw that the blond’s occupation was ‘model’ I thought she’d be the first to go. Then when she not only got dragged farther than the other women but actually as far as any of the guys, I started to think she’d win.
Then they got to the last stunt. She tried, but it became clear as soon as the got on the hood that she had no chance. That sucked, since she clearly had as much control over her fear as anyone. In fact, of the two guys that tried the car stunt, the one that slipped and was eliminated was clearly the most fearless. Up to that point, the guy who won was definitely in third, and only won because he knew he could take it slow and be careful. The others had to worry about time.