HOW HOT IS TOO HOT? REALITY TV KEEPS STOKING THE FIRE, BUT THE TREND MAY EVENTUALLY BURN ITSELF OUT.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

Sex and violence are staples of our entertainment diet, just like meat and potatoes are staples of our regular diet. Reality TV, however, changed the rules regarding sex and violence quickly and profoundly, particularly on the most popular shows of the genre, ``Survivor'' and ``Temptation Island.''

There, violence had real-world results - actual humans in searing pain; sex, too, was more titillating for viewers, who understood these were strangers in the sometimes fumbling, sometimes voracious act of seduction and not glamorous actors delivering sexy dialogue.

What's surprising, perhaps, is how quickly these shows have apparently reached endgame: Unless networks' standards-and-practices departments become extremely lax or disappear altogether, there's not a lot more these shows can promise us before they, like every other TV genre, become humdrum and predictable.

``Survivor: The Australian Outback'' has inspired at least one provocative question: Has the town of White Lake, Mich., been safety- proofed now that Michael Skupin's back in town? First, Skupin set viewers abuzz with the pole-axing of a wild pig who apparently hadn't read series creator Mark Burnett's memo about clearing out of the area last November. Skupin then took his equally memorable header into a raging fire, burning his hands to a degree considered spectacular by TV standards.

Burnett proved himself to be a softy by declaring immediately after the episode aired that any crew member who would've helped Skupin ``would have been fired on the spot. He would have been on the next plane home.'' Burnett tantalizingly plugged the inevitable DVD when he added, ``There is much more graphic footage of agony and blood and blisters and pus.''

Host Jeff Probst likewise demonstrated a humanitarian spirit when he recalled last month, ``I remember thinking, 'Holy (excrement), that's gonna be good. I hope he's OK, but that's gold.' ''

Since emerging as a TV phenomenon last summer, ``Survivor'' inspired a raft of imitators; only one - ``Temptation Island'' - made a big impression, thanks to its lurid premise of seducing and leading monogamous individuals astray and its unseemly promotions promising sex on a Showtime-After-Dark scale. Ultimately, however, the show's couples each elected to remain together.

(Coincidentally, both shows have lawsuits against them from participants complaining that reality was too manipulated, to their detriment - Stacey Stillman from ``Survivor'' and Ytossie Patterson and Taheed Watson, the infamous parents of ``Temptation Island.'')

With ``Survivor,'' we went pretty swiftly from a cavorting naked fat guy to a rabid Type-A butchering a pig and collapsing into a bonfire. If the intensity doesn't get ratcheted up further in the next series, will viewers tune out? What'll have to happen on the next ``Temptation Island'' for viewers not to feel ripped off? (Or are ``Temptation Island'' viewers even capable of feeling ripped off?)

``If it's done well, executed well, and it's compelling and dramatic and has the right kind of pacing each week, people will stay with it, and any new type of 'Survivor' that is executed that well and that compelling will make it,'' suggests Burnett.

``Survivor'' contestant Jerri Manthey says, ``Mark Burnett is very careful who he picks for the show. He's looking for specific personalities; so anything is possible. He could select people who might be willing to kill animals.'' She added that since certain animals are protected in some areas, contestants would have to be careful.

But how long could ``Survivor'' last? ``These are things to be decided in the future,'' he says. ``There's definitely a few more, and I don't really know.''

Show runner (``Sledge Hammer!'') and screenwriter Alan Spencer notes, ``The current 'Survivor' depicted injury, which excited viewers as well as the media. Much was made of one of the contestants being burned, and the promise of physical harm seems to signal some of the obvious predictions that loom over this format. This really comes from the live broadcasts of people who have fallen down wells, or freeway chases or police standoffs. What these live news reports don't dare to say, but the reason they rivet viewers is because their climaxes are unpredictable, especially with the always ominous commentary being offered by the reporters in voiceover: 'This is very dangerous. ... Innocent people are in peril. ... These things never end well,' etc.

``Not unlike the audiences in the ancient coliseums watching gladiators battle, what an audience is shamelessly watching is the promise of tragedy; it's the promise of a mishap or gunfire that keeps those eyeballs glued,'' Spencer continues. ``To keep an audience interested in this 'reality,' the more artificial elements that are brought into the mix promising the 'unexpected' seems to be the recipe. So, it seems natural that more 'accidents' may occur in future 'Survivors.' Perhaps on the next 'Temptation Island,' suspected infidelity will lead to spurned lovers indulging in fisticuffs, or a pair of men dueling each other over one woman.''

Earlier this season, ``Law & Order'' parodied the reality phenomenon, with an episode in which producers of a reality series resorted to murder to increase their ratings.

``We thought it was an important sociological phenomenon, from a legal aspect, especially coming of heels of 'Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?' and some of the other situations, like where the couple had a baby,'' says ``Law & Order'' head writer Barry Schindel. ``We started to talk about responsibility in TV, a kind of new responsibility that it hasn't faced before. Until someone gets killed on one of these extreme shows, they'll always raise questions: When have we gone too far?' And if I was doing one, I'd say, 'Never,' and go collect my profits.''

Most critics believe that reality TV has already relinquished its sense of responsibility.

``The thing with these shows is that subtlety is not the point,'' observes David Wild, Rolling Stone's TV critic and author of the book on television ``The Showrunners,'' who describes the current season of ``Survivor'' as ``Lord of the Flies 90210.'' ``Being water-cooler TV means you have to up the ante. It's like hip-hop - you have to shock people more each time, or its value goes down like the stock market.''

``What's next? 'Killing and F---ing!' I'm sure that's the working title of an upcoming UPN reality show,'' declares Robert Wilonsky, a pop-culture critic. (For the record, it's not, though the mini-network does have the bondage-and-embarrassment-chic series ``Chains of Love'' coming April 17.) ``The problem is, this is a relatively new genre and you already have the movie 'Series 7' making fun of it, having contestants killing each other. (The Arnold Schwarzenegger film) 'Running Man' did it 14 years ago. People already see how depressing the logical conclusion of this trend is.

``This whole assumption that they can't show something on TV is simply not true,'' Wilonsky continues. ``Remember when 'NYPD Blue' was controversial for showing naked (butts) and 'That '70s Show' got in trouble for showing teen-age pot-smoking? Consider how everything that was shocking in 1990 is mundane in 2001. Five years ago, just the premise of 'Temptation Island' would keep it off the air. Who's to say sex isn't five years away? Killing in 10 years?''

Scott Covell, professor of English at Antelope Valley College and co-editor of ``Living in America: A Popular Culture Reader,'' echoes many of those interviewed when saying that viewers may reject future incarnations of ``Temptation Island'' that truck only in unconsummated titillation.

``Most people wanted them to run off with their new lovers, but deep down they're thinking, 'That's horrible.' As a society, we're caught between those two reactions. For one thing, the titillation that leads to the closed doors - that's a problem. It's a fait accompli that people will want to see more than that. And maybe the first time, they all got back together. If it happens again, there'll be a sense with these shows that everything's set up - they'll have to go that extra step and not have it set up, and allow anarchy to take over. That's what we really want.''

Robert Thompson, Syracuse University's founding director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television, suggests that his peers may be overreacting.

He says, ``Where will reality series go now? Consider sitcom plots - the parents are out of town, and the kids throw a party; the wife tells her husband not to throw a party, and the husband doesn't so she's disappointed - they've been doing these for 60 years. So, after you've fallen in the fire and killed a pig, where do we go? You fall in the fire again and kill another pig.''

Thompson did, however, allow that NBC's upcoming contribution to the genre, ``Fear Factor,'' in which contestants try frightening stunts, ``goes the furthest in the 'Someone's going to put an eye out' category.''

He adds, `` 'Survivor' is still pretty fresh; you can recombine these ideas before they wear out. In every significant way, (both 'Survivor' series) are identical, but because there's a new cast, it's a new show. There will be more variations, by the sheer law of physics, between 'Survivor' II and III than between 'Frasier' episodes 200 and 201.''

That said, Thompson doesn't hold out much hope for a reality boom, even with impending actors and writers strikes.

``We are right now about to enter the great shakedown period,'' he says. ``Now is the time where the hype will get peeled away. If there's stuff that will provide solid stories like 'Survivor' or delicious sleaze like 'Temptation Island,' they'll survive, but all things that won't make the bar will go away quickly.

``We're still on the edge of the honeymoon period with viewers with these shows - 'Boot Camp,' which is half-hearted reality and has no punch or appeal, can guarantee 8 million viewers its first week because simply it's one of these programs,'' Thompson adds. ``That advantage will be gone by this summer. The novelty will wear off soon.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, drawing

Photo:

(1) Michael Skupin drenches the fire that scorched his skin and forced him off of CBS' ``Survivor: The Australian Outback.''

(2) The atmosphere of Fox's ``Temptation Island'' was, indeed, tempting, as shown, but it did not trigger any breakups.

Drawing: (cover -- color) Has reality TV gone over the EDGE?

Bad taste translates into big bucks, but the trend may eventually find itself hitting bottom.

Jorge Irribarren/Staff Artist