Of course, following the 2012 cancellation, MTV rebooted Fear Factor in 2017 with rapper/actor Ludacris hosting. Showrunners promised a less-gross and more-fun series this time around, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and it lasted for two seasons. Still, it's hard to forget the show's lurid past. The stunts often involved things like eating bugs and also incorporated physical feats of bravery, but it was their gross-out antics that got them into trouble. A viewer in 2005 tried to sue NBC for $2.5 million, claiming that an episode where contestants ate rats was so disturbing that it made him vomit and get so dizzy that he injured himself, according to a Cleveland 19 News report. However, a judge ultimately threw out the suit.
Still, the donkey challenge is hard to beat. Two of the contestants who performed the feat — twins Brynne and Claire Odioso — said during a 2012 radio interview that it was "the hardest 15 minutes of [their] life," Fox News reports. "If you vomited you would have to start over. I ended up just vomiting in my glass and drank that. The camera men were vomiting," one twin reportedly said. "It smells. It's so bitter, and it has a little hint of hay."
The donkey episode was so gross that it's what killed the series altogether, host Joe Rogan said during an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. "So hard to imagine that that was a real show," Rogan added.
