MTV show from a while back?

Question

There used to be a show where they would like six people to a haunted place and make them do challenges for a cash prize to whoever made it through the night. Does anyone remeber the name of it??

Answer 1

The name of the show was FEAR.

MTV's Fear was an MTV reality show in 2000, that placed a group of 5 or more contestants in a reputedly haunted location and led them on a series of dares over two nights to explore whether or not the place was haunted. The show was created by Martin Kunert and Eric Manes. The series aired the first two episodes in a pilot run, which received outstanding reviews and a full season was ordered. After eight more episodes, the show began to lose popularity, but another season was ordered. The second season was met by dismal reviews and the show was cancelled after 6 episodes aired. A DVD, MTV's Inside Fear, was released in 2001, containing contestant interviews and deleted footage from the show. However, there are currently no plans to release the episodes on DVD.

The show brought several innovations to the reality show genre, including:

Having contestants film their own experience as no video crew followed them into the haunted locations.
Use of night vision cameras.
Making people eat items that revolted them. (common trick used on Fear Factor)
Use of body mounted cameras to have contestants film their own close-ups.

Rules
The contestants were picked from videotaped audition tapes. In order to provide absolute secrecy about their location, the group was blindfolded and led by guides to the haunted area. They were then instructed to remove their blindfolds after a predetermined amount of time, allowing the guides to slip out unseen. The area they were taken is known as the safe house, which is an area of the haunted location where no hauntings are reported to have taken place. As the nights progress, a computer announces when a dare is assigned and the contestant who is assigned the dare. This computer also provides the group with background information about the areas and instructions for the dare. Each contestant was given the option at any time to abort the dare, but if the dare was not completed, the contestant would forfeit their share of the winnings, have to choose another contestant to do the dare, and leave the location immediately. After two nights, the contestants remaining in the game would be directed to the location of their monetary prize, and each would collect $5,000.

The dares themselves ranged in difficulty. While most relied on simple observation (radio silence, EMF Detector), some of the dares relied on specific re-enactments of haunting events, and a few even dabbled in occult or paranormal possession (Séance, Auto-Drawing, Spirit Channeling). For a complete list of dares, see Dares of MTV's Fear.

Locations
The locations shown in the show usually had their name changed to protect their location from vandals and show fanatics. However, some of the places allowed their name to be used, and some of the fans of the show used the Internet to piece together potential matches for the locations used in the show. The locations used in the show are:

Season 1

Episode 1 - West Virginia State Penitentiary
Episode 2 - St. Agnes Mental Hospital* (Real Location: Fairfield State Hospital , CT.)
Episode 3 - Duggan Brothers Cement Factory*
Episode 4 - Hopkins Military Academy*
Episode 5 - Camp Spirit Lake* (Real Location: Camp NoBeBoSco, NJ.)
Episode 6 - Buck Hill Inn
Episode 7 - Eastern State Penitentiary
Episode 8 - USS Hornet
Episode 9 - Fort Gaines
Episode 10 - La Guerre Plantation* (Real Location: Desert Plantation, LS.)
Season 2

Episode 1 - Mina Dos Estrellas*
Episode 2 - Mina Dos Estrellas*
Episode 3 - Hacienda Tabi
Episode 4 - Ki Sugar Mill*
Episode 5 - Serenity Lake Sanitorium*
Episode 6 - Boettger Brewery* (Real Location: Lemp Mansion, St. Louis, MO.)
(* denotes locations where names are not the actual names of the location).

[edit] Trivia
The storytelling and camera techniques which Kunert and Manes innovated for this series became the basis for their film Voices of Iraq.
The reason for two "Mina Dos Estrellas" episodes was because the entire group of contestants quit before the end of the second night in the first episode. This was the only time less than two contestants managed to finish all the dares. (In St. Agnes Hospital, three cast members finish the regular dares, but the group is offered a bonus dare for more money, which only one of them takes).
The show was parodied on The Andy Dick Show featuring a trip to a "haunted" 98+1 Cent Store.
In the episode set in Eastern State Penitentiary, at least, producers used a number of tricks to scare contestants. From their control booth, they monitored all activity, and controlled a number of scares. Speakers were set up in areas to emit noise when the producers wanted. Lights which contestants carried were also controlled through the control booth, and could be made to flicker/die on command. Also, at one point, a number of white mice were in a room with a contestant. These mice were purchased at a local pet shop and placed there, and returned the next day (Eastern State has rats, which are incredibly large and grey in color).
In the episode set in Eastern State Penitentiary, one contestant was required to spend the day locked in a cell. Underneath their bed was a box of food and water to get them through. As they were never told about it, they never found it, and it went unused.
"Camp Spirit Lake" is actually Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco, a boyscout camp in New Jersey. It was also the filming location of the original Friday the 13th. The history of the site, as stated by the show, is completely fictional. The location remains an active campground, and there have been no reports of any occult activities occurring there.
Although most of the trivia given to players about the West Virginia State Penitentiary were untrue, the housing of the restrooms outside in the yard near the "Safe house" were partially removed because a couple inmates were killed by having their heads smashed into the walls. (Stated in a tour given on the grounds)
Has been recreated in almost every aspect as VH1's Celebrity Paranormal Project.

Criticism
At WV Penitentiary, the electric chair was removed from its original location and now rests in the Museum adjacent to the main lobby. The producers placed the electric chair (or a copy) in the prison. This undermines the "authenticity" of the show.
The MTV producers also went into the "Sugar Shack" and painted several gray specters on the walls, covering genuine graffiti that inmates had created there. For this reason, MTV is forbidden from ever stepping foot on the prison grounds again.

Answer 2

Oh yes, "Fear". Sometimes this show was hilarious (in a very sad way.) My husband and I would watch it and just laugh in disbelief at what they would make those kids do!!!! It was crazy. Sometimes the reactions of the participants was too funny.

Someone said it was re-running on A&E? I'll have to look for that.

**I will say one thing, they were not winning enough money to do some of those things. Tisk tisk on MTV for taking advantage of "poor" college students needing any money they could get. They should have been giving them a bigger prize award!

Answer 3

Mina Dos Estrellas

Answer 4

It was called Fear. I was trying to remember that the other day too because of that new show on VH1.

Answer 5

No.. i forget but they are redoing that show on A&E or something.
I'll try to dig up some info.

It was called Fear!

Answer 6

i used to watch that show and loved it...it was called FEAR

Answer 7

That television show is really old school because i don't even rember it.

Answer 8

you mean scariest places on earth- but it is on abc family

Answer 9

MTV's Fear

Answer 10

i think that was real world san fransisco