Come football season, Dave Portnoy will be part of Fox’s college football coverage. He recently revealed that he narrowly missed another opportunity with the network, hosting the rebooted Fear Factor.
On Thursday’s episode of The Unnamed Show, Portnoy discussed conversations he had with the network about hosting Fear Factor.
“I made it to the finals,” Portnoy said. “I didn’t get the gig and in hindsight I’m probably happy. And this is one of the things I probably mentioned on the show, I can’t say what it is until — and I don’t even know if I can now, but I will. I was in the finals to host a reboot of Fear Factor.”
He revealed that the hosting job would have required six “almost nonstop” weeks of filming in Vancouver. Additionally, Portnoy clarified that had he gotten the Fear Factor role, it would have been in addition to his role on Big Noon Kickoff.
Ultimately, Fox went with Johnny Knoxville over Portnoy.
“I thought it was nuts just because my audience skews much wider than his,” Portnoy said.
Despite that, Portnoy conceded that the role is well suited for Knoxville, saying the former Jacksass star is “very good at that stuff.”
Portnoy also explained why he may not be the ideal Fear Factor host.
“I also thought it was a weird dynamic,” he said. “I told them, ‘I’m afraid of spiders. You’re gonna get the real reaction.’ I’m not gonna be Knoxville, excited about it. I’m gonna be like, ‘How the f*** are you doing this?’
About Michael Dixon
About Michael:
-- Writer/editor for thecomeback.com and awfulannouncing.com.
-- Bay Area born and raised, currently living in the Indianapolis area.
-- Twitter:
@mfdixon1985 (personal).
@michaeldixonsports (work).
-- Email: mdixon@thecomeback.com
Send tips, corrections, comments and (respectful) disagreements to that email. Do the same with pizza recommendations, taco recommendations and Seinfeld quotes.