Fear Factor was never a show built for subtlety. But if the original series ran on shock value and gag reflexes, FOX’s new version is doubling down by handing the keys to Johnny Knoxville. The man who once stapled himself for laughs is now overseeing a fresh batch of terrified contestants in Fear Factor: The Next Chapter, set for the 2025–2026 season.
This is not your early-2000s gross-out nostalgia trip. Knoxville’s version shifts the format from straightforward stunts to something meaner and more psychological. Think fewer Hollywood backlots, more hostile terrain. Think less “eat the spider” and more “who do you trust while you’re freezing, starving, and hallucinating?”
The idea is to blend spectacle with social strategy. Contestants will be dropped into remote, unforgiving environments where physical fear is only half the equation. The rest plays out in temporary alliances, flickering trust, and the slow unraveling of group dynamics. There will still be bugs. But now they come with a side of paranoia.
Knoxville’s involvement makes sense on paper. He’s reckless, telegenic, and familiar enough to anchor the chaos without softening it. Endemol Shine North America’s Sharon Levy called it “daring charisma,” which is a tidy way of saying he knows how to keep cameras rolling while things fall apart.
FOX President Michael Thorn clearly wants Fear Factor to feel like an event again. And if nothing else, Knoxville guarantees that whatever happens out there will feel unpredictable. The show is now casting across the US and Canada, offering a grand prize to whoever survives both the challenges and their teammates.
There are worse ways to revive a legacy format. Fewer involve scorpions.
