Monday, July 07, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SHOOTING STARS: Warm welcome prompts `Fear Factor' to return to Las Vegas

Shooting Stars is back.

And so is NBC's "Fear Factor," returning this week for a double-the-pressure, double-the-fun dose of gross-out competition.

The show's smash spring visit -- "Fear Factor's" first road trip -- attracted more than 18.5 million viewers during the 90-minute broadcast.

That total represents "the highest ratings in the history of the series," according to executive producer Matt Kunitz. "That was Motivation No. 1" for returning to Glitter City.

Motivation No. 2: the fall debut of NBC's new series "Las Vegas," which follows "Fear Factor" in the network's Monday prime-time lineup.

With a new Vegas-set drama to tout, network officials "asked us to return to Vegas sooner than we anticipated," Kunitz explains.

Which is just fine with the "Fear Factor" folks.

From the show's first visit, "we learned it's incredibly easy to go and shoot the show in Las Vegas," Kunitz comments. "Other cities were not as welcoming."

In short, he says, "it was a no-brainer for us to come back."

This time around, the show will shoot two hourlong episodes; the first segment will lead into "Las Vegas' " debut.

Six new contestants -- three male, three female -- will face seven challenges to be staged at Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur.

Both Luxor and Mandalay Bay got into the act the first time "Fear Factor" hit town.

But Excalibur is a new addition to the show's Vegas lineup -- and the site of one of the show's signature, stomach-churning challenges, to be held about 12:30 a.m. Friday in the casino's rear rotunda.

"This is the first time we've invited the public to come and watch a signature gross stunt," Kunitz notes. "We've never had an audience on a gross stunt, and it's a really good one -- unique, scary, horrific and gross. It's one we've been wanting to do for a long time, but we couldn't figure out how to do it safely."

That is, until now.

Other planned locations range from "high atop Mandalay Bay" to the Mandalay Bay wave pool, plus "something in the King Tut exhibit" at Luxor and "out on the Strip," according to Kunitz.

The show finale returns to Mandalay Bay, where the triumphant contestant will have a chance to increase his or her $50,000 prize at the blackjack tables.

It's a typical Las Vegas twist -- but that's one reason why "Fear Factor" feels at home here, Kunitz comments.

"Vegas is Sin City," he says. "There's a general attitude and feeling that we always feel is very similar to our show. It's a crazy, wild, hip show -- and Vegas is a good location to bring our freak show."

A slightly tamer reality show also hits town this week as VH1's "Reunions" checks in at Paris for Hooters' 20th anniversary reunion and swimsuit competition, today through Wednesday.

An hourlong special (and potential pilot) scheduled to air in the fall, "Reunions" focuses on three or four "different reunions, from different walks of life," explains supervising producer Russ Ward.

One segment will visit a class reunion, of course, but other sequences will follow long-lost loves and "probably adoption," Ward explains.

Although the Hooters reunion is based at Paris, the VH1 camera crew won't necessarily stay there, he adds.

"In a reality show, you never know where you're going to be," Ward says. "You follow the action."

Speaking of reality shows, the Sci-Fi Channel's "Scare Tactics" continues its hidden-camera antics in Southern Nevada through August.

Also in action this week, BBC's "Horizon" visits Friday for a computer-fraud documentary with the working titled "The Billion-Dollar Fraud." In addition to an interview, the BBC crew is expected to shoot a desert scene featuring extras in military fatigues, according to the BBC's Liz Collier.

Las Vegas is the last stop for the documentary, which has been filming in Ivy League territory "all over the East Coast," Collier notes, from Boston to New York to Princeton, N.J.

Another BBC crew, meanwhile, is scheduled to arrive in Boulder City this week for a three-week shoot tracing Hoover Dam's construction as part of its "Great Industrial Wonders" documentary.

And California-based Moo Studios (formerly Holy Cow Productions) was expected to tap Neonopolis as a backdrop for a promotions featuring a new liqueur called Kuya.