''Scariest Places on Earth'' is an American

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, re ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

that originally aired from October 23, 2000, to October 29, 2006, on Fox Family, and later

ABC Family The American cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and six different name changes) during its h ...

. The show was hosted by

Linda Blair Linda Denise Blair (born January 22, 1959) is an American actress and activist. She played Regan MacNeil in the horror film ''The Exorcist'' (1973), for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for an Academy Award. The film ...

, with narration by

Zelda Rubinstein Zelda May Rubinstein (May 28, 1933 – January 27, 2010) was an American actress and human rights activist, known as eccentric medium (spirituality), medium Tangina Barrons in the Poltergeist (film series), ''Poltergeist'' film series. Playing "Gi ...

. The show featured reported cases of the

by detailing the location's history, and then sending an ordinary family to visit the

location In geography, location or place are used to denote a region (point, line, or area) on Earth's surface or elsewhere. The term ''location'' generally implies a higher degree of certainty than ''place'', the latter often indicating an entity with an ...

in a

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

-style vigil.

Synopsis

The series is hosted by

, and narrated by

Alan Robson Alan Robson (born 1 October 1955) is an English radio presenter, and host of the North East radio talk show, ''Alan Robson's Night Owls''. Radio Robson started his career with Metro Radio in Gateshead, presenting his first show on 12 Novembe ...

acted as an on-site correspondent. While the show is set in numerous locations around the world, the interstitial featuring Blair and Robson were shot in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. In a 2001 interview with

Larry King Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American television and radio host, whose awards included 2 Peabodys, an Emmy and 10 Cable ACE Awards. Over his career, he hosted over 50,000 interviews. ...

, host Blair explained the series:

When we were kids, we used to tell ghost stories, but as we've gotten older -- I have friends who are scientific researchers, and I ask them questions. My mother has passed on. I choose to think she is in a wonderful, other place that we all will go. But I think that some people are trapped here... Well, these are the places that people have talked about for years, and years, that they go in, and you physically feel something is wrong. Some people do see things. Whether it's in a mind, we don't know.

Syndication

Reruns were aired on Syfy, which is a part of

NBC Universal The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are ...

. It then aired on NBC Universal's now defunct horror- and suspense-themed cable channel

Chiller A chiller is a machine that removes heat from a liquid coolant via a vapor-compression, adsorption refrigeration, or absorption refrigeration cycles. This liquid can then be circulated through a heat exchanger to cool equipment, or another p ...

Episodes

Featured locations

North America

Europe

Controversies

The main controversy with the show was that it was accused of fabricating some of the aired events. According to the documentary crew for a film on the Villisca axe murders, the segment which profiled the murder site—the

Josiah B. and Sara Moore House The Josiah B. and Sara Moore House is a house in Villisca, Iowa, United States. The house was the site of the 1912 brutal murder of eight people, including six children. A documentary has been made about the murder, which remains unsolved. Th ...

—contained numerous falsities; among the allegations were that it featured a fake newspaper reproduction, photos of an unknown family presented as the murder victims, and an actress posing as a town resident. Additionally, the "Devil Hunters" crew featured in the segment on the

Jersey Devil In South Jersey and Philadelphia folklore in the United States, the Jersey Devil (also known as the Leeds Devil) is a legendary creature said to inhabit the forest of Pine Barrens in South Jersey. The creature is often described as a flying ...

claimed that the segment which ran thirteen minutes in length, had been edited from two days' worth of footage, and that numerous details were sensationalized and/or added in post-production.

References

External links

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Watch episodes of ''Scariest Places on Earth'' on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scariest Places On Earth 2000 American television series debuts 2006 American television series endings ABC Family original programming English-language television shows Fox Family Channel original programming Paranormal reality television series