SCARE TACTICS RETURNS TO THE SCI FI CHANNEL WITH TWO LEGENDARY EPISODES AUGUST 10 AND 17 AT 10:00 PM ET/PT

Mutant Rat Boy, the Greatest Prank of All Time, Is Back

Scare Tactics, the most innovative hidden camera show on TV, where friends set up friends, will return to the SCI FI Channel on Thursday August 10 and August 17 at 10:00 PM, ET/PT with two special episodes. Scare Tactics premiered on the SCI FI Channel in April 2003 and, during its three season run, Scare Tactics' producers and the SCI FI website received close to 50,000 requests from people wanting to set up their friends and family.

Scare Tactics, a delightfully wicked half-hour weekly series, took the hidden camera to all new heights. Whatever the hoax, Scare Tactics skillfully turned people into believers of the unbelievable. Set up by their friends and family, unsuspecting victims found themselves trapped in twisted sci-fi and horror movie scenes with stylized shooting, an editing style and musical score that made each episode feel like a mini-feature film.

On Thursday, August 10, two workers become human bait while cleaning a piranha-filled pond, a hotel maid disturbs the room of a psychotic killer, an old farmer orders up a wedding after a farmhand walks in on his topless daughter and exterminators are called to investigate some mysterious noises in the wall. On Thursday, August 17, the episode with VH1's Greatest Prank of All Time, in which a lab assistant is terrorized by a genetically altered mutant, will air again, along with partygoers who cross paths with a bloodthirsty gang of vampire bikers, a kid working for the state who accidentally steps on a deadly mine, and an unwitting nursemaid crosses paths with the treacherous "Mr. B" (series host Stephen Baldwin).

Hallock Healey Entertainment is quickly emerging as "the leading alternative" in reality programming. Hallock and Healey are currently producing Breaking up with Shannen Doherty for Oxygen after the success of NBC's 25 Million Dollar Hoax. Other credits include NBC's Spy TV and "ratings-grabber" Radical Recut for VH1 as well as the scripted comedy clip-show Harsh Reality and the reality home improvement comedy Trash to Cash, both for FX.

SCI FI Channel is a television network where "what if" is what's on. SCI FI fuels the imagination of viewers with original series and events, blockbuster movies and classic science fiction and fantasy programming, as well as a dynamic Web site (www.scifi.com) and magazine. Launched in 1992, and currently in 85 million homes, SCI FI Channel is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies.