Critics sneer, but TV audiences eat it up

Associated Press

A contestant in "Fear Factor," NBC's "reality TV" program, walks a high beam between two buildings. Contestants must confront their fears in a variety of challenges. NBC

Both are delivering strong ratings. And NBC is considering keeping both shows on the air after the summer.

"You can't ignore these kinds of numbers," said NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker earlier this week. "You can't ignore these viewers. It's telling you something."

"Spy TV" was the most-watched show in NBC's usually potent Thursday night lineup with its debut last week. It was the week's most popular show among viewers ages 18 to 49 on all networks. NBC will rerun each week's episode the following Tuesday.

In its third week, "Fear Factor" had its best showing Monday, with 11.1 million viewers.

"Spy TV" has been described as a vindictive "Candid Camera," where in one stunt an unsuspecting motorist was taken on a hair-raising test drive. Contestants on the "Fear Factor" game compete in stomach-churning events, seeing how they can survive, for example, getting nibbled on by hundreds of rats.

Critics have been unusually vituperative.

The Washington Post's John Maynard called it NBC's "summer of sadism."

USA Today's Robert Bianco said that "a network that can air 'Fear Factor' and 'Spy TV' in the same summer has clearly lost its sense of shame."

Wrote Lynn Elber of the Associated Press: "The network is tossing any bit of mud at the screen and hoping it will stick.(It's) NBC's 'must-flinch' lineup."

But the network is doing better with these shows among viewers younger than 35 than it has in years, Zucke said.

A new generation of television viewers that grew up on MTV and ESPN expects an alternative form of programming to scripted comedies and dramas, he said.

He rejected any suggestion that the shows undermine the image, carefully cultivated by NBC executives, that it is the network of quality because of shows like "The West Wing," "Frasier" and "ER."

"None of these programs replaced any of the programs that defined NBC, the quality programs," he said. "We cannot afford, financially especially, to have 22 hours of 'The West Wing' on our air."