Reality television has taken a stomach-churning turn on the mainland with the high-profile broadcast of a Chinese version of the hit NBC show Fear Factor.
It is airing nationwide on a satellite travel channel and is part of a series of mainland versions of overseas reality TV shows.
The Chinese version was produced in 2004 by Beijing-based entertainment group Joy Media under the title You Are the One. It has already been broadcast by dozens of local channels, but nationwide viewers now have access to it.
In each 50-minute show, three men and three women compete in three rounds of sensory challenges for 50,000 yuan in prize money.
Competitors test their mettle by agreeing to challenges such as being enclosed in a cage with a pile of snakes or using their teeth to extract a chicken leg from a nest of maggots. In a January 7 episode, competitors had to stick their heads in a plastic box full of live mice for 50 seconds.
The show did not rate well when it emerged in 2004 on a Shanghai lifestyle and fashion channel, and attracted criticism that it could have a bad influence on the young.