Fear Factor South Africa is a South African version of the international reality format Fear Factor, a stunt-based show that tests contestants' ability to overcome their fears and to accept extreme challenges.
This is a reality show in which contestants confront their fears and phobias in terrifying challenges where they have not just their own fears to overcome but also the competition from other even more tough-talking, crazier and possibly even psycho contestants.
South Africa has had three versions of the show: the original US version, which aired on M-Net; the first South African production, which followed the format of the US version and was broadcast on M-Net in 2002; and Fear Factor South Africa, the first season of which aired on e.tv in 2006.
The format of Fear Factor South Africa differs to the international version in that the contestants are housed together in a "boot camp" for the duration of the show, with one or more going home each week until one winner is left.
According to e.tv the idea behind the boot camp is "to increase the competition element of the show, build tension between contestants and more clearly display the contestants' personalities to the viewers."
Drinking cocktails of live worms and jumping from a moving boat to another, to stunts like riding a bicycle through panes of glass and walking on high-rise window ledges is what reality tv at its most extreme is all about.
Fear Factor contestants confront their fears and phobias in terrifying challenges where they have not just their own fears to overcome but also the competition from other even more tough-talking, crazier and possibly even psycho contestants.
More than six thousand applications were received. The twenty brave contestants chosen represented a cross-section of South Africans: auditors, policemen and beauty queens.
What they all had in common was confidence and bravado that they thought would take them to the end to win the prize money of R250,000 and the title of SA Champion.
Big talk aside, in Fear Factor it is extreme action that counts.
Fear Factor tests contestants' ability to overcome their fears and to accept extreme challenges, this was even more hardcore in the South African version as the contestants stayed in a boot camp for the duration of the series without any contact with the outside world.
Hosts
Thapelo Mokoena (Season 1)
Lungile Radu (Season 2)
Fear Factor South Africa was produced by Endemol South Africa.