Critics Blast 'Temptation Island'

Jan. 9, 2001 -- Talk about your Fantasy Island. Picture this: You go on vacation with your sweetie — under the agreement that you might not go home together if one of you spots someone more appealing on the beach.

That’s the premise for Fox’s new reality-based TV series, Temptation Island, which has conservative and religious groups up in arms over the promos alone.

The six-part series debuts Wednesday. Four couples are brought to a steamy island overrun with scantily clad singles, and they’re urged to test the boundaries of their relationships. The couples mingle with the singles, whose role is to find out whether those already committed couples will be tempted to try out a new relationship.

Forget the Dating Game and Love Connection — in the fast-moving 21st century, dating is competition, and even those who have a partner are fair game. And if Fox can score some ratings along the way, it will certainly try.

Pick a Date, Any Date

In most circles courting other people’s property is considered taboo, but on this beach, which happens to be in Belize, it’s in the handbook.

The four couples were separated so that the men and women, ranging in age from 21 to 35, could get to know the singles and figure out if they want to stick with their original love, or upgrade to a better “catch.”

Amazingly, the participants willingly put themselves through this mental torment without the promise of a big cash payout. Regardless of the outcome, there is no million-dollar type prize. The series is arranged like a game, with activities to eliminate the singles from the resort, and yet no winners or losers will be named. (Unless you count the potential for the occasional broken heart, or mended relationship, in the win-or-lose category.)

Fox will not say how this unconventional love story ends, but the mere concept is enough to start the critics sputtering.

“The producers of Temptation Island should be ashamed of themselves for trying to force the destruction of four relationships for the entertainment purposes of those low-lifes who consent to watch this trash,” says Brent Bozell, founder of the Parents Television Council.

Dallas Rabbi Kenneth Roseman is urging a boycott of the show, which he admits he has not yet seen. He says it’s the basic premise that has him upset.

“For a TV show to deliberately attempt to inflict this kind of pain on other people is just unacceptable,” says Roseman, who thinks the series sets a dangerous tone. “It can not be good public policy for this society to encourage people to think it’s OK to tamper with relationships for fun.”

But is it all bad? One psychologist actually finds benefits in testing one’s romantic bonds.

“These processes will certainly galvanize relationships. There’s the potential for coming out strengthened, and there’s the potential for coming out weakened, but if these are couples that are planning long-term marriages … [it’s] better to understand upfront than to find out later,” says clinical and consulting psychologist Gene Ondrusek.

He was a consultant on Survivor, and believes as long as the participants are aware of what they’re getting into, it’s hardly exploitation.

He and Roseman agree on one point: They are hopeful the show will encourage dialogue between other couples and viewers regarding the boundaries of relationships.

Make Room for the Green Monster

The casting folks are not making it easy for the couples. Among the singles brought to the island to do the tempting were a former Los Angeles Lakers dancer, a former Playboy model, the founder of an online dating service and a massage therapist.

Sound like a recipe for disaster? After all, who could tolerate their other half lounging on the beach with a new suitor while sipping fruity drinks with umbrella straws?

The good news is, they do have their say. Those in the committed relationships have the chance to vote off Temptation Island people they think their mates would want to date. Journalists attending a preview of the first episode on Sunday say two men didn’t want their female partners to date the masseur, so he got the boot.

The second show ends with a bonfire ceremony, where the participants could watch a videotape of a person who dated their mate.

One participant, a man, described his two-week vacation as like“going to participate in a Pepsi challenge, except it’s ladiesinstead of a soft drink.” Won’t the feminists be happy to hear that?

What Are They Thinking?

For a network still quietly recovering from the Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? debacle, real-life relationships might seem to be shaky territory. When the quickie marriage of Rick Rockwell and Darva Conger blew up in Fox’s face last spring, Sandy Grushow, chairman of the Fox Television Entertainment Group, publicly said the network was getting out of the sleazy reality show business it pioneered.

“They’re gone,” he said then. “They’re over.” Any subsequentnon-fiction programming had to meet tougher taste tests, hepromised.

Since then, the success of Survivor on CBS proved the publichas an appetite for the genre, Grushow says. He’d benegligent as a businessman not to allow his programming people topursue it.

“I don’t think it’s about distancing myself from anything,” henow says. “We work in a dynamic business and things change.”

And Rabbi Roseman recognizes it’s exactly the network’s financial responsibilities that will prevent his protest from going too far.

“Frankly, I don’t have any illusion about the fact that the show is going to go on — Fox has invested way to much to pull back.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.