West Orange High teacher stars on "Fear Factor"

People suffer from a variety of phobias — some, more than others. 

West Orange High School AP physics teacher Tyler Blake Hendrick’s biggest fear is mayonnaise. 

“It’s disgusting,” he said. “I challenge you to go on YouTube and type in ‘mayonnaise eating contest.’ Just watch somebody eat an entire jar of mayonnaise, and you too will join the anti-mayonnaise campaign.”

Despite a fear of mayo, Hendrick always has enjoyed watching “Fear Factor,” going on roller coasters and watching horror movies, aka adrenaline junkie. 

He recalled June 11, 2001, when he was in seventh grade watching the first episode of “Fear Factor.”

“It instilled in me a sense of confidence,” he said of the show. “I may not be able to catch a football, but I could eat those Madagascar hissing cockroaches.” 

Since then, Hendrick was obsessed with the show.

He watched every episode multiple times and even applied to the show at 13 years old. 

“I said, “Hey, I know that y’all don’t cast anybody under 21, but I think you guys should do a kids ‘Fear Factor,’” he said. 

Hendrick submitted that tape more than once.

He came close to being on the show one year after the production team reached out asking for an interview, but it didn’t pan out. 

But the self-proclaimed super fan finally had his chance. 

People can watch him face fears on the current season of “Fear Factor: House of Fear.”

HOUSE OF FEAR 

After seeing that “Fear Factor” was casting in May 2025, he decided to apply to live out his dream. 

“I heard back for my first call the following day, like within 24 hours,” he said. “I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I was definitely very excited every time I got another email or phone call or another Zoom call where I was going to the next round.” 

Finally, he was cast.

He is known as Blake on the show, because there is another Tyler on the show.

The months leading up to production were slow, he said. It was a lot of waiting. 

But he took that time to practice. 

As a teacher at West Orange High, he pre-planned the entire year over the summer to ensure his students would not fall behind in his absence. 

On top of that, he consistently was going to the gym, practicing holding his breath under water, practicing his balance and rewatching the original episodes. 

Once production time rolled around, 14 contestants had to live in a house together while also competing in challenges.

Think “Big Brother” and “Survivor,” he said. 

“I love the strategy element of this whole experience,” he said. “I loved living in the house with everybody, in the sense that I could tell that it was making other people start to crack. I was enjoying that, and I tried to use that to my advantage at every point.” 

On the first day, contestants had a challenge where they needed to move through vacuum-sealed plastic to escape, while barely breathing. 

“I wasn’t scared until I moved,” he said. “If you move slightly, that bag will get tighter. I could hear myself blink — that’s what it felt like.”

While that sounds scary, he didn’t let that stop him. 

“Any type of challenge where I was in my head, I would flip it to something else,” Hendrick said. “I would start listing stuff in my head of movies I saw last year, or different events and sequencing. If your brain is having to do work on something else, it takes you away from the situation you’re currently in.” 

And he’d do it again with no hesitation. To Hendrick, the biggest challenge was overcoming the fear of being eliminated from the show. 

“The pressure of always being afraid of going home — that was probably one of the scariest things,” he said. “The hardest mental part was just constantly being in a competition and not being able to turn that off.” 

‘I can do this’

Hendrick said he is grateful for the experience for which his seventh-grade self has been yearning. He also left the experience with more confidence.

“I left feeling like if I could go through these challenges and put myself through that mental state and get through to the other side and be fine afterwards, I could take more risks in my life —  things that I might be scared to try, maybe foods that I’m scared to eat, put myself out there in different social situations that normally would give me social anxiety,” he said. “I’ve been on ‘Fear Factor,’ I can do this.”  

Being on the show also has helped him conquer his fear of failure. 

“The fear of failure permeates my brain and having to constantly face the fear of failure two times every day (doing challenges) it really forced me to just be like, ‘Hey, it’s OK if you fail, you just keep going forward, right?” he said.

More than that, he has made friendships that will last a lifetime. 

To him, this experience was a full-circle moment. If he could go back and talk to his seventh-grade self, he’d tell him to not stop chasing his dreams.

“I would tell myself to go ahead and have the confidence that you’ve already done it,” he said. “I wish I could go back and tell myself, ‘Just go ahead and be confident. You have already done all these things and just because you haven’t had the opportunity to do it yet doesn’t mean you’re not that person.’” 

Support from all

As a super fan, his family was more than excited to hear he was a contestant for “Fear Factor: House of Fear.” 

His mother has watched the first episode four times already, and his 6-year-old nephew conquered his fear of watching the show to support his uncle. Now, his nephew loves it and keeps asking Hendrick if he was eliminated.

“I was like, ‘I can’t say that,’ but it’s so cute that he has the word ‘eliminated’ in his vocabulary now,” Hendrick said. 

As a teacher, his students are rooting for him as well, even watching the episode in class, although not for long as Hendrick told them he appreciated the support, but they had work to do.

He said even students at the school who are not in his class ask questions and say they’re rooting for him. 

He said it hasn’t quite hit him yet that he’s on a reality TV show, but he’s enjoying every second of the ride. 

But although Hendrick has grown in various ways by being in the house and conquering many fears, he has yet to conquer his fear of mayonnaise. 

“I just think that mayonnaise and I are never going to see eye-to-eye on things and we’re never going to work out with each other,” he said.