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FEAR!!!

What do you get when you cross a so-called “reality” TV game show and the Blair Witch Project?

MTV calls it FEAR.

Sure, all the network stations are jumping on the reality game show bandwagon with Survivor, The Mole, and the scandalous Temptation Island. But where did the bandwagon start? With MTV of course.

MTV pioneered the whole thing with The Real World. They followed that up with Road Rules and a smattering of other mixes. Then Europe started making all kinds of ridiculous shows, and then US networks made all the stuff you see now.

But FEAR is different. MTV again forges into an area of all new excitement. FEAR’s producers wire the most likely “haunted,” venues in the United States with video cameras and microphones, and send a team of contestants in for 48 hour periods to perform “reality” dares. Contestants stay in a hotel room for 24 hours prior to the task with no interaction, TV or telephone. This makes them especially sensitive to stimulus and paranormal activity.

Once all the contestants withstand the time and the dares, they report whether or not they believe the venue is haunted, then they win some cash. But once they get down to it, several say, “I’m not doing it. It’s not worth it.”

Don’t believe in ghosts? Well trust us when we say that this is one show you’ll watch with the goddamn lights on! Just the prelim shows, where cameramen were setting up for the game, were enough to make us piss our pants.

Doors are banging, cameras are malfunctioning, things are dropping from the ceiling— and oh god, the noises… One cameraman was running as fast as he could to get out of a deserted prison; just before he made it to the gate, ‘something shoved’ him real hard.

FEAR is on MTV at 9 p.m. on Sundays. We recommend you don’t watch it alone.

And one more MTV pioneering effort to check out is “Kathy’s So Called Reality.” The hilarious Kathy Griffin disses all the network reality shows. Kudos once again to MTV.