Reality TV show's task involving donkeys was so disturbing the episode never aired
Topics: Joe Rogan, Film and TV
Joe Harker
Featured Image Credit: NBC
Topics: Joe Rogan, Film and TV
**WARNING: AVOID READING WHILE EATING**
Reality TV contestants can get put through a lot during their time on our screens but even with the most extreme format of show, there's a line of decency.
Hosted by Joe Rogan, Fear Factor was a show which seemed specifically designed to gross out viewers, but a challenge in an episode from 2011, which was never broadcast, featuring donkey semen and urine went much too far.
You can watch the clip that got the episode banned here, but I'd really advise you not to:
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Fear Factor contestants were put through a procession of gross challenges in the hopes of winning a $50,000 prize and it initially ran between 2001 and 2006 before being cancelled.
It was brought back with original host Joe Rogan in 2011 but the reality show's return was short lived after Fear Factor decided to do an episode titled 'Hee Haw! Hee Haw!' which never aired.
In the episode, there was a task where contestants had to play a game of 'horseshoes' (throwing a horseshoe as close to a pole as possible) and the worse they did the more donkey semen and urine they had to chug.
Markings set out denoting how much each contestant would have to drink and even if they got their horseshoe really close to the pole, they'd still have to drink some of each of the disgusting substances.
The episode was ultimately never broadcast and the revival of Fear Factor was nipped in the bud shortly afterwards, with the show later getting brought back for a third run in 2017 with rapper Ludacris hosting.
Contestants who were put through the sickening challenge explained just how awful it was, with twins Brynne and Claire Odioso calling it 'the hardest 15 minutes of [their] life' in a 2012 interview.
They said if you vomited then you had to start your drink again, with one twin revealing that she vomited in her glass and had to drink it back down.
They said it was so awful that even the cameramen were throwing up as they attempted to film the episode.
Speaking about the show on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, the ex-Fear Factor host said it was 'so hard to imagine that that was a real show'.
People who've seen the clip, which is available to watch on YouTube, said the challenge was 'not even a fear any more, this is literally SICK' and opined 'no wonder it got cancelled'.
Others said that they wouldn't have done it even for a billion dollars and were utterly perplexed that someone actually came up with the idea in the first place, while someone else said 'no one's a winner here'.
On hosting duties, Rogan had called it 'the hardest thing I've ever had to watch'.
It also seems to have triggered a moment of epiphany for one commenter, who said after watching the video they 'need to get my s**t together'.