NBC Puts Celeb 'Fear' Into Sweeps

By Josef Adalian

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - NBC is stirring up some ``Fear'' this sweeps.

The network has decided to schedule a celebrity edition of its controversial reality series ``Fear Factor'' on the last Tuesday of the all-important November ratings sweeps. The episode will air Nov. 27 at 8 p.m., bumping ``Three Sisters'' and the on-hiatus ``Emeril.''

Celebs recruited for the special include Donny Osmond, Kelly Preston (''Jerry Maguire''), David Hasselhoff and Brooke Burns (''Baywatch''), rapper Coolio and Joanie Laurer (aka Chyna from the WWF.) Each will play for charity.

NBC wouldn't say exactly what kinds of stunts celebs would have to endure, though NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker said one challenge involved worms and scorpions.

In a bit of further sweeps strategizing, the episode will run seven minutes over its usual hourlong length, running smack dab into the first part of the fourth episode of Fox's much-hyped, critically acclaimed new drama ``24.''

NBC had seriously considered stunting the celeb edition opposite next week's series premiere of ``24,'' but opted against the move because of inadequate promo lead time.

New episodes of ``Fear'' weren't slated to bow until January; the celeb edition was going to serve as the show's second-season premiere. But when a rough cut of the episode came in a few weeks ago, NBC executives started thinking a sweeps play made sense.

``We just wanted to get it on,'' said Zucker. ``It's a really great episode.''

``Fear'' will still debut as planned in January, with NBC upping its total order of the series to 15 episodes. There's no word yet on a time slot, but insiders speculate NBC may run episodes Mondays at 9 p.m., displacing ``Third Watch.''

In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the subsequent Afghan war and the anthrax scare, some industry observes had questioned whether ``Fear'' would still pack the same punch it did during its megasuccessful run this past summer. Questions also have been raised about whether it's appropriate to subject contestants to staged frightfests when Americans are facing terror alerts and biochem scares in their daily lives.

Zucker isn't buying any of those arguments.

``What the audience has been telling us over the last few weeks is that they want to be entertained,'' he said. ``It's our job to entertain people, and this show is incredibly entertaining. I'm not going to get caught up in psychoanalyzing the American public.''

What's more, Zucker believes the special ``Fear'' will be a big boost to NBC's Tuesday bottom line. ``We're going to probably double what we would have done in that time slot,'' he said.

If the first celeb ``Fear'' does well, NBC will likely order one or two more. ``Fear'' was the summer's top-rated series among adults in the coveted 18-49 age group, and averaged 12.3 million viewers per episode.