'TEMPTATION' NO SIN, FOX EXECUTIVES SAY.

Byline: DAVID KRONKE TV CRITIC

PASADENA - Executives for the Fox television network spent Sunday morning defending the network's new reality series, ``Temptation Island,'' against another round of cries from the nation's TV critics that it - like ``Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?'' and ``Big Brother'' before it - represented the abjectly exploitative depths to which television can sink.

``Temptation Island,'' which begins a six-week run on Wednesday, focuses on how four unmarried but monogamous couples spend several weeks surrounded by young singles trying to seduce them.

While promos for the show decidedly emphasize its salacious aspects, executives struggled mightily to downplay those elements.

``We wouldn't put it on if we didn't feel it was appropriate,'' insisted Sandy Grushow, Fox Television Entertainment Group chairman.

``I don't think that it's about prying apart couples - it endeavors to explore what goes into serious relationships,'' suggested Gail Berman, president of Fox's broadcast entertainment division, to some chortles from the assemblage. ``It's interested in exploring the strength of relationships. It's not about sex. I'm not going to comment on anything that takes place on the island.''

``Obviously, the promos are not portraying the full picture of the series. I'm hopeful it doesn't get prejudged.''

It seemed too late for that - Grushow was presiding over the most contentious exchange between critics and network executives since - well, another press conference consumed by reality television: last July when CBS' Les Moonves fended off the slings and arrows directed at ``Big Brother.''

Much of the controversy Sunday stemmed from the fact that the network had not scheduled an interview session with the show's creators - standard practice for any new show on a network - and did not make the show available for screening until all interviews had concluded.

This created the appearance that the network was trying to conceal its problematic content from reporters, a perception exacerbated when, after the press conference, Mike Darnell, who develops much of Fox's reality programming, pleaded with critics, ``Please try not to track (the show's participants) down.''

Moreover, Grushow had led his past two meetings with the nation's TV press with an avowal that Fox would abandon its reliance on cheap, exploitative programming.

``I would rather fail with quality than succeed with garbage,'' he declared last January, and made a similar promise in July.

Asked if he was abandoning that philosophy, Grushow responded, ``It's not about distancing myself from anything. Things change. I never said we were getting out of the reality business. It's our responsibility as network programmers to satisfy the tastes of our audience within the boundaries of appropriateness.''

``Temptation Island'' left little room for discussion of other matters, but Grushow did address the issue of Robert Downey Jr.'s recurring role on ``Ally McBeal.''

Downey, arrested in November on drug charges mere months after serving prison time, has completed shooting his contractually mandated episodes.

It's up to series creator David E. Kelley whether he will return, Grushow said, saying the network would embrace a decision to bring the actor back.

Kelley would be able, Grushow said, ``to leave a way to get out of (a story line) if you wake up one morning and Robert's not there.''

Grushow also addressed a brewing controversy that began bubbling the day before.

During a Saturday press conference, Jamie Kellner, chief executive officer of the WB network, accused Twentieth Century Fox Television, the production studio also run by Grushow, of planning to overcharge for next season's run of ``Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' in order to move it to another network - which is to say, Fox.

``When you help build a program, a franchise, you create a partnership with somebody,'' Kellner said.

``We will say (to Fox Television): We will take all the revenue we can generate with 'Buffy' and we'll give it to you in a giant wheelbarrow. And if that's not enough, you've demonstrated you're not the kind of partner we should be doing business with.''

``Was 'God Bless America' playing behind Jamie when he made that speech?'' Grushow asked derisively, before getting serious. ``I'm disappointed that he's negotiating in the press. If they make a fair proposal, there's no reason to believe 'Buffy' won't continue to be on the WB's air, but that has not remotely been the case.''

Grushow added that the WB is owned by AOL/Time Warner, which upped the ante in network bidding wars when it received $13 million per episode for ``ER.''

As a parting shot, Grushow added, ``They don't have wheelbarrows over at Warner Bros., they have Mercedes.''