Less than four months after its January premiere, Fox has greenlit a second season of Fear Factor: House of Fear, the network's revival of the classic stunt competition franchise hosted by Jackass star Johnny Knoxville.
The show launched January 11 following an NFC Wild Card game on Fox, a platform that gave it a massive built-in audience. Its debut episode drew 16.5 million multiplatform viewers, which Fox called the number one broadcast debut and top new unscripted series of the season among adults 18-49. It has since earned the title of most-streamed unscripted series of the season.
The season ran 10 episodes and wrapped with 20-year-old emergency dispatcher Ethan Macmillan of Toronto taking home a $200,000 prize after jumping between speeding semi-trucks, having already survived a water tank filled with alligator gar. The show differs from the original NBC format by housing contestants together under one roof, where social strategy and paranoia compound the physical terror of the stunts.
"Johnny Knoxville's fearless, unpredictable energy makes him the perfect ringmaster," said Michael Thorn, president of Fox Television Network, adding that the team is "already plotting new ways to raise the shock-and-awe quotient for season two."
Knoxville, for his part, was characteristically blunt about his motivation. At the London TV Screenings in February, he joked that he loved hosting "because I'm a monster and enjoyed seeing people in the throes of terror."
Sharon Levy, CEO of Endemol Shine North America, which produces the series, said the team is already working on pushing "the social strategy and physical stunts to even more visceral, stomach-turning heights" for the next run. The show is a twist on the Dutch format Now or Neverland, created by John De Mol, and is shot in Vancouver.
The original Fear Factor aired on NBC with Joe Rogan as host. The format has now been adapted 32 times worldwide. Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch cited House of Fear's success alongside major scripted series when touting the network's recent performance.
Season two is expected to air next year.
