Summary

Fox's Fear Factor reboot with Johnny Knoxville as host aims to exceed expectations with inventive stunts.
Knoxville's history as a stuntperson legend makes him the ideal fearless entertainment champion.
Expect Knoxville to bring infectious energy when dealing with contestants in the upcoming Fear Factor reboot.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jackass's Johnny Knoxville will succeed Joe Rogan as Fox's host of the infamous contestant stunt show Fear Factor, which originally aired on NBC. This time around, the series will feature an additional reality TV element, seeing the contestants live together throughout the season and competing for a grand prize at the end.

Fear Factor is in great hands with Johnny Knoxville and stands to satiate fans of the gross-out stunt series while Jackass 5 is being brainstormed. With fresh creativity, Knoxville's field experience, and (fingers crossed) some inventive stunts that eclipse the danger found in those on Wipeout or American Ninja Warrior, we could be in for the best Fear Factor since the original, or maybe even the best ever.

'Fear Factor's Best' Is A High Bar

New additions to the series are set to revolutionize the Fear Factor formula by shaking up the stakes, drama, and personality of the show. But, make no mistake, classic Fear Factor still stands the test of time as the pinnacle of contestant-based nerve-testing television. It should be noted that rapper Ludacris also hosted a short-lived reboot of the show in 2017, but Joe Rogan is undoubtedly the host most people associate with the series.

Would you stick your hands in a tank full of tarantulas to punch a 6-digit code into a phone despite the eight-legged freaks? What if the tank instead contained maggots? Or cockroaches? Would you stick your head in a tank of swarming bees? These were bread-and-butter challenges for the 2017 reboot of the show.

Years later, Johnny Knoxville would up the monster-in-a-tank ante by coercing one of his lackeys into putting his entire head into a glass dome which was connected by a tube to another dome housing a giant tarantula. With Knoxville's stunt, which is previewed in Jackass Forever's trailer, the devil was in its anticipation. This dastardly ingenuity is a factor fans hope to unearth in the upcoming series.

Johnny Knoxville Is The Ideal Fear Factor Host

Fox Television Network president Michael Thorn said Knoxville is "the champion of fearless entertainment," and he is absolutely right. Back in the late 90's, before Knoxville got a gig working at Big Brother skateboard magazine for editor Jeff Tremaine, he had the idea to review self-defense products by testing them on himself. Thus, a stuntperson legend was born. Tremaine, who profiled fellow Jackasses Bam Margera and Wee Man in his magazine, would join Knoxville when offered his own show based on his dangerous product testing.

The first Jackass film would debut in 2002 for MTV and Paramount. The franchise began humbly with juvenile pranks furnished by makeshift tools and simple machinery. In fact, it never distanced itself from that core principal, only scaling up the debauchery, risk, and design of its makeshift stunt work.

The Jackass gang has been running from bulls since the first film, but it wasn't until their most recent outing with Jackass Forever that Knoxville finally decided to call it quits. According to his interview with Entertainment Weekly, Knoxville has suffered 16 concussions throughout the Jackass series, but his worst came along with a brain hemorrhage while evading a bull for the last time, debilitating the actor-stuntman and forcing him to cut the rest of the film's stunts while he recovered.

What To Expect From Knoxville's Fear Factor

Where Rogan's Fear Factor tenure was marked by mind-blown reactions to the challenges he'd inflicted upon contestants, he said on his podcast that fear had stopped being a factor for him as the seasons drew on. Knoxville stands to usher the show's unfortunate challengers from a place of experience. Rogan quite popularly remarked in that same interview that going into season 5, he began thinking, "How many animal d***s can you serve people?" Still, he returned to the show and collected the check while believing it was a mistake to be there.

Knoxville, on the other hand, brings a certain joie de vivre to everything he does, and will certainly apply his zest for life to a hyper-present show such as Fear Factor. As Knoxville weens himself from performing dangerous stunts and pranks, he definitely still has the itch and probably feels beckoned by belligerence even at his older age of 54. With this show, he'll be able to revel in every panicked scream, grimaced leap, and bulging eye from the relative safety of a short distance or plexiglass.

Knoxville's presence is infectious. He's the leader of the cult of personality that spawned Jackass and surely still has the aura to ignite reckless fires underneath any wayward contenders in the upcoming Fear Factor reboot. It will be extra intriguing to watch how Knoxville deals with reality TV's traditional hosting gig of managing a house full of gung ho adults who have excess time and limited restraint at their disposal. But, it likely won't be any different than wrangling the loveable idiots he's long surrounded himself with at Jackass.

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