Home > Lawyer Quiz > Fear Factor Packs a Punch
Fear Factor Packs a Punch by Timothy Sharkey
Fear Factor Packs a Punch by Timothy Sharkey 
Read about the well publicized lawyer story about NBC getting sued over Fear Factor.
Back in November of 2004, a viewer was watching Fear Factor on NBC. A segment came on that involved contestants eating and drinking ground up rats.
While most of us will indeed agree that this is rather disgusting and unpleasant, someone took it more seriously and proceeded to get sick to his stomach and pass out on the floor.
He claimed his blood pressure got so high it caused him to get dizzy and light headed and when he tried to leave the room he bumped his head in the doorway.
Finally he claimed that another member of the household also got sick from seeing the segment.
Fear factor has had some rather grotesque segments including eating ground up spiders, eating live worms and running through decomposed meat. Some of these tasks seem hazardous to one's health and people must wonder how they are allowed to air it. The show pays the contestants $50,000 to perform theses tasks on air. They have a choice whether to go along with each dare and are never forced to do anything. The segment in question is usually the second part of the three part program.
The man filing the suit was Austin Aitken, who was a paralegal lawyer. His suit claimed "To have the individuals on the show eat and drink dead rats was crazy and from a viewer's point of view made me throw-up as well an another in the house at the same time". Later the lawyer added, "NBC is sending the wrong message to its TV watchers that cash can make or have people do just about anything beyond reasoning and in most cases against their will". The lawsuit totaled $2,500,000. Paralegal Austin Aitken would not discuss anything with the media unless it was a paid interview.
NBC responded "We believe that the claim is completely without merit". Later Austin replied that he just wanted to send message to the networks regarding the content shown on television. Finally, he said, "I just put any figure. You really think I expect to get $2.5 million".
Take the Fear Factor Packs a Punch Quiz
Fear factor has had some rather grotesque segments including eating ground up spiders, eating live worms and running through decomposed meat. Some of these tasks seem hazardous to one's health and people must wonder how they are allowed to air it. The show pays the contestants $50,000 to perform theses tasks on air. They have a choice whether to go along with each dare and are never forced to do anything. The segment in question is usually the second part of the three part program.
The man filing the suit was Austin Aitken, who was a paralegal lawyer. His suit claimed "To have the individuals on the show eat and drink dead rats was crazy and from a viewer's point of view made me throw-up as well an another in the house at the same time". Later the lawyer added, "NBC is sending the wrong message to its TV watchers that cash can make or have people do just about anything beyond reasoning and in most cases against their will". The lawsuit totaled $2,500,000. Paralegal Austin Aitken would not discuss anything with the media unless it was a paid interview.
NBC responded "We believe that the claim is completely without merit". Later Austin replied that he just wanted to send message to the networks regarding the content shown on television. Finally, he said, "I just put any figure. You really think I expect to get $2.5 million".
Take the Fear Factor Packs a Punch Quiz