Discovery Tackles Daredevil Stunts on ‘Heirs to the Dare’ Special (Exclusive)

The new special, airing next Monday, follows the lives of three daredevils

Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel extends its reach into daredevil stunt programming with its new special, “Heirs to the Dare,” which premieres next Monday at 9 p.m. PST.

It follows three men who have become part of the legacy created by famous daredevils Robert “Evel” Knievel, the Flying Wallendas and Philippe Petit.

What drives contemporary daredevils Henry “Pitbull” Rife (pictured above), Bubba Blackwell and Super Joe to attempt these great feats today? The special will introduce viewers to the men, their motivations and shed light on the paychecks involved with taking on these dares.

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The cable network has had some great success in this topic area. In June, Discovery’s “Skywire Live With Nik Wallenda” drew 8.5 million total viewers, and 13 million viewers during the minutes when Wallenda crossed the Little Colorado River gorge near the Grand Canyon.

It follows that feat with next week’s “Heirs to the Dare” special and “Everest Jump Live” in May when wingsuit jumper Joby Ogwyn attempts the first wingsuit flight off the summit of Mount Everest.

Read Discovery’s descriptions of the daredevils featured on “Heirs to the Dare” below:

Stunt performer and world record holder Bubba Blackwell jumps dangerous distances and is best known for breaking Evel Knievel’s jump records for both cars and buses. He’s known as “king of the Harley” and he’s had some really bad falls with 42 broken bones, to date. Bubba attempts jumps over objects that include helicopters with blades in full rotation as he earns big dollars for big jumps to support his family.

Henry Rife is content jumping an ATV for his local Ohio town where he’s considered a superhero. But he needs to make the leap to a wider audience if he wants to continue being a daredevil. Rife is in it purely for the thrill, but thrills don’t pay the bills. A big jump should mean big money for Rife, but his only payment demands are free popcorn and free movie tickets. Those close to him want Rife to be more like Bubba and earn big bucks for big stunts so he can start profiting from his life as a daredevil.

Super Joe is a veteran and of the wild days of the 1990’s Daredevil scene – he’s retired but wants to get back into the game. Many of the stunts he performed during his career are now illegal, including jumping blindfolded, building to building, which made Evel Knievel himself refer to Super Joe as “crazy”. Frustrated that he isn’t currently jumping, Super Joe plans to do one very big jump to include rockets strapped to his backside to mark the 40th anniversary of Evel Knievel’s failed jump across the Snake River Canyon. He’s pumped to get back in the game with a successful jump over the Snake River Canyon.

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