FINDING WAY ON, OUT OF `DEBT' : TV GAME SHOWS MOVE FORWARD INTO '90S WITH NEW CONCEPT. INSTEAD OF CLIMBING AHEAD, VICTORY NOW MEANS GETTING EVEN.

Byline: David J. Morrow The New York Times

``Debt'' - it's a show for the '90s.

Having spent freely during the recent economic expansion, Americans now owe a record $1.1 trillion in debt other than home loans.

Even accounting for population growth, nonmortgage debt has nearly doubled the past 10 years to about $12,000 a household.

Once something to be ashamed of, mounds of credit card bills now prompt easy television confessionals. To be uninhibited in the 1960s meant a visit to the ``Newlywed Game'' or the ``Dating Game,'' which routinely quizzed contestants on their sex lives.

Now comes ``Debt,'' a TV game show that takes voyeurism out of the bedroom and puts it in the living room, requiring contestants to divulge how they dug themselves into the hole. With candor and the correct answers, they can take home up to $20,000.

There is no shortage of willing participants. The number of applications to the Hollywood show has swelled from about 25 a week in June to about 250.

Much of the show's strength comes not from its competitive edge (questions ring more of People magazine than of ``Jeopardy''), but from its philosophy.

Some of the most popular game shows of the 1950s or '60s - like ``Let's Make a Deal'' and ``The Price Is Right'' - awarded prizes so that the contestants would go home feeling prosperous.

``When we were looking at a game show to develop, we figured that by the way Americans were spending money, most of them had already bought their prizes,'' said Andrew Golder, 35, the senior producer of ``Debt'' and one of its creators. ``What most people needed instead,'' he said, ``was a way to pay all those bills.''

Susan Brightbill, an aspiring Hollywood actress and a recent contestant, says her last computer purchase took her credit card balance to $7,900. Aran Eisenstat, an earnest-looking lad from Los Angeles, says he racked up $18,000 on credit cards but is at a loss to say where the money really went, though he mentioned groceries, gasoline and car repairs.

``Debt'' hinges on the notion that financial blunders are commonplace. The show's 150 audience members - older adults one day, a crew of Marines the next - seem to empathize with the three contestants, each out to purge financial sins.

The producers of ``Debt'' hope that even the financially prudent will get a chuckle from the show. Unlike ``Jeopardy'' - which is geared toward armchair highbrows - ``Debt'' appeals to hip, young Americans.

The early reaction has been encouraging for Lifetime, a division of Buena Vista Television, a development company for its parent, the Walt Disney Co.

``Debt'' has corralled a prime spending audience of 20- to 49-year-olds, and with them, advertisers as disparate as MCI, J.C. Penney and Pennzoil.

``While we'll have to wait and see if `Debt' moves to prime time, it's much more likely that it can be sold into syndication,'' said Mort Marcus, president of Buena Vista. ``We've just now begun to sell the international rights to the show.''

Buena Vista would not say whether the show was a money maker, but if it moves into syndication, it will be sold for a profit to local television stations nationwide.

If ABC, also owned by Disney, picks up the show, the network's prime-time audience will generate even heftier advertising revenue.

When the show was first broadcast, potential contestants simply phoned in their names and phone numbers. Now they fill out formal applications, and the wait is anything from several weeks to a year.

The first hurdle is perhaps the highest. The show's producers seem to favor people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, and those with a good tale of how they got into debt.

Joseph Kuhr, 30, a Los Angeles screen writer, landed a spot on ``Debt'' last month after the recent decline in technology stocks depleted his portfolio by $12,000. (He won $7,100.) Kameron White-Holmes, a Pasadena homemaker, appeared on the show when she was five months' pregnant and carrying $20,000 on her credit cards. (She lost.)

But the most interesting contestant so far has to be Rob Steinberg, 36, who wanted to pay off $8,893 in travel expenses from attending a yearlong tour of Grateful Dead concerts. (He took home $17,786.)

People who pass the application process take a written test. Each person has 15 minutes to whip through 36 questions about pop culture, covering trivia from foreign films to Cher's songs. Most questions are fairly straightforward. ``I was high on the water tower in `What's Eating Gilbert Grape' and just plain high in `The Basketball Diaries.' '' Who am I? The answer: Leonardo Di Caprio.

Prospects who get at least 31 of the 36 questions right are grouped in threes for a mock show, in which producers look for excitement and quick reflexes.

Some television critics have ravaged ``Debt,'' saying it makes its questions too easy.

``I've been doing game shows for years,'' said veteran host Wink Martindale. ``This is the first one that has so many young people on it. And most know their trivia.''

While most contestants know their trivia, don't expect them to know the interest rates on their credit cards or their monthly account balances, if a recent sampling of contestants is any indication.

What many of these contestants did say, however, was that their financial troubles were not their fault.

Take Tom Hertz, a 34-year-old stand-up comic. He faults his wife, Susan, for much of his $8,234 debt. She buys too much ``girl stuff,'' he tells the television audience.

Hertz rips through the speed round on foreign films. For answering the questions correctly, he is awarded enough money to wipe out his entire debt, $8,234. Finally, Martindale asks him if he would like to bet his winnings and possibly double his take. Hertz refuses. He says he plans to pay off his credit card debt - ``really.''

After the taping, he muses, ``It's one thing to make a nice salary, but even then, why shouldn't my wife and I go out to dinner? You have to buy that new computer for your recipes. Put them in a wooden box, and you'd be run out of the neighborhood. Of course, you have to run up debt on your credit card. Life's expensive.''

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME

``Debt'' contestants begin each game with a negative total that reflects their combined average debt - the limit is $10,000 each. With a correct answer, they pare that debt on the way to zero. For the first two rounds, they answer questions on pop culture.

Whoever whittles away the most debt progresses to a speed round of questions. No matter how much money has been won at this point, if the final contestant answers 10 questions correctly in this round, he gets a check equivalent to his personal debt (again, up to $10,000).

Then comes the final temptation. The host, Wink Martindale, a veteran of the game-show circuit, asks the winner if he would like to wager all his money. If the contestant bites, he will either double his money or go home empty-handed.

The potential pot: $20,000 (before taxes, of course, so there might be little left for fun after the bills are paid and the government takes its share).

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Box, Chart

Photo: The TV quiz show, ``Debt,'' has recently seen the monthly number of contestant applicants rise from about 25 to 250.

Box: HOW TO PLAY THE GAME (see text)

Chart: A Love Affair With Credit Cards