`SOCIAL EXPERIMENT' RAISES LEGAL EYEBROWS.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

On the season opener of ``Survivor: Cook Islands,'' host Jeff Probst promised ``a social experiment like never before.'' That was just before the contestants were divided into tribes on the basis of race.

Probst seems to have forgotten about this little thing America had before Brown v. Board of Education called segregation that was pretty darn similar.

Now in its 13th season, ``Survivor'' -- which wasn't offered for review -- has slid from a pop-culture phenomenon to a mere mortal show. While it once averaged more than 30 million viewers an episode, last season's ``Survivor: Panama'' drew but 16.8 million.

So, series creator Mark Burnett decided to swing for the fences with the controversial segregated-teams concept. It could lure more ethnic viewers or alienate fans with the ploy's crassness.

How it works

For ``Survivor: Cook Islands,'' four tribes of five contestants apiece are dispatched to separate islands: Puka is the Asian-American team; Raro is populated by Caucasians; Aitu is the Latino squad, and African-Americans comprise the Hiki tribe.

Even the contestants find the idea dubious. L.A. waitress Parvati Shallow of the Raro tribe asks, ``Is that kosher?'' L.A. resident Nathan Gonzales of Hiki notes the added pressure: ``We're gonna have to represent for our people, being put under the light like that.''

Jonathan Penner, also of L.A., reasons that segregating the tribes won't lead to any greater sense of cohesion, since any winner is, at some point, ``going to have to cut the throat of the guy next to them,'' while San Mateo's Yul Kwon of Puka, a reality-show anomaly in possessing soft-spoken intelligence, worries, ``It could lead to stereotypes.''

(Nine of the 20 contestants come from the L.A. area; 13 come from California; so much geographical diversity.)

Ahn-Tuan Bui, who goes by the moniker ``Cao Boi'' (pronounced ``cowboy''), says, ``We fly under the radar. No one expects these little people with slanted eyes to see anything or be able to do anything.'' He employs an old Vietnamese method to alleviate a colleague's headache, and next week, his ethnic jokes alienate his fellow tribe members.

As edited together, the show does seem interested in emphasizing the differences and stereotypes among the ethnicities and less interested in pointing out any similarities. For example, when Hiki loses the immunity challenge, the contestants are told to select one member from one of the other tribes to be dispatched to ``Exile Island,'' a new game twist not unlike solitary confinement.

What's a `rollergirl'?

Probst pointedly observed that the two men made the choice without consulting the women, who stood back.

Still, this particular provocation doesn't seem incendiary -- or, even, interesting -- enough to hook new viewers or those who have strayed. The rest of tonight's episode is given over to the eternal ``Survivor'' inevitabilities: ineptitude over starting fires, stumbling about during the immunity challenge (Puka and Aitu blow Raro and Hiki away) and other random bumbling: Jessica Smith, a ``rollergirl'' from Chico (is that really a paying job?), thoughtlessly loses Raro's food supply when she allows their live chickens to escape.

On MSNBC on Wednesday evening, ``Survivor'' host Jeff Probst told Joe Scarborough, ``If this were a study that were completed and published in Psychology Today, it might be looked at with a little more reverence.'' Highfalutin thoughts from a reality-show host, but if Psychology Today were involved, here's betting a ``rollergirl'' wouldn't be part of the research literature.

David Kronke, [phone]

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SURVIVOR: COOK ISLANDS - Two stars

What: The contestants are segregated by race in the reality series' most controversial season.

Where: CBS (Channel 2).

When: 8 p.m. Thursday.

In a nutshell: Strains to be provocative.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Cecilia Mansilla, Cristina Coria, Ozzy Lusth, Billy Garcia and John ``J.P.'' Calderon hit the beach on ``Survivor: Cook Islands,'' with controversial segregated-teams concept.