Just when you thought reality television couldn’t get any lower … this happens.
Twins Brynne and Claire Odioso went on the current season of NBC’s popular stunt/dare game show “Fear Factor” and drank a big glass of donkey semen. But it’s not the act itself that the ladies are spewing about. It’s the fact that on Monday night the network pulled the episode – titled “Hee Haw! Hee Haw!” – and replaced it with a rerun after news of the jaw-dropping episode leaked and freaked people out.
“We are disappointed because we wanted to share the experience with our friends and family,” Brynne Odioso told Gawker.com, after calling into Tampa-based radio program The Cowhead Show and elaborating that it was the “hardest 15 minutes of (their) life.”
“If you vomited you would have to start over, I ended up just vomiting in my glass and drank that. The camera men were vomiting,” one of the twins said. “It smells. It’s so bitter, and it has a little hint of hay.”
But not only did the Odioso girls gag, it seems they have now been gag-ordered by NBC to keep their lips sealed about the incident. The twins told reporters that the network scolded them for “revealing too much” and reminded them they are bound by confidentiality agreements.
But according to a well-placed insider familiar with the show, chances are nothing will come of the controversy, and the hapless contestants may not have been the only ones to do the deed.
“I'm sure that the contracts caused the talent to agree to do anything and everything, including eat/drink things from animals. Typically you even accept the fact that you might die in the show and you release all liability,” said our source. “They eat bugs, rats, etc., all the time on ‘Fear Factor’ – and I know that the network tests all challenges before using them to make sure they're safe. So legally, NBC is very likely covered. I also know that they had the choice of drinking the semen or something else, so there was at least an option, although the other option sucked too.”
That option was reportedly donkey urine.
NBC did not respond to a request for comment, and one expert says the network isn't the one who come out looking bad in this: the twins do.
“It is outrageous, and exactly what the program is designed to be. When you agree to go on ‘Fear Factor,’ anything is possible and you clearly should expect the unexpected. So while most of us would think of drinking donkey semen as disgusting, you sign up for that when you sign on the dotted line,” said image and PR expert Glenn Selig. “People have become so desensitized to the lunacy of reality shows; it’s difficult to see the public being outraged with NBC over this. Actually, I would expect that the public will take the position that the twins knew what they were signing up for, and got exactly that.”
But they didn’t get the air time they had anticipated – and have been quick to defend their actions, telling TMZ they were “proud” of such an achievement, and would “probably” do it again.