“Freak Out” Your Friends

ABC Family’s new hidden camera show Freak Out sets up unsuspecting people for spectacular scares. These unwitting victims are put in spooky situations by the people who know them best: their friends, siblings, and even their parents. Executive producer SallyAnn Salsano says that prank-loving participants tell her, “My friend did X, Y and Z, and now I’m just gonna freak them out,” and through the use of stunts, lighting, pyrotechnics and some really terrifying makeup, Freak Out creates some terrifying (and terrific) TV moments.

Freak Out
This date has just gone terribly wrong, but little does our victim know, it’s not real!

SallyAnn Salsano’s success as a producer is unparallelled in the world of fresh, viral TV. As the president of 495 Productions, she is the mind behind CMT’s Party Down South, BET’s The Real, Oxygen’s Dance Your Ass Off, VH1’s Tool Academy, and MTV’s Jersey Shore where she drew from her own upbringing as an Italian-American on Long Island. I’ve watched most of the shows that 495 has produced and if you haven’t, I’m sure you heard people talking about the craziness the next day. SallyAnn is a wizard at creating buzzworthy shows and Freak Out is OMG TV.

Freak Out show employs high-end cinematic tricks to instill fear and surprise its targets, but it’s the insider information provided by the victim’s loved ones that elevates the stunts. “We’re tailoring each prank for the individual person, based on what’s in their [fear] wheelhouse,” says Salsano. For one young woman, who is set up by her sister, that fear involves a beauty treatment that goes horribly wrong. Another young woman was set up by her mother for a disaster-filled temp job. “The more calm the mom was, the more freaked out the girl became,” recalls Salsano.

Freak Out
An actress lets the unsuspecting mark in on the hoax.

While the show’s marks are terrified during the ordeal, they’re relieved and ecstatic once they realize the terror is a ruse. “It’s visceral in a positive sense,” says Salsano. “At the end, every single person has been laughing hysterically and having a good time.” Freak Out will air as specials during ABC Family’s 13 Nights of Halloween before returning in early 2015.

Freak Out > ABC Family > Oct 21-22 at 9pm ET/PT

images © ABC Family/Eric McCandless

1 Comment

  1. How can I put my friend on this show? I think she will completely freak out and it would be so funny!

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