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Fear Factor Winners Return! Original Airdate: 9/6/04

by Fearless Frankie

Was it a mirage from the desert sun or were six previous Fear Factor winners strolling down a desolate highway? Summer Papania was there in a fetching lime green outfit. You might recall that Summer had to "milk a goat the hard way" on her last FF appearance. Randy Huston, a Missouri cowboy who endured being covered in bees for his first win, was back, complete with cowboy hat and boots. Fear Factor's first openly gay contestant, Noel Holmes, also strolled confidently down the desert highway. Trash-talker extraordinaire, Jeanette Jenkins, said that that since she became Fear Factor's first female winner, the world had humbled her. (We'll see.) Ari Sturm had cut his trademark long locks and was looking much more "grown-up" than "hippie" this time around. Finally, Barbados native Olivia Jones reminded viewers that she's "not playing with a full deck of cards" which she claimed gave her a big advantage.

Joe revealed the first stunt. Two semi-trucks would travel single-file with a large "bridge" connecting them. Players would each have to walk from the first truck across a narrow beam midway to the second truck to release a flag. Then they'd go back to the starting point, retrieve a bicycle and RIDE back across the same little beam. Lucky for them it wasn't an elimination stunt. However, the person with the quickest time would win $10,000 and would pick the next day's order. Kinder, gentler Jeanette was up first. Jeanette moved cautiously across the beam to release the flag. She made it back to the bike in 25 seconds and attempted her ride. She made it halfway before falling!

Surfer Olivia was up next, but Jeanette didn't think Olivia's skill in the water would help her in the middle of the desert. Olivia used a side-step technique to release the flag and return to the bicycle. She jammed the bike at the support beam, but didn't fall off. Still, she was unable to complete the stunt and therefore would not win the cash. Noel was up next. He timidly made it to the flag and back, then promptly drove the bike off the side of the beam. Would anyone win this money? Sometimes Fear Factor stunts are just TOO HARD. It's no fun if no one wins! Perhaps Summer would break the bad spell. She crawled out to the flag and back with no problem. On the bike, she tried to gain momentum, but slipped off sending her bike flying. Her bike actually broke the headlight on the trailing semi!

With lightening speed and cat-like agility, Ari completed the stunt before anyone even noticed he had put his gear on! His final time of 21.2 seconds was secondary to actually finishing the stunt! Randy ponied up next. (Get it, "ponied" up? cowboy? ahem.) Maybe it was pure Cowboy Power. Maybe it was the boots. Randy got the flag, got the bike, and finished the stunt in 13.7 SECONDS! The $10,000 was his.

The next day the players knew they'd be facing elimination and most likely a gross stunt. They were right on both counts. Joe sliced open a yummy looking tomato to reveal a not-so-yummy looking tomato hornworm. Almost immediately Olivia and Summer were shaking their heads and saying "No. I'm not going to do it." In head-to-head competitions, the players would have to chew up the worms and spit their guts into long narrow tubes until the tubes were full. THEN, they'd have to drink the guts cocktail. The three players who won their heats by choking down their worm juice the fastest would advance, while the other three would be eliminated. Randy got to choose the teams. He picked Noel and Jeanette to face off first. Using only their mouths, Summer and Noel shoved their faces into plates of big, green squirming tomato hornworms. They chewed, they spit, they repeated. It seemed like it took forever for the two squirming contestants to fill their tubes. At one point Joe said, "I can't believe this is a show." Ditto! Jeanette was trying to mush the worms against the glass instead of eating them, letting Noel get way ahead of her. Jeanette eventually quit, but Noel was a man of steel and completed the stunt. Jeanette took the walk of shame with her head held high, and worm juice on her shirt.

Randy chose Ari and Olivia to go next. Olivia didn't even make it to the plate. Pissed off about having to go against Ari and having to eat a live creature, Olivia walked away wanting to quit. "In my country, these are like pets," said Olivia. To try and convince her, Joe actually ate one of the worms! This convinced Olivia to give it a try after all. As the others cheered her on, Olivia gave it her best shot and was actually ahead of Ari for the first half of the stunt. In the last few seconds, Ari pulled out the win. Classy Olivia flipped Ari off as she took her walk of shame. Next it was Randy vs. Summer. Summer cringed at the thought...and put her face down several times, but couldn't actually eat a worm. Randy even offered to stop and let her catch up! Ultimately, Summer quit and Randy finished - eliminating all the girls from the final competition. What did these girls expect? It's not like they'd never been on Fear Factor before!

Downtown Los Angeles set the scene for the harrowing final stunt. A giant teeter-totter was suspended high above the ground with flags pinned at strategic points on its sides. The guys would each have to navigate the teeter-totter releasing as many flags as possible. To add more stress to the stunt, the flags were color-coded. You could only collect yellow flags going one way and red flags coming back! Ari went first and demonstrated good balance on his first attempt, despite sliding off the beam as it dipped towards its other end. He successfully made it back across and released the red flags for an impressive final time of 34.2 seconds. Randy was next and thought he could definitely do better. And, well, he did. Final time: 26.2 seconds. Yee-haw! Ari was out and Noel was on the verge of either victory or defeat. Randy said he'd never be able to show his face at home if Noel beat him. Noel definitely got off to a slower start than the others, but stuck with it. He finished in 32.9 seconds...Randy could go home with his head held high. He was the newest Fear Factor champion!