PASADENA, Calif. — Lead us not into temptation?

        Not Fox.

        The network that swore off sleazy, sensational “reality” shows a year ago here at the winter press tour debuts Temptation Island today: (9 p.m., Channel 45; 11 p.m., Channel 19).

        Fox has taken four unmarried couples in long-term relationships to a Caribbean island and tempted them with: 26 sexy singles — including one from Cincinnati. (Evan, 28, an African-American, describes himself on tonight's show as “an actor and a drunk.”)

        For two weeks, the four guys lived in a village with 13 single women, while the four ladies stayed on the other end of the island with the 13 single guys.

        This second-rate Survivor rip-off gives new meaning to the phrase “Love thy neighbor.” It will give you the creeps.

Participants in Temptation Island include four unmarried couples and 26 singles. (Fox photo) | ZOOM |

        As Valerie, one of the eight lovebirds, said after hearing TV host Mark L. Walberg outline the rules on the show: “Mark explained what was going on, and it really sort of turned my stomach.”

        Yeah? What did she expect? Why would anyone in love feel the need to test the relationship by spending two weeks with “26 fantasy singles chosen specifically to entice them,” as Mr. Walberg says.

        And why has Fox reversed a pledge to clean up its airwaves? Because the huge success of Survivor changed “the prime-time television landscape,” said Sandy Grushow, Fox Entertainment Group chairman.

        So it's OUR fault?

        “We work in a dynamic business. Things change,” he told the Television Critics Association meeting here this week when quizzed about the policy change. Temptation Island, a six-week series, “was based on something that hasn't been capitalized on in reality (TV), and that's relationships,” Mr. Grushow said.

        So Fox selected four couples from a national search: Andy and Shannon; Bill and Mandy; Kaya and Valerie; and Taheed and Ytossie. Then Fox recruited 26 single “contestants” at Hard Rock Cafes across the country. Before they shipped off to Fantasy Island, all 34 were tested for sexually transmitted diseases, Fox executives say.

        Stylistically, Temptation Island couldn't have stolen more from Survivor. The Fox show has the same lush aerial photography, romantic sunsets, introspective interviews and tribal music.

        Starting next week, episodes end with the host conducting a poorly lit campfire meeting with the participants. Mr. Walberg even talks like Survivor host Jeff Probst.

        But the dramatic tension just isn't the same. While the Survivor castaways ate rats and rice, the Fox folks partied with Budweiser, Baccardi and bikinis. The goal here wasn't survival. Just sex.

        Few in the audience will feel sorry for Ytossie, 34, from Los Angeles, who had smugly described her need “to test my partner to see if he's going to be faithful.”

        By the end of the hour, she was crying in fear of losing him: “I don't care how many women he has sex with, there will never be another woman who loves him as much as I do.”

        Wasn't this all her fault? Who would want to watch such selfish, stupid people?

        “The audience has spoken, and they've demonstrated that they have a huge appetite for this type of non-scripted programming. And so we're going to try to take advantage of that,” Mr. Grushow said.

        “We have a responsibility as network programers to satisfy the taste of our audience.”

        I pray that this reality TV craze soon passes, that the audience quickly loses its appetite for these exploitative relationship shows. That will only happen when we refuse to watch this trash.

        So lead us not into Temptation, and deliver us from the evil of reality TV. Amen.
       John Kiesewetter is reporting from the Winter TV press tour. E-mail: jkiesewetter@enquirer.com.

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